Eight Minutes Dead: Sig Muller’s Cardiac Comeback

Brad Minus: And welcome back to another episode of Life Changing Challengers. I gotta tell you, this episode is probably gonna be the death of me. No, just kidding. No, listen, we're here with Sig Muller today and, Sig is a, he is a growth minded leader. He is a speaker. He is a coach, soon to be author, which we'll cover that a little bit later.

Um, and he actually passed away. Yeah, I don't know who we're looking at there, but we have confirmation that he had died and now he's back. So if you ever believed in reincarnation, is the episode for you. So anyway, Hey Sig, how you doing today?

Sig Muller: I'm doing fantastic. Thanks Brad. 

Brad Minus: , Love to hear it. Love to hear it.

So, SIG, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood? You know, like maybe where'd you grow up? What was like the compliment of your family? Brothers, sisters, mom, dad, and what was it like to be sig as a kid? 

Sig Muller: Yeah, you bet. Fun thing to look back on, Minnesota native. So I grew up in a small town called Rochester, Minnesota, which people might know it because of the Mayo Clinic, right.

My father was a physician there. My mom was a stay-at-home mom and at the time it was a small town of 25, 30,000 people. Now it's over a hundred thousand. But everybody knew everybody, you know, and different era.

And I was the oldest of, four children. And my father always stressed, get a good education, work hard at what you do. Athletics are important to, help you build values and learn how to be a good teammate. I swam growing up, I think I was in the pool probably from, as soon as I could hold my own head up.

I started competitively swimming when I was seven years old. By the time I was probably 11 or so, I'd really decided that was my sport. As a small town, I would bike at five 30 in the morning on my 10 speed at 11 to practice about three miles and swim from six o'clock to eight o'clock.

Then I would get on my bike and bike to the next pool across town, which was about six miles away, and work out from 10 to 12. And eat a little bit in between. Then I had a, nine, 10 mile bike ride back home after that. So that was growing up. I did well in school. It was a small, community.

Everybody knew everybody. And for me, swimming and athletics were a pretty strong start. I wound up being, an all American in high school and state champion in swimming and went on, to swim division one at Northwestern University, so 

Brad Minus: Oh, Northwestern. Very cool. I'm from Chicago, so Nice.

Evanston, Illinois is, you know, very well known out there, so, well you said swimming and athletics. 

Did you do something else as well? 

Sig Muller: Oh, I tried a few other things in high school. I did cross country for one year, my freshman year. The older reason I did that, Brad, you'll appreciate this, I think, I.

Was all about being the best swimmer I could be. And I did cross country for one season because I felt like it was the only thing that could help build my endurance and physically hurt me as much as swimming to make me a better athlete. So I did one season and I'm not really made for land.

Super. Well, you know, it's a little different on your joints than swimming. Swimming's hard on your joints, but it's different. It's not the pounding on the ground. Right. So I did one year of that. I played a couple years of soccer when I was younger, but really, back swimming then people tended to work on a lot of sports.

I focused and, and swimming was my thing. 

Brad Minus: Nice. Yeah, I had swimming lessons when I was six and seven. I wish that I had kept it up. 'Cause then I didn't really start competitively swimming until I was an adult and that's a lot harder. 'Cause I imagine even when you've probably taken some breaks and you can still jump in the pool and do a thousand meters and it really doesn't hurt you.

You get that momentum again? You probably aren't swimming as fast. But you can, hold your own after you've taken a break. And getting back into it doesn't, it's not the same unfortunately. 

Sig Muller: For people that grew up swimming like me, it's the same as walking basically.

You can jump at a pool. The same effort as someone walking. I started a little bit over three years ago teaching kids how to swim. There's a swim school here in Minnesota. I think they're actually in six or seven states called Foss Swim School. And, every Sunday morning and Monday night, I teach kids how to swim.

It's a little small way I can give back. And I have taught adults as well, you know, 90 plus percent of our kids. I taught about a year ago, a 72-year-old man had never learned how to swim. And he decided he wanted to learn at 72, which is fantastic, right? We all can learn and grow and

improve as we age 

Brad Minus: And it's amazing because, I mean, I've had first time marathoners that are like 54, 55 years old and have, kept it up until, you know, all the way to, and I've got people on my roster that are 65, 66, still going. I raced with a guy, that was 82 at the time.

It just goes to show that you don't have to stop. 

You can learn something new. 

Sig Muller: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: So, yeah. 

Sig Muller: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: So that's good. So you competitively swam, then you went to division one, for Northwestern. Yeah. And so that's awesome.

What did you end up studying? 

Sig Muller: Yeah, I studied industrial engineering and management sciences. Started off thinking I wanted to be a biomedical engineer, at the time there were maybe 10 or 12 programs around the country that had biomedical engineering, and so I started as that and then kind of learned that I could be a doctor, didn't wanna do that, I could get a PhD, didn't wanna do that, but I liked engineering and the field, so I became an industrial engineer.

Awesome, awesome. Did you get a, did you get a pretty good job getting outta school? I did. I was super blessed. I really never put my engineering skills to work. I started with, at the time was Arthur Anderson, which now Accenture. Okay. Yeah. So, headquartered there in Chicago. Mm-hmm. Worked for them for about five years and had the opportunity to work all over the globe.

I spent a year in North Sumatra, Indonesia at a large electrified natural gas plant. Wow. Time in the Netherlands. And then all over the US I worked in sort of oil, gas, retail, and healthcare. Consulting. 

