We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gail Gould. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gail below.
Gail , appreciate you joining us today. How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?
I began teaching CPR First Aid right after I received my master’s degree in Exercise Science/Health Promotion. My career prior to graduate school was being a group exercise instructor/personal trainer. I was 36 years old when decided to go back to school since I was tired of being in a leotard every day and I wanted to work in corporate wellness. Upon graduating, I completed CPR instructor training and began look for work in corporate wellness. My dream was to work for myself, and I had just gotten married, so this was a good time to establish my own business. I remember sitting at my desk in my home office and cold calling companies. This was 35 years ago and back in the day when you could actually get someone on the phone instead of emailing! I would call and ask for Human Resources or Health Safety and ask if they were interested in any wellness classes such as stress management, healthy eating, tobacco cessation, how to start an exercise program, or CPR First Aid. The class people were most interested in was CPR First Aid. There would be days when I would call 30-40 companies and would only have one company who was interested. Cold calling can be grueling! One of the large companies who said they were interested is still my client today!
Gail , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My father used to tell me that I would need to work and to find work that I loved doing. This is such good advice! So, it has always been important to me to that I find work I love to do. In my journey to find work that I loved doing, I had a lot of jobs that were not a good match and that motivated me to keep searching for work that I loved to do.
When I began teaching people to save lives, I realized that is very important work as we all should know how to save a life. It took me several years to find a work that I loved to do! I feel like what sets me apart from others is that I am very professional, knowledgeable, tenacious, and easy to communicate with. I am so proud that I have clients who I have been teaching to save lives for over 30 years!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
One word to describe me is tenacious. I feel like I am a little bit of a late bloomer. There has been time when my CPR training business was slow. I found work as a health coach and/or trainer so I could supplement my CPR training income. I never gave up. I love this work and did not want to give it up, so I kept going knowing that business would pick up which it did. If you love what you do, do not give up.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I had to pivot when the pandemic hit. Like everyone else, I was struggling to keep my business alive, so I began teaching ZOOM CPR classes. There were clients like medical and dental professionals, preschool teachers who by law had to have a current CPR card. So, this is the time when virtual CPR AED First Aid training evolved. I still teach around 1 virtual CPR class per month.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cprandsafetylady/com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecprandsafetylady/?hl=en
- Facebook: thecprandsafetylady
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gail-gould-8189a330/
