Meet Vince Pascua

We recently connected with Vince Pascua and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Vince , so excited to talk about all sorts of important topics with you today. The first one we want to jump into is about being the only one in the room – for some that’s being the only person of color or the only non-native English speaker or the only non-MBA, etc Can you talk to us about how you have managed to be successful even when you were the only one in the room that looked like you?

Walk your path with confidence. Be proud of who you are, what you do and the person you are becoming. When people ask me what I do, I tell them, “I’m a CPR Training Instructor!” I tell them as a statement because I want people to feel the pride I have in myself – I don’t sound like I’m just mentioning it to you; I’m telling you! I’ve always gone by the saying of “never judge a book by its cover.” It would be foolish to judge people by how they look. I have personally experienced that in the early stages of my career being in the medical field. Showing off tattoos and being in the medical field, that was still kind of taboo. I would get the disappointed look when I’d tell some of my patients that I have tattoos. Or they would ask me, “Why would you do that?” At the time, I was working at an ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist office and I would cover my right arm with a shooting sleeve because of my tattoos. I would see the same patients for their follow ups until one day, one of my patients asked me, “Vince, why do you cover only one arm?” I explained to them that I cover up my tattoos out of respect for others because I wouldn’t want to be judged or have my performance questioned. They replied, “This is your own artwork, why not show it off?” That was the pivotal moment for me – something clicked in my head. I was too focused on things that I never had control over. Experiencing this in my early career has helped me tremendously. I lead with confidence in myself and in my skillset. Relating this to my CPR training – I am able to speak on the process, but the quality in training speaks for itself.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

If we talk about how BLS Responders started, we’re going to go back to when I was a Medical Assistant Instructor. It is 2014, young Vince the instructor who goes by “Mr. P.” It was just easier so say “Mr. P” instead of people trying to pronounce my last name (Pascua). So part of the curriculum before our students finish their program is to get CPR certified. When it was time for my class to go for their CPR certification, I volunteered to sit and watch to see how the class was taught. During that class, I myself was very interested and engaged, probably more than my students. It sparked a new interest in me and I wanted to become a CPR Instructor as well. Don’t get me wrong, the instructor that taught the class did a great job, but as a young ambitious instructor, I believed that I can do it better. So I immediately spoke to my Director of Education and asked what I needed to do to become a CPR Instructor. I was sent for the instructor course, attended it and got certified. I remember that day I felt like I had a brand new superpower and I wanted to show the world. Let’s fast forward to present day – 10 years total as a CPR Training Instructor with 4 years as my side business. Anytime you want to start a business of some sort, the question that you should always ask yourself is, “How will I be different from the competition?” You really have to take time and think about what it is that people want and like. I thought of how it was to attend a CPR class as a student and how it was to teach a class as an instructor. My personal experiences with this is attending a class, the instructor is a lot more “seasoned” and about to probably retire soon, spoke very monotone, spent 4-6 hours in the class and by the time I left, I hardly remembered anything that was taught because I was trying so hard to stay awake. I didn’t want that for my students and I didn’t want to be that instructor. So I decided that I would be a mobile CPR Trainer because one thing that people want and like, is convenience. Being convenient takes away a lot of stress for us “9-5ers.” I get it, I can related, I know how it feels to work 9-5, get off work and take your kid to soccer practice, get home and figure out what to feed these kids, help with homework that we can barely understand, shower them, put them to bed, spend time with your spouse and then realize its late and you’re only going to get about 4 hours of sleep just to repeat the cycle tomorrow. So a little convenience goes a long way. So now I am going to give you a piece of the pie, I’ll share why this works for me. Being mobile helps especially if you have to bring your child/children somewhere for childcare. That alone alleviates extra expenses. One of my options is that I do house visits/trainings so it is more convenient and we’ll be in a more comfortable environment to maximize engagement and retention of the CPR training. Another option, which is most common, meeting at a park or a nice tourist location, which San Diego has many to offer. Why not enjoy what our city has to offer by being outdoors and walk away with being certified in CPR at the same time. Training at public parks helps when you have kids because we can have training next to the playground in case you don’t have anyone to watch them. So by now, you should have figured out that I do not do anything special. I am understanding of people’s busy lives, I am considerate of my clients’ child/children, not just my client, and I try to be very convenient and adaptable to sudden changes with scheduling. This is what sets me apart from my competition; being a problem solver, having a solution, but most importantly, genuinely caring for others. I am proud to be recognized as a positive role model for our local community members. I love when my name gets disbursed throughout the community and I receive a request for CPR training from a new business/organization/etc. When that happens, I typically hear, “I heard this is a fun CPR class to take” or “I hear that you’re a good CPR instructor.” This is the result of genuine care and passion training others. You wouldn’t fully understand until you actually sat through one of my trainings. When people think of CPR training, I want them to think of my business and myself because I am your local superhero. As far as something new that I’ll be launching, by summer this year, I will be launching a Train the Trainer course.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I would say being passionate of what you’re trying to do or become, adaptability when things don’t really go as planned, and being tenacious. Being tenacious is a great quality to have because it shows not just you, but people, that you are determined to reach your goal or dream. My advice for people who are in the early stages of their journey is, you have to accept the fact that the people who are supporting you and rooting for you are not always going to be the ones you expect. Try not to advertise what your plans are because not everyone needs to know. One last thing, not everyone can tag along where you are headed in life!

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I am always looking to collaborate with people, businesses, organizations in the community. It’s really simple, forget about if your company doesn’t require you to be CPR certified. As a human, everyone should be CPR certified. The vital questions are, what would you do if an emergency situation happened? Do you have the knowledge/training to try and save a life? How would you respond if your son/daughter/mother/father/aunt/uncle became unresponsive? If your baby starts choking, what do you do? Learning lifesaving skills is so important for everyone – we have to embrace being more confident to have a safer community. Anyone that is reading this article and feels inspired to collaborate with me, feel free to contact me at [email protected]. Let’s do the right thing and challenge the status quo.

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