Brad Minus: I love it. That's fantastic. Did you swim the whole time? Did you always find pools and always, jump in when you could?

Sig Muller: So after college, you know, I think like a lot of athletes, you, you've gone pretty hard and you need a little bit of a break. I actually added in college water polo as well. So for four years I swam and played water polo, both, which was challenging. But I, I so, so loved it. And I kept up the water polo probably till, gosh, I was 45, maybe for the next 20 years.

I would find clubs wherever I went. So, while I was on a remote island in Indonesia, every time I got back to Jakarta, which might've been once or twice a month, I would play like with the Indonesian national team. And I've done that in Dallas and Philly and, you know, it's a great community.

You can just show up and drop in. They usually welcome you. 

Brad Minus: Oh, that is awesome. I had actually, and unfortunately I don't remember what episode it was, but I did interview a division one water polo, athlete, and then who also kept it up. So, yeah, he mentioned the same thing about once you get started, the community is always, it always accepts you from there.

Oh. But that's great. So, so yeah, you were working with some, like you said, what was it? Water plant, is that what you said? In, in, liquified 

Sig Muller: Natural gas, oil and 

Brad Minus: gas. 

Sig Muller: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: Oh, man. That had to be like super interesting. So did you end up getting married somewhere down the line?

Kids? 

Sig Muller: Yeah, so I, after five years, went back, got my MBA at Dartmouth, got my master's in business, and, concurrently at the end of that, did get married and moved back to Minnesota. And I have two, wonderful boys. My eldest is 25 and married soon to be 26, and I'm gonna be a grandfather for the first time this fall.

So, looking forward to that. 

Brad Minus: Well, congratulations. That is absolutely fantastic. All right, so let's talk about what we're gonna talk about. So tell us some of what was going on in the. Previous to the SCA that you ended up, experiencing, let's call it that. 

Sig Muller: Yeah. So SCA sudden cardiac arrest for your listeners.

And it's an interesting story. You know, for me, I'm a pretty faithful person and I think a lot of times life just flows through and things happen and you don't realize in the moment how important they were. And in my case, surviving and living. So I'll tell you a few stories that lead up to it.

We talked about my swimming. The doctors told me later, I was flatlined for over eight minutes. Whoa. And the odds of not just living, but living and being mentally okay are less than 1%. The doctors told me the fact that I'd swam and been this elite athlete had improved my lung function and circulatory system that.

Kind of lasts with you through life. So that was probably part of what had carried me forward. I went to work after my MBA back in Minnesota with a company called General Mills.

In 1995 and 30 years later when I had my cardiac arrest. August 23rd, 20, 24, 45 weeks ago. Geez. Yeah. Pretty, pretty recent. I'm super blessed. Those were the people and friends that I met that became lifelong friends that were there the day I died and gave me CPR.

Now it gets even more interesting, Brad, the twists on this, I, left there in 1998 to go to a company called Survival Link. Survival Link was one of the companies that pioneered. Automated external defibrillators, AEDs. Things restart your heart when it stops. Prior to companies like Survival Link defibrillators were only in hospitals and really advanced ambulances.

And over the last, 25 plus years, they're now on athletic fields offices, people's homes, everywhere. 'cause that's the key to surviving, is how fast can your heart be restarted. So I worked in business development and marketing for them and helped put the first AEDs, I didn't know I was writing a prescription for myself, for 30 years later.

Yeah. And laying that kind of foundation. We put it on the first airline, the first police force, the first fire department. Wow. I did that work in the late nineties, and I'll fast forward again. Two weeks before my sudden cardiac arrest, someone put together a 25 year reunion of this company's Survival Inc.

So we're getting together. We've helped save tens of thousands of lives. Around the globe because of what we pioneered in starting this company. Well, we got together on, August 23rd with the General Mills guys. I call them the Baker Boys. There's a golf course here that we started golfing Friday afternoons in the nineties called Baker Park Golf Course.

So we became the Baker Boys. They were the ones with me on the day of my cardiac arrest. Golfing. We're getting together at the beginning of the golf. Half the guys now live out of town. There were 12 of us half live in town out of town. Guys, you know, you only see once or twice a year and don't stay in touch as well.

And, just catching up. Hey, you're an empty nester. Now. Your kid graduated from college. What are they doing? All the typical stuff. Right. My turn to share. Sig, what have you been doing? I'm like, guys, remember when I left General Mills, I went to that defibrillator company. They just had their 25 year reunion.

And man, it was an awesome reminder of the things we did and just, you know, you gotta do CPR if you ever have to. Right, right. They did have a defibrillator there, but, waited until later that night.

The same group of people were at a barbecue at the backyard of a friend's house, much, much closer to the ambulance and hospital that I would need. Right. That's where I went down. And, my friend, whose place it was, Paul, he and his wife gave me CPR. And, if you don't give me CPR I'm probably not here.

That's so critical for your listeners. And, I learned later there's a thing called agonal breathing. And so when I went down and anyone who has a cardiac arrest, your body has a reflex. The brainstem where it's fighting to keep living. And you have this breathing that makes it seem like you're gasping for air, but you're not.

It's your brainstem trying to restart and take breaths which aren't effective and aren't delivering oxygen to the body. So to the bystander of my friends who are on 9 1 1, they're looking at me going, well, maybe he's breathing, maybe he's okay, maybe he's not. And they made the call along with the nine one one operator.

