Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today my guest is Mitch Carroll. Welcome to the Project.
Mitch Carroll: Thanks, Toni. I appreciate it. It’s very nice of you having me here.
Toni: Absolutely. Take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Mitch: My background is in broadcasting and radio. I loved radio. I loved the creativity in it, and I worked with some really creative people. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed interacting with the listeners and interacting with our customers. I liked it. I liked it a lot. That’s what kept me going. I would still be in it, but I ran into some health issues, so I had to retire a little bit early. As you can tell, I’m not that old.
Toni: No, not at all, and you have that wonderful voice for radio.
Mitch: Oh, I don’t know.
Toni: Well, thank you for showing up here and lending your voice to this Project.
Mitch: My pleasure.
Toni: Let’s jump into it. What does inspiration mean to you?
Mitch: I’m kind of backwards on this. When I first saw that, I thought of inspiration as creativity. People that are creative just inspire me, thus the name. Someone that can work with their hands. Someone that has a golden voice. Someone that can write, like John Updike. Oh my gosh — that’s a Berks County treasure, and the hard part is nobody — I shouldn’t say that; there’s a lot of people that don’t know about John Updike and about Rabbit and the arts that we have here in Berks County. It inspires me. It motivates me. Anybody that is creative and can do those things, I’m very impressed with.
Toni: Do you know when you’re inspired?
Mitch: Oh, yeah. You can feel it.
Toni: How so?
Mitch: If I hear a band; if I go out and hear Chuck Cahoe or Erich Cawalla or Dave Kline and they’re singing a song, and that emotionally gets me tied into it — because that’s what music is. It’s emotional and intellect meeting. I can feel it. I feel so good. I feel bigger than life, and I’m having a good time. The people beside me, I’m talking to.
Toni: What a great description in that of inspiration that you feel bigger than life when you’re inspired.
Mitch: Absolutely.
Toni: That’s really cool.
Mitch: I started working for Berks County Living, and went to the Goggleworks. I’ve been to the Goggleworks maybe twice, but I was going through the building, and you want to talk about being inspired — there are so many artisans there that work with their hands and their minds and their eyes. I’m just jealous of that. My talent is my mouth and my ideas. Anybody that can work with their hands, or their voice, or their smile like a model, that inspires me.
Toni: How do you take all of that — your love for creativity, the way that you feel when you’re inspired — and how do you put that into practice here in Berks County?
Mitch: It’s my interacting with people. With Berks County Living, I sell part-time, so I call on people. I’ll go in and I’ll say, “I have an idea for you.” They’ll say, “What’s that idea?” “Instead of running an ad, let’s run a picture of the dining room table and saying, ‘This roof company made this dining room possible; made this meal possible.’” To me, that’s inspiration. I learned a long time ago, Disney has a thing called, “What If.” Did you ever hear of the What If meetings?
Toni: I have. Is that along the lines of Imagineering? Something like that?
Mitch: Yes. A project comes up, and they’re at a standstill. They want to build a $400 billion new ride, and everybody shoots it down. They get in the meeting, and one person says, “What if we do this?” and then another one says, “What if we do that?” I’m a big advocate of that. Don’t turn something down. Figure out a way to make it happen.
Toni: That’s possibility thinking.
Mitch: That’s what it’s all about. I don’t want to bring up politics, but Jimmy Carter — nobody knew who Jimmy Carter was, and he had this vision that he could be President, and he was.
Toni: Absolutely. So, who in Berks County inspires you?
Mitch: There’s a whole bunch. How much time do we have? Musically would be Erich Cawalla. I think he’s tremendous in what he’s done. Chuck Cahoe, who was the lead singer for a lot of bands, and just the way he moves and his actions. Dave Kline, who does bluegrass and country and jazz. Those three, and there’s a whole lot more. Those three are the top of my mind. We’re real fortunate in this local music scene. We have some really talented people. Dave Cullen. It goes on and on. We’re real fortunate. The county’s not that big, really, when you think about it, and all the talent that we have here — we should be thankful.
Toni: Absolutely. We’re very thankful for the talent we have. Anybody else inspire you here in Berks County?
Mitch: A whole bunch, now that you asked me. I’ll end up saying no or I can't think of, but young artists. I just went blank. He did the murals downtown in West Reading. Just looking at his work inspires me. Just seeing it.
Toni: So, it’s really the creative folks that bring a different feeling to life, whether it’s a musician or an artist or a thought leader, I’m hearing that that is the type of creativity that just really gets you going and inspired.
Mitch: It does. Their hands and what they can build. I’m a thinker. I’m an idea guy, but I can't put my hands to something. There’s a great gal, Dr. Andrea Smith, and she does — I can't think of the title, but she does false teeth, and she’s an artist. She saw a fellow that had half of an ear, and she developed the other half and made this ear. You can't tell that it’s a fake ear. She’s just so talented.
I’ll give you one. Judy Henry. A chef who has so much talent and so much drive, and believes in Berks County, believes in Reading, and has taken one small restaurant and made it bigger, and added two more to it. You meet her, and it’s just like a fresh new day. What she has done down there, she’s a jewel.
Toni: There’s a powerhouse statement for you. What a wonderful testimonial for Judy Henry. What would you like your legacy to be?
Mitch: He was a thinker; an idea guy. You could come to him and say, “I have this problem. Do you have any ideas?” and I’d help you solve it.
Toni: Well, I’ll tell you what. I say this almost every time, that you seem to be living your legacy. I get to see the joy in your face when you talk about inspiration, being inspired, and the creative juices that flow when you are. Again, Mitch, I really appreciate you showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
Mitch: This was such a pleasure. I enjoyed meeting you. I had met you before, but I enjoyed seeing you again. Thank you for having me.
Toni: Absolutely. Thank you.
