We were lucky to catch up with Morgan Mohler recently and have shared our conversation below.

Morgan, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

In 2019, I was in the midst of my Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry at Viterbo University in La Crosse, WI. I had just left the softball team, and I was trying to figure out what my next big adventure was going to be. I looked into on-campus clubs, events, and music groups on campus, but then I looked up. In front of me, the theater billboard was displaying the final competition for Miss La Crosse/Oktoberfest as part of the Miss America Organization.

I was so disappointed that I had missed the competition, but I (naturally) pulled up Instagram and viewed their entire page. I learned about the history of the organization, what the Miss America Organization provided for women, and who had won the title that night. Much to my surprise, a student on my own campus had earned the title. I immediately thought, oh my goodness, this could be me someday. With excitement, I gathered some ideas and reached out to this girl to chat about competing.

As timely as my revelation to pageants was… I was told to wait as COVID-19 made its way around the world. By the time I could compete again in 2021, I was just about to transition out of college into my career. Still holding this dream close to my heart, I decided to pursue a title in Minnesota, and here is where I have truly fallen in love with the Miss America Opportunity. On January 14th, 2023, I earned my first title of Miss St. Croix Valley 2023.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Part of being involved in the Miss America Opportunity means that I’ve had to create and pursue a community service initiative to share with my audience. At the beginning of this journey (2019), I had been through the thick of college having dealt with homesickness, anxiety, family losses, failures, and injuries. Luckily, I had enough fight left in me (and a great community behind me) to stand back up after being knocked down over and over and over again. I found a way through the pain and suffering I was enduring to find happiness and success again. I knew my community service initiative would have to frame the steps I had taken to find success despite adversity: how to Live L.I.F.E. Limitlessly.

Since starting this initiative, I have built partnerships with brands that carry the same mission of providing youth with skills they will inevitably need to use when adversity strikes – Big Brothers Big Sisters, Limitless Ambitions, YMCA Leadership Academy, Girls C.A.N. Mentoring, etc. Alongside these groups, I have been able to reach more kids while providing my Limitless Workshop message and continuing education materials in which I walk through what L.I.F.E. means: Learn. Imagine. Focus. Earn.

More in depth,
(L) When we are honest about our starting capacity, we learn to strengthen our mindsets and overcome limiting beliefs. We do this by filtering out negative self-talk. (I) While maintaining this neutral headspace, we can imagine better possibilities for the future and declare our dreams. (F) Then we focus on crafting a goal roadmap by writing out SMART details. (E) All four steps are imperative to achieve our goals, but only 3% of people take action to earn success.

In addition to these partnerships and in-person events, I have taken extra steps. Online, I provide worksheets for anyone to use describing the L.I.F.E. framework in a way that anyone can take immediate action toward goal-setting. I’ve also started a podcast called “How to Live your L.I.F.E. Limitless” to be a part of people’s drives, walks, journeys. In the episodes, I spend time talking about what Living L.I.F.E. Limitless can look like while featuring fantastic women who have experienced barely surviving to thriving.

All of these L.I.F.E. tools have been designed to help others dive into their abilities, rewire their thoughts, brainstorm big ideas, hone in on their goals, and earn success.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When it comes to pageantry or any competition setting where you are putting your appearance, personality, everything about you out there to be judged, you have to remember that you’re not everyone’s cup of tea (period). You can do everything perfectly – your talent, hair, wardrobe, interview, walk, everything – and someone will give an opinion that someone else was better. And there is nothing you can do about it besides realize that you have done your best. It took me 8 competitions to win my first local title. After each competition, I would sit down with anyone willing to give me feedback. I would take all of their advice and change as much as I could about my talent, hair, wardrobe, interview, walk, everything. I would go into the next competition convinced I had the right formula put together to win, but I wouldn’t. Eventually, I realized that I didn’t even like my talent, hair, wardrobe, interview, walk, anything. I had changed myself so much to fit what I thought the mold was rather than putting together my best effort.
At the 8th competition, and I had decided my final effort, I walked out of every phase of the competition with complete tranquility knowing that I had presented what I wanted to my best ability.
Through this time of rejection and try-try-try again, I learned that if I wanted to hear the feedback and opinions of others, I needed to filter through it before accepting any of it.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

I don’t think many people know how much is done behind the scenes of preparing for a competition of this magnitude. I have spent countless hours perfecting my walk, interview skills, talent – a science demonstration, etc. Those aspects of competition and more required time, energy, and dedication. However, the most valuable thing that set me apart from others was setting a goal I knew I could obtain. (I say it that way because pageants are so subjective – any girl can win on any day. If you did the same competition the next week, someone else could win. It is entirely up to a panel of judges and how they are feeling, thinking, understanding, reacting in those moments that they see you.) I set a goal I knew I could obtain – have no regrets by doing my absolute best.
My biggest fear going into the state competition was leaving with the feeling of “I should have prepared more”.
So, what did I do? I prepared so I couldn’t fail.
I made sure that I could walk on any surface in my shoes and outfits. I spent countless hours preparing the most important topics to cover in my interview and how to best say what I wanted to. I practiced my talent while my family walked around trying to distract me until I was unshakeable. I processed through every scenario I could imagine to make sure that I was beyond prepared; therefore, I was able to achieve my goal of leaving with no regrets and performing on finals night as a Top 12 competitor.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://morganmohler.com/
• Instagram: @missmorganmohler

Image Credits
Kenny Fukuda – HiroPix