He said, no, this was a cardiac arrest. Let's get after it and give him, CPR. So I'll always remember how many weeks it's been since then. And like I shared, it's 45 weeks. Today. 

Brad Minus: So I gotta ask you, and I know just through research and stuff that you ended up with some amnesia, do you happen to remember that day at all or do you remember the barbecue and then that's it?

Or is there like a hard stop or do you remember what you were feeling like first prior to it? 

Sig Muller: Yeah. Good question. I did have intergrade amnesia and, we'll, get into that, but that day remembered golfing, remembered going to the barbecue. I helped clean the pool. I, you know, I'm the swimmer, I'm the pool guy.

They asked me to clean their pool before all the guests got over. So I did that and we were sitting out having a discussion at the backyard bar out by the pool. Remember that? And then, this is fascinating. It kind of blows me away. Someone took a picture of us sitting around the bar. I've been told it's two or three minutes before my cardiac arrest.

I don't remember that picture being taken. Okay. But I look good. I mean, I looked totally fine. And then during that two to three minutes, you know, I, I, a friend of mine actually just wrote a blog I have up on my website. He said, all of a sudden your eyes started to get really big and bug out, and you stopped talking and I asked you if you were okay and you didn't respond.

So someone else walked over to the chair and I literally went down and they laid me on the ground. 

Brad Minus: Wow. Okay. So this is all secondhand. That you're getting this information from, which is, I mean, obviously these are your friends, so this is probably the closest that you're gonna get, but you actually don't remember.

What is the next thing that you remember? What's the very next thing? So you're at the bar and then what's that next picture? 

Sig Muller: Yeah, so I got what's called Ontario Grade Amnesia. Mm-hmm. And what that means is you can't form new memories.

So I was conscious that was Friday night, five, six o'clock, Saturday morning, I was conscious, alert, awake, talking to people in the hospital. You know, they told me what had happened to me. I wouldn't remember it. I couldn't hold a memory for five seconds. So I'd ask you, Brad, you know, why am I here? You'd tell me, and a minute later I'd say, Brad, why am I here?

And that was two and a half days roughly, or I don't remember, but conscious having conversations. And remember I told you, less than 1% chance. I'm physically, mentally, okay. The people around me, you know, again, this is all learned later, right. Like, is this the new normal for sig? But the first thing I remember, it's really two things.

One is a good friend of mine, Mike, came into the room and he's one of a group of friends I call the cabin guys. I grew up with all these guys and once a year we go up to a cabin in Northern Minnesota and he sat down and said, can I say a prayer with you? And we said A prayer together. And that's one of my first memories.

Hmm. The other memory is I remember waking up and they have, you know how they have the whiteboard down by your feet on the wall and it says, you know, this is sig, he weighs this much, you know, this is why he's here, et cetera, et cetera. And written in big giant letters on the whiteboard was clopidogrel allergy, clopidogrel is Plavix.

And, I, with my intergrade amnesia had been saying two things repeatedly to everyone who came into the room. I don't know what's wrong with me, you know? But somehow I realized that was important. And I had taken at Mayo Clinic, I worked there in the mid 2, 20 15 or so, and Mayo had helped start a pharmacogenomic company called One Oh.

Which you learn how do your genes interact with drugs? Some people process normally, some don't process normally too fast, too slow. I had learned 10 years before that I didn't process clopidogrel the right way. And furthermore, if you were given it after a cardiac arrest or heart attack, which it's a first line drug, it was back then, at least you'd be three to four times more likely to have another cardiac event.

So I'd taken this test 10 years before. I'm outta my mind, don't know what I'm saying, don't know what's wrong with me, not remembering that I even said this. I said it to the janitor, I said it to my sister, I said it to the nurse, the doctor repeatedly. If you were in the room, you heard that. And my sister was trying to shut me up and make me stop saying it.

She apparently wrote in the big giant letters on the whiteboard allergy, which I guess didn't stop me. She still kept saying it because I couldn't remember it was on the board, I guess, you know? 

Brad Minus: Oh my God. You know, it's funny, that you say that. I had an accident, April 4th, 1994. I was in Chicago, I was in Streamwood, Illinois.

I was doing a show and my buddy and I decided that, hey, after rehearsal. We're gonna go and play some video games. And I looked down somewhere and I ended up getting to an accident with him. I rear-ended him and I'm a new driver. I'm only like 24, I think, at the time,

and, so I'm not a new driver. I get into this accident and I am in the same, basically in the same situation. I accept that I didn't die. I woke up in the hospital and my wife and my parents could sit there and say my dad wasn't even in the room. I later found out why was because I kept asking the same questions.

Sig Muller: Mm. 

Brad Minus: So what day is it? April 4th. April 4th. What happened to April 2nd? You know, and I kept so over and over and over again. And then I kept asking my best friend who was there, who, he was in a van, so he was fine. And I kept asking him the same thing. And I'm like, and I looked at him and I'm like, am I gonna dance again?

So I get what you're saying about that. It was like, no, no short term memory. 

Sig Muller: That's exactly what it is. 

Brad Minus: So did you, to this day you still don't remember the actual event until you, woke up with a prayer?

Sig Muller: Yeah. I have two and a half days of my life that's been erased forever. It's been filled in by friends and family and doctors, right. And people that were in the room. So there's a lot of good stories and super relevant to where I am today and why, but, they helped fill in the blanks on the recording that, I just didn't have.

