Interview Questions

Ice Cream in Finland
Ice Cream in Finland

From the recent archives:

1. Tell us about yourself (provide your name, job, background and any other information you feel is important). What’s your dream and how are you working towards it?

Hello everyone, jeff noel, professional speaker here. I give speeches to change the world, never giving the same speech twice. My boss calls me audacious.

I’m aggressively unfancy, a professional antagonist, and it brings considerable satisfaction to make people uncomfortable through compelling insights.

But more than anything, I believe if your goal isn’t impossible, you’re not reaching high enough.

My goal in life is to become the kind of person my Dog thinks I am.

2. Describe a “gray” (lost, unfulfilled, challenging) time in your life. How did it stand between you and your dreams? How did you overcome it?

The day that changed my life was the day that I realized my greatest desire was to become a Father.  This was also the same day my wife and I realized it probably wasn’t going to happen.

It was the peak on a mid life crisis.  “How did I get here. And what am I supposed to do now?”

Couple this with an unfulfilled desire to be the captain of my own ship ( a business owner), a series of epiphanies were revealed.

First, surrender.  I surrendered my fate to God.  Not long thereafter, Cheryl got pregnant.

Second, I incorporated a business, Mid Life Celebration, turning a crisis into an opportunity.

3. What fears have you faced as you chase your dreams?

Of course, the classic fear of failure.  Plus the underrated and overlooked fear of success.

The fear of being all talk.

4. What inspires you to keep pushing forward when the going gets tough?

Everything.  But mostly the simple fact that this is not for me, it’s for our son.

5. If you could give one piece of advice to someone else who is struggling to move beyond the gray and follow a dream, what would it be?

Do it for someone else.  Be prepared to work harder than you ever have. Be prepared to commit to it for a lifetime.  Or as Tiger Woods told me last year, “Out work ’em.”

(Don’t forget to mention any blogs, web sites, books, articles, etc. that you’d like to plug.)

Erika, if visitors to your site would like to read any of the crazy things I say, they may start at Mid Life Celebration Links to the other four blogs can be found there.

By jeff noel

Retired Disney Institute Keynote Speaker and Prolific Blogger. Five daily, differently-themed personal blogs (about life's 5 big choices) on five interconnected sites.