We were lucky to catch up with Gail Gould recently and have shared our conversation below.
Gail, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
It took me a while but I found my purpose later in life. I grew up in the 1960s watching The Wizard of Oz and Judy Garland and wanted to be just like Judy! I dabbled in theater and modeling and went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Theater/Dance from the University of Texas at Austin. After graduating, I was not brave enough to move to Los Angeles or New York so I met my performance needs by becoming a group exercise instructor. I loved this time period in my life as I felt like I was helping people as well as having a lot of fun! After 10 years of teaching group exercise, I went back to graduate school at age 34 to earn a degree in Exercise Science/Health Promotion. My goal was to do Corporate Fitness. After graduating, I began reaching out to Fortune 500 companies and asking if they were interested in wellness programs such as tobacco cessation, weight management, reducing your risk of heart disease, stress management, or CPR First Aid. The main program they were interested in was CPR First Aid. This was 1990 and companies were just getting started putting together emergency response training programs. This is where I got started as a professional CPR First Aid instructor. During this time period, I had just gotten married at age 36 and was enjoying being married as well as my career. I waited a few years to try and get pregnant and it was not happening for me. After about 2 years, we decided that it was too stressful to continue to try and have a baby. At around age 41, I decided that I did not want to go through life without the experience of loving and raising a child so we decided to adopt. It took us 8 very long years to find our baby. Even though it was a long wait, I can unequivocally say it was worth all those years for the baby that is now our 19-year-old son. This has been the best 19 years of my life. I loved teaching CPR First Aid before my son was born but now I had a real purpose while teaching: preventing childhood emergencies! I waited so long for my baby and I was not about to let anything harm him as best as I could. Preventing childhood emergencies became my new purpose. I see so many parents unintentionally doing things that can harm their young children such as feeding them food they can choke on, and putting them on the front handlebars of their bikes while riding around the neighborhood, or not watching their kids while they are swimming. I feel like my purpose is to educate new parents about things they can do to protect their most important possession. This is how I found my purpose.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I have been a professional CPR instructor for 32 years and trained 10k people to save lives. My mission is two-fold: to CPR train as many people as possible as you never know when you might need to use it and for no parent to ever lose a child from choking. I love my work as I feel like I am providing people with really important information and it is a lot of fun to meet so many new people each week! I created my digital course How to Help Your Choking Child after meeting a loving mom who lost her child to choking. How to Help Your Choking Child is meant to empower parents, grandparents, teachers, and caregivers with the knowledge to know exactly what to do if their child is choking. All parents and caregivers should know what to do if a child is choking. I have had the recent privilege of being interviewed by a couple of local news stations on how to perform CPR and use an AED. I love these opportunities to get my message out there!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Be tenacious. Being tenacious has been such an important part of my journey. For some of us, being a late bloomer is just part of how it happens. 2. Always be honest and have integrity. Honesty is a super important trait! Without honesty, you won’t go very far. Integrity is what you do while no one is watching.
3. Have confidence in yourself. I grew up with dyslexia. Back in the 1960s, no one really talked about learning differences very much. It was not until I was 36 years old and in graduate school that I was able to openly talk about my dyslexia due to a favorite professor who talked about her dyslexia. I thought if my professor who has a doctorate can talk about her dyslexia, I can also admit to having it.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
The most impactful thing my parents did for me was to remind me I was going to need work as an adult and to find work I loved to do. This stuck with me. Out of college, I took a few jobs that I did not love. Most of us have to initially take jobs that suck. I kept striving to find work that I love and even though it took a little while, I found it. If you are enjoying what are you doing each day, it makes life so much more fun.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cprandsafetylady.com
www.houstoncpr.com - Instagram: @thecprandsafetylady
- Facebook: HoustonCPR/FITCORE
- Linkedin: cprandsafetylady Gail Gould
Image Credits
Mark Mulligan