Brad Minus: So did you get a diagnosis as to why you had the SCA? 

Sig Muller: Yeah, so interesting for people listening, and probably a lot of people know this, but a heart attack is a plumbing issue. A cardiac arrest is an electrical issue. So a lot of athletes, tamar Hamlin most recently, right? The football player got hit in the chest.

He had a cardiac arrest. It's an interruption in the electrical system, misfire. Heart stops, a heart attack. You can suffer and be conscious and, you know, it's a plumbing issue and you can die with that too clearly, and it can lead to cardiac arrest, but my plumbing is great, so that's good. Initially they were like, don't know why it happened.

I have a implantable cardio defibrillator in me now, which is an insurance policy. I live a normal life, but that's there just in case it happens again. And they don't really know why. You know, as the months went on and we're trying to figure it out, and I keep asking questions, likely, inflammation is what led to it.

So you think of, okay, what causes inflammation and let's eliminate inflammation or from life, right? Or make it less. And all the controllable things, you know, I. Have given up or changed or try to be better at, you know, diet, food, stress, sleep, all that kind of stuff. So, short answer is no.

I had ventricular tachycardia was the specific rhythm that led to the cardiac arrest. 

Brad Minus: So, fast heartbeat, on the venturous side, versus the atria or AFib versus V-fib. 

Sig Muller: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: So when you're on the V-fib side, that's a certain pattern that you tend to move into when you have these, when they, have an episode.

Have you had another episode since, 

Sig Muller: My defibrillator did decide to go off, Thanksgiving morning. Cool. And pretty scary. Yeah. Another little visit to the ICU and that's when they figured out it was likely inflammation. And I, at that time, they identified the specific path that had the ventricular fibrillation through the heart.

So a lot of people probably had cardiac ablation that are listening, right? If you have atrial fibrillation, you get cardiac ablation often, and there'll be a certain small group of cells that get ablated. It's a little specific. It could be a dime size, but it's a very localized area with ventricular tachycardia, it's a path through the whole heart.

So they ablated and were able to find the path that was the offending path through my heart. So I, you know, at some level, I guess that happening, if I can say it is, was a blessing from the standpoint of. If there was a root cause, that was it. And, they, they did the cardiac ablation and I, I still think, you know, and they believe inflammation and things have a lot to do with it.

So from a lifestyle standpoint, you know all about that. 

Brad Minus: So obviously there's a bunch of things that we can do to reduce our inflammation and like you said, more sleep and, stress levels. There's foods that we stay away from. And, you know, for all the research and stuff, and obviously as a coach and everything, I try to stay up on a lot of the stuff and as an older coach on my private roster, my median age is like 54 and, but of course then I've got, a, high school track team and a high school cross country team. Which I still give them some nutrition advice. They're not gonna take it though. But yeah, so I, I'm kind of up on that. You know, it's obviously, very, very personal. You know, some people get inflammation with, starches, pastas and stuff like that.

Some people get inflammations with oils. So it's really, you know, there are some certain foods and some certain things that everybody should stay away from. But that's the normal everyday follow, you know, make sure that you're eating plenty of vegetables and fiber and different things like that.

But, you know, some people will, have a inflammation response to pasta. Other people won't. Some people will be cream dairy products, some people won't. It's a very personal thing and I would suggest that you know that if you do find yourself. And your blood tests and everything else.

And you do find that there is some inflammation in there that you do some food testing and metal testing is actually our environment. Walking outside, can you imagine the inflammation level of the people in Los Angeles with all that smog?

Sig Muller: Yeah, 

Brad Minus: I bet it's pretty high. 

Sig Muller: Yeah. Encourage everybody to, hot sugar, right. Carbs. Yes. And not to say everything's bad, to your point, it is personalized. 

Brad Minus: Yeah, it absolutely is. 

Sig Muller: Figure it out and live a life with, less inflammation.

Right. It could be less stress for some people, but 

Brad Minus: Exactly. And if I just give one little thing, is that always find, just find a replacement. Don't worry about, if pasta is causing you inflammation, go to a vegetable pasta, start using, what is that?

Like, it's a squash, spaghetti squash. Use spaghetti squash instead of noodles. Find the replacement that works for you. So you don't have to give it up. Giving it up is just a hard thing. Just find the replacement that'll work for you in school. But let's leave that out.

So how, and here's the big question is how did this change you? 

Sig Muller: What, 

Brad Minus: what's changed in your life since you were dead for eight minutes? 

Sig Muller: Pretty profound. I had a second thing that I kept saying in those first two and a half days in the ICU that I didn't remember either.

And I kept saying it after even what I could remember after the first two and a half days. And that was, I told everyone who came in the room, you are the world's best. Didn't matter if you were the janitor, the nurse, a friend, a doctor. I told you thousands of times.

So Brad, if you were my phlebotomist, I think that first day you were coming in the room every hour and drawing my blood, I'd say, hi, what's your name? Brad. I'm here to draw your blood. Fantastic. You are the world's best, Brad. Did anyone ever tell you before you're the world's best phlebotomist. You draw my blood and 10 more times before you left the room, I'd tell you, you are the world's best and, you know, genuine and from the heart.

So that went on and, you know, in the coming weeks. After I got out of the hospital in months, you ask yourself, why am I still here? Why am I alive? What's my mission? And for me, I also asked, why the heck did I say these crazy phrases? Why did I tell everyone you were the world's best? I knew why I told everyone, don't give me clopidogrel.

