We were lucky to catch up with Gail Gould Gould recently and have shared our conversation below.

Gail Gould, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

When I was growing up in Dallas, Texas, my dad would often tell me that I was going to need to work so I should find work that I loved to do. This stuck with me. My dad owned a couple Army Navy Surplus stores. What I took away from this was that he was his own boss and I thought I also wanted to be my “own boss.” I graduated college with a Theater degree, and I always loved performing but did not have the confidence to permanently move to LA or NYC. It took numerous jobs and a few years before I figured out what I wanted to do with my life.

Gail Gould, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

A few years after graduating college with a BA in Theater, I started a career as a group exercise instructor. This is how I satisfied my performance needs. I loved getting in front of people and demonstrating how to get in better physical shape. I worked at numerous fitness clubs, gyms, studios, Houston Ballet, personal training in wealthy people’s homes, had a 3-4-minute TV segment that aired 2 times per week called “Have a flexible day!”. This was a very fun decade in my life, but I was getting tired of being in a leotard every day and decided I wanted to work in corporate health promotion. I applied to graduate school at age 34 and graduated after 2 years with a Master of Education in Exercise Science. After graduating, I got married and decided that I wanted to try to be my “own boss.” I sat in my second story home office every day and cold called companies (back in the day when you could reach people on the phone) asking them if they were interested in wellness programs such as group exercise, tobacco cessation, stress management, weight loss, or CPR First Aid training. They all were interested in CPR First Aid training, and this is how I got started as a professional CPR instructor.
I was fortunate to be hired by some large Fortune 500 companies who are still my clients 35 years later! I am very proud that I am able to serve these companies for so many years.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

It is super important to me that students in my CPR AED First Aid classes feel more confident responding to a medical emergency after completing the training. I’ve had many people over the years tell me they never really understood how to help a victim of cardiac arrest until completing my training. This is music to my ears! I take teaching people how to save lives very seriously and try to make certain all students in my class know at the end how to help an unresponsive, non-breathing victim, how to help a victim who is choking or having a seizure, how to stop life threatening bleeding and more Why take a class if you do not know much more after taking the class than you did before the class? I think my dedication to this philosophy helped to build my reputation. My mission is two-fold: teach CPR to as many people as possible and for no parent to ever lose a child to choking.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

You have to be honest, reliable, very well versed in your area of expertise, and consistent in order to grow your clientele. And being tenacious is also very important! Always be on the lookout for new clients and innovative ways to find new clients. During the pandemic, business was a little slow, so I decided to try something new and created a digital
mini course called How to Help Your Choking Child. This is a digital course that empowers parents, grandparents, teachers, and caregivers with the knowledge to know exactly what to do if a child is choking.
This course helped me to reach into a new market to find clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cprandsafetylady.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecprandsafetylady/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecprandsafetylady?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gail-gould-8189a330/
• Other: Link to digital mini-course How to Help Your Choking Child
  https://www.cprandsafetylady.com/challenge-page/choking-mini-course