I was able to nail that one. Why did I say this? And I think it was two reasons I said it. I think number one, it was my fancy way of saying thank you. You're great. You know, I couldn't do anything the first time in my life. I couldn't do anything for myself. I couldn't get outta bed, you know, I couldn't go to the bathroom.

I couldn't feed myself. I'd been a, you know, all American swimmer, I'd been a leader of teams and work, and I really. Wanted to share with people that I appreciate you. You're great. I chose the words you other world's best. I think the second thing, and Brad, you as an athlete and trainer and coach you'll appreciate this, is I think the mindset is so, so important.

I knew I was messed up and something was wrong. I didn't know what it was, but I knew Brad, I needed the world's best doctor who was gonna put in my implantable cardio defibrillator or world's best nurse, the world's best friends. And by telling people that repeatedly, you start to shift the mindset and people think, I am good.

I will do my best. So I needed people helping me to the world's best version of themselves, but I also needed me to be the world's best version of myself if I was gonna be okay. So I, I, as I reflected, I thought that's, that's why I was saying this crazy thing. You were the world's best.

My life prior, I was, a business builder, a lot of different industries. So I built businesses in healthcare and retail and financial services. Big giant companies like General Mills, United Health Group, Mayo Clinic, but then six startups as well, like Survival Link that we talked about. Yeah, so that was kind of my DNA and I was sort of semi-retired, prior to my cardiac arrest, doing a little bit of consulting with startups, people I liked businesses that I wanted to help.

And, as I'm reflecting on, okay, how long do I have left? I don't know if this is gonna happen tomorrow. It's almost like a bullet's chasing you. Right. And what's it gonna catch up? My father's 95, so I'm 59 now. So I don't know if I have a day a week, maybe I'll be blessed to be 95 like him. But another interesting moment that helped complete the picture for me.

A month before my cardiac arrest, I was fly fishing in Montana with my son. He's also named Sig. I call him Sino, and he brought his pastor fly fishing with us. And we're on a world class river in Montana. I'm a total rookie. They're both, you know, pro level fly fishermen. So they were my Sherpas that day and, helped me out.

I, I caught a thing called the Montana trifecta. I don't know if he made it up just to make me feel good or not. Yeah. But it was a brown trout, a rainbow trout, and a cutthroat trout. It's the Montana trifecta. I caught one of each while we were fly fishing, and the, the pastor, while we're floating down the river and part of it was waiting, part of it was floating.

Says, guys, have you ever heard of the book or podcast? 4,000 weeks. I say, Nope, never heard of it. What is it? And he says, well, 4,000 weeks is how long you have to live when you're born. It's about 80 years. Okay. And I'd never heard of it. I'd never thought of 4,000 weeks is 80 years. Didn't think much of it that day.

You know, I was fly fishing with my son in a beautiful location, learning a new skill. And, kind of went in one ear, out the other ear, didn't think anything of it. It was a two minute conversation. But as I'm putting together the pieces of my life after and figuring out why am I here, I could have curled up in the fetal position, you know, and never left my house again.

I chose to anchor myself in the concept of weeks. So when I shared earlier, it's been 45 weeks, I said to myself, I'm gonna act and live as though I have a thousand weeks to live. A thousand weeks is about 20 years. I'd be 79. It's not 95, but I can do a lot for the world and have a great life for 20 years if I believe, and act as though it's gonna be a thousand weeks.

So you think about a thousand weeks, 20 years, every year is 5% of what you have left, every summer, 5%, every Christmas, 5%, you know, whatever it is. Every 12 season for your team, 5%. It puts a different perspective on things. And so I have a thing now, and I, it's one of the things I talk about in my book.

It's the 5% rule, and it's how are you spending that time? How are you spending your 5%, you know, 5% of 24 hours is 72 minutes. If you sleep for 10, 5% of 14 hours is 42 minutes. Are we spending even 5% on the things that really matter? Whatever it is, it's all personal. That was a big part of the picture for me was in the months after putting that piece of the puzzle together to be able to be positive and go forward in an awesome way.

Mm-hmm. And it culminated about six weeks after my cardiac arrest. I'd been teaching as I shared at FO kids how to swim. And at the pool I met, there's about 45 50 instructors at that pool. We have quarterly team meetings. So I went back to the quarterly team meeting after about six weeks for the quarter.

And you know, people don't know if I'm okay, not okay. You know, and went to the team meeting and I, I said to the gal, Jenna, who runs the pool, and this is at 9, 9 30 at night. 'cause after the pool's closed, everyone's done working.

That's our team meeting, you know, the smell of chlorine and Yep, pizza. And I asked her, could I share my story with the team? And she said, sure, please do. So she forgot initially. And so at 10 30 she says, oh, CIG asked to share his story. You know, that'll be the last thing we do tonight. 

Brad Minus: Man, 

Sig Muller: Of the 45 instructors, probably five or six, I'd say from an age group, or are peers of mine, and there's probably five or six that are, say in their thirties, moms, teachers, that kind of stuff. But the bulk of the workforce are people 18 to 25. Maybe first job kind of thing. Yeah. And so I tell my story much like your listeners have heard today, and I ended it and said, I don't know why I'm here.

I'm still trying to figure out my mission. Why am I still alive? By that time, probably a quarter of the people listening and I only knew probably about 10 to 12 of the people.

Probably about a quarter of the people tears in their eyes crying by the time I finished. And I, I'd just tell em my story. And it was the first time I told it publicly. I had no idea the kind of impact it might have. I certainly wasn't expecting that. And then I ended, and probably five or six people came up to me afterwards and said, wow, thank you for sharing your story.

My mom, my dad, my brother, had a cardiac arrest, had a heart attack. And hearing your story. Has made it easier for me to deal with what's happening in their lives. And then there was a group of people that came up to me again, a handful, four or five. Said, thank you. I'm changing my life, starting today as a result of your message.

Brad Minus: Oh my God, that's powerful. 

Sig Muller: That really hits you. And all of these reactions were completely unexpected. And finally a gal came up, her name was Jodi. And Jodi would be, you know, close to my age. She's been working there for six years. And Jodi said, SIG, I know why you're still here. And I said, well, all right.

Tell me. I'm still trying to figure it out. And Jodi says, you're here to share your story with people and make a difference in their lives and help them be the world's best version of themselves. And I'm like, wow. I'm driving home that night and you know, I've told a lot of stories here today about things that happen in life and you don't really realize in the moment the importance they have and you know how they're carried through your life.

That was one that hit me pretty quick when she said that. I thought, huh, that makes sense. I can do that and I'd love doing it. That can become my passion. So that was really the genesis. Call it early, November, of me redefining myself and what I was gonna do and how I was gonna spend the next thousand weeks.

Brad Minus: That is absolutely crazy. And now did when she said, you're here to make sure that you tell your story and make sure that everybody's the world's best. Was that something that you kept saying to people? Yeah, because before you had mentioned that you were saying that 

Sig Muller: Yeah.

Brad Minus: Automatically. I did very, which is why she used that 

Sig Muller: Okay. I've always, I think, I'd like to think I've always been a grateful person and practiced gratitude. Yeah. But that experience took me to a whole nother level of just appreciating life and people and the small things.

So in, I made it a point I actually put on my mirror where I shave and brush my teeth a post-it. And the post-it I wrote, you are the world's Best on the Post-It. So I'd see it every morning and I took that, you know, obviously it's a reflection and, motivating yourself. But I took it to mean go out today and make sure you tell others you know, the world's best.

And Brad, there's so many different ways we can say that. It's gotta be genuine and it's gotta be in your own words. For me, it became very natural to say you are the world's best. I remember mid-December, and this is after I'd found my mission with Jodi, but I was in line at a coffee shop in Minnetonka, seven in the morning, 20 below, outside and in walked a couple of police officers, they're standing in line to get their coffee with me.

And I said, Hey, how you doing today? We had a little chat and I said, gosh, you have a hard job to begin with, but on a day like today, 20 below, man, that's gotta be super hard. We finish, they get their coffee. I got my coffee and I said, Hey, thank you so much for what you do for our community.

You are the world's best. And it's funny 'cause people really don't hear the words, you are the world's best. Right? Or frankly, people don't hear. Thank you. You're great. Fantastic. I appreciate you enough. Right. We all should say that more frequently. It improves our mood and joy and happiness and the people around us, but also improves our performance and the performance of people around us when we can live a life of gratitude and appreciation.

Brad Minus: Yeah. I understand, believe that. I kind of try to make fun with people, you know, and when something happens and I was like, oh, you de bomb baby. Just kind of going back to this nineties like thing going on. I'd be like, you de bomb baby. And then, when people are like over and above, I'm like, you deba, nah, nah, you deba, diggity.

And people get a laugh out of it, but I can see that it puts a smile on people's face. I'm happy to say that, you know what, the other thing that's, I was looking at a, I think it was a TED talk there's things that we say that's automatic, and I find myself saying it, I've said it for so many years that now trying to break the habit is hard.

It's like, Hey man, how are you? Do we really care? Do we really care how we need to be more intentional on that stuff do you really care? No. It's like, Hey, good morning. You are the world's best.

Or, Hey, you're the bomb and do something like that rather than, Hey, how are you? It's like just a nicety and actually have intention, going that way. She had done a few examples, and I unfortunately don't remember off the top of my head, but, something different than, Hey, how are you?

Which will make you stand out. And then, possibly, increase your relationship with another person. So, 

Sig Muller: yeah. 

Brad Minus: I love that. Yeah. That's great. That's, that's fantastic. So obviously you have be the world's best.com and I would definitely, have people go ahead and, take a look at that.

'cause you've got some, you speak. 

Sig Muller: Mm-hmm. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. And, you do some coaching on there as well, right? What is your focus on your coaching? 

Sig Muller: Yeah, so really coaching and speaking are pretty similar from the standpoint of message. Mm-hmm. It's helping others be the world's best version of themselves.

You know, speaking, it's the audience, it's the corporate, you know, level workshops and coaching. It's the team or the individual. I actually have on my website, 'cause I did this in conjunction with my book, I have some different worksheets now. There's a section called Heart of the Matter. And on that section, it's not complete yet, but it's call it 50% there.

I have some exercises, worksheets, some reflective things that you can go through. And part of it is just understanding the 5% rule that I talked about, right? That'd be one good example. It's one thing to hear me talk about it in a speech. It's another thing to say, okay, how do we reduce that down to practice and incorporate that in your life in a meaningful way?

Same thing with gratitude. You know, how do you break that down? How do you change your mindset? So these are all things that you can just go much deeper on in the context of a workshop or of individual coaching to help people break down the barriers. What's getting in the way for you personally?

To be the world's best version of yourself. Okay? Let's put together an action plan to accomplish that. And what's also fascinating is, as part of my book, I surveyed both written and just interviews with over a hundred people. And I asked them one simple question, it seems simple. What does it mean to you to be the world's best version of yourself?

Love it. And I had over a hundred people respond. It's fascinating. It helped inform my work. And, you know, a couple things came out of it, and I actually have a summary of that now on my website that you can go read and look at. A couple things. It was very personal, different to everyone. You know what it means to, you'll be different than what it means to me.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. But from themes, I broke it down into seven themes of things that people wanna make a difference, have an impact. That was one theme. You know, get noticed. There's a lot of ways to, phrase that. Family was a theme that came through family and friends and relationships. Faith came through pretty strong.

Yeah, makes sense. So, so there, all of that folds into then, you know, my coaching and methodology and process to, get to the heart of the matter and help people, be the world's best version of themselves. Awesome. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. And that's so important. And I think a lot of us flounder, right?

A lot of us flounder with what our purpose is. You start something and it's like, Hey, this is great. Then you dig in and you're like, maybe that's not my purpose. So finding what it is that not only can you be the world's best at, but usually that will end up being near the purpose that you have in life.

Sig Muller: You're right on. 

Brad Minus: I have been in the, information technology, project, program portfolio management in, corporate for 25 years. And that's how I make my money. But I know that's not my passion. My passion is coaching.

I coach track and field for high school. I coach across the country for high school. I had 15 people on a roster, that, want to do these big things. And just to put it out there I think sometimes you can find your purpose.

By doing something completely external to you, you know? Mm-hmm. Things that you'd never thought that you'd do before. You know, something that is so outrageous, you know? Yeah. Somebody that, you know, somebody that's basically been on the couch and, wakes up one day and go, you know what, I'm going to climb Mount Everest.

Sig Muller: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: And it's not a, you know, it's not a one, it's not, you know, that the following year they're heading out to Nepal. It's a 3, 4, 5 year process of them, getting in shape, learning, starting with rock climbing, then moving to smaller to, you know, small, maybe Mount St. Helen's or, there's the Mount Rainier, then finally Kilimanjaro, then Yeah.

You know, and as you, and then you finally get to that point, and then you learn what it is to train, to do Mount Everest. And it is a huge process. And once you learn that and you now you know what you're going to, and, but maybe you're not a mountain climber. Maybe this is a one and done.

But the process will open you up to so many different things that you just might find your purpose somewhere in there. 

Sig Muller: Yeah. Well, I think that's fascinating. So I talk with people about, you know, what are the triggers? You know, passion, if you know, the root of passion, that etymology of the word to suffer suffering, to find your passion is to come through suffering.

So I think oftentimes, I call them heart stopping moments. We all have heart stopping moments in our life. They just don't all involve a defibrillator in an ICU and your heart action 

Brad Minus: now you're just being punny. 

Sig Muller: Heart stopping moments. Yeah. They cause us to stop in our tracks, reevaluate things, and think and pause and maybe take a different course of action.

Sometimes they can be small things too. For me, you know, my son was getting married and I was, I weighed considerably more than when I swam. I'm still in good shape, but I needed to lose 30, 40 pounds. So I said, okay, I wanna look good at his wedding as the father of the groom.

And I lost 40 pounds in the year leading up to it. But it took that, you know, it didn't matter how many diets I'd been on over the 30 years before, you know, or anything. Yeah. It took that moment, that trigger to motivate me. And, so I think part of it is, you know, what makes somebody, Brad, get off the couch, you know, what makes somebody take action?

Mm-hmm. Reinvent themselves or, or decide that it's, it is worth figuring out what is my passion, what is my purpose, and then pursuing it. And I think oftentimes it's unfortunately a heart stopping moment. But I try to encourage, and I, I speak to, it doesn't have to be that, 

Brad Minus: right, it doesn't have to be that it's a pain or pleasure moment is, is basically what it is.

And we would like it to be a pleasure moment. Unfortunately, most motivations are a pain moment, not necessarily to your level. But a lot of it is either, you know, maybe something happened to someone, you know, a loved one or a friend or something. Yeah. And then, you know, go, and then of course there's always something that happened to you, but there's always, it's a pain plane or a pain or a pleasure moment.

You know, I've seen people that have gotten off the couch by seeing something on television that just resonated with them. Yeah. And they were like, I want to do that. And then they redo the research and then all of a sudden they started. That's a pleasure moment.

That's something that sparked desire. And made you, incinerate your limits. That's my tag. So I have a, my coaching company is called Inner Fire Endurance Sports, and then the tags are, you know, spark desire, so you can incinerate your limits.

Sig Muller: Nice. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. So it was just funny that that just kind of rolled out. That was good. And that's kind of, the way around it. And that's why I say go out and do something that's much bigger than yourself that you never thought you'd ever do in your life that you have some interest in.

All the research that you do, the things that you come across, it might not even be in that realm. Like I had mentioned, you decide that you wanna, climb Mount Everest. It's not necessarily it's gonna be mountain climbing or this or that, but you might be just following along something as you're researching and doing your training, listening to podcasts, whatever.

That's something else. Sparks. Yeah. You know, and when you have that sense of accomplishment of this big goal, now it's like, Hey, so in this case I just climbed Mount Everest. What can't I do? 

Sig Muller: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: What can't I do? There's nothing I can't do. And when you fall off that and then you find your purpose on top of that, you're gonna get there a lot faster.

That mindset, as you mentioned before, it is, it's a completely changed mindset that happened to me, after my first jump out of a plane. I was like, I jumped out of a plane, a perfectly good airplane at 30,000 feet and lived to tell about it. What can't I do? You know? Nice.

And then it was after my first Ironman, Hey, I did, you know, I did an Ironman. And now what can't I do? There is nothing that if I don't set my mind to it that I can't do. And that's why I have this message of do something bigger, even if it's not something that is, you know, you, that you're, you know, gonna make a life choice of, it's a year, two, three year journey that you get to, and once you accomplish it, you're gonna find something on the way that's gonna spark you or reiterate your passion that you might already be living,

Sig Muller: yeah, yeah. Or have lost along the way and need to come back to, it's funny you triggered a story with your skydiving. So I've never gone skydiving. I never will. That would be just mentally, I think beyond, my capacity. Never say never. I have gone, scuba diving over a thousand times all over the world.

Yeah. So when I was in the ICU and the doctor tells me, I'm gonna get my implantable cardio defibrillator. The Medtronic rep came into the room and he is talking to me about it. Remember I worked a little bit in defibrillation? I'm having a technical conversation with him. What's the delivered energy?

And I said, but I really only have one question that matters. Am I gonna be able to scuba dive after you put this in? He looked at me and he said, I don't know, let me check. So he goes off and checks and comes back later that afternoon and had to say the word contraindicated, I think about a hundred times.

His boss. And the wires are like, you have to say it's contraindicated, right? Because if it goes off underwater and you're diving, you're probably gonna die. So it's not recommended, you know, like anything, right? Contraindicated, don't do it. The big giant X, he said. But I did ask, and they said it's been tested up to a hundred feet deep from a pressure standpoint.

So you can scuba dive, just don't go below a hundred feet. I haven't gone yet. But it was great. And I joked with him. I said, all right then man, let's do it. Let's put it in me. The reality is it was going in me no matter what. 

Brad Minus: Absolutely. 

Sig Muller: That was kind of a fun moment. 

Brad Minus: So, that's your minimum depth. 'Cause anything after that, you have to stop at a hundred feet. So if you've gone under a hundred feet, as you surface, you have to stop at that a hundred feet level. For

five minutes. And then, from that point on, you can get to the surface. 

Sig Muller: It's a combination of depth and time. So if you're at 60 feet for too long, you still could have to decompress it 15 feet. When you get to a hundred feet, if you're there for just a few minutes, like one or two minutes, you're gonna have to decompress. But the good news for me was I've been maybe 110, 120 feet a few times because there was an awesome wreck that I wanted to dive on. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. 

Sig Muller: But, you know, 80 feet for 99% of the world, you don't need to go below 80 feet. Great. So, yeah.

Brad Minus: Yeah. Well, good. I'm glad you're gonna be able to do that. And I didn't know about that stuff, so I'm glad I was gonna be able to get educated on that. And even at 60 feet, you're still gonna have to come up and decompress. So, yeah, that's an educational appointment for me, and I'll take that.

That is amazing. So I really hope you get out there. I hope you find the time and you get back out there. You're in the land of a thousand Lakes. I don't know if you'd scuba dive in a lake, but, I know that you're up there in Minnesota, SIG it has been an amazing, an amazing conversation with you. If you're taking a look, we we'll have, be the world's best.com. We'll have that in the show notes. Are you on social media? You are on just, Facebook and Instagram. That's what I've got here.

Are you on any other LinkedIn? LinkedIn. 

Sig Muller: LinkedIn and LinkedIn is probably what I primarily use for my business most. So people can follow me there, connect with me there or on Facebook? Either one. 

Brad Minus: Excellent, excellent. 

Sig Muller: Yeah, my email's sig at be the world's best.com.

Pretty simple. 

Brad Minus: All right, so if you want to have the world's Best Coach, just email thig at the world's best.com. And then so for Be The World's Best, and you have just finished off your manuscript for Heart of the Matter? 

Sig Muller: No, I have a section in each chapter called Heart of the Matter, which then goes to the website.

Okay. The title of the book is called dying To Be The World's best. And the subtitle is, reignite Your Heart to Elevate Your Life. 

Brad Minus: Beautiful. 

Sig Muller: Yeah. So I tell some of the stories we've heard today, but, provide people with the tools and mindset and take them on a journey where at the end they have practical things they can take away and do in their lives.

And every chapter, to help be more joyful, be more grateful, be more productive, be the world's best version of themselves. 

Brad Minus: Absolutely. So like, be on the lookout for dying to be the world's best, by Sig Mueller. So keep watching Amazon that he's finished the manuscript. So, you know, somewhere in the next few months that will, that'll come out.

I'll make sure that if you're on my email list, I'll make sure that that goes out when it gets published. So be the world's best.com. That'll be in the show notes, the direct links to his socials, Facebook or LinkedIn. That will be in the show notes. And then his email that he just mentioned, sig at the, be the worlds best.com.

Sig, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate you and I appreciate what you're all about, and I'm gonna be really looking forward to your book.

Sig Muller: Well, thank you, Brad. You really make a difference. Thank you, 

Brad Minus: thank you, thank you very much. We'll see you in the next one.