INTERVIEW BEST-SELLING AUTHOR STEPHEN J. HOPSON

Mr. Hopson will be speaking at Deborah Poneman’s Yes to Success Seminar at the Radisson LA Airport Hotel, 6225 W. Century Blvd., Los Angeles, CA on Saturday, March 19, 2011 at 7 pm in the Century Room.  On March 17, 2011 Obstacle Illusions was officially released nationally on Amazon and quickly rose through the ranks debuting at #4 in Happiness, #13 in Self Help and #355 overall (out of 8 million titles).

To contact Stephen for an in-person interview:

Email: sjhopson@yahoo.com

Cell Phone: 330-338-4479 (text messages only)

Born profoundly deaf, Stephen J. Hopson didn’t let that stand in the way of fulfilling his dreams. His mother taught him to speak at home and sent him to public school. He attended college and landed his first job on Wall Street at a major New York bank. Ten years later, he left this secure position to further his career as an award-winning stockbroker.

When he was five, Stephen told his parents he would become a pilot and was dismissed as being foolish, but as an adult made aviation history by becoming the world’s first deaf instrument-rated pilot in 2006.

Stephen credits his fifth grade teacher for transforming his young life, which gave him the confidence to do anything he set his mind to. One of the stories in his bestselling book Obstacle Illusions includes the three words uttered by this teacher that forever changed his life as a skinny, bucktoothed kid who wore monstrous hearing aids, and although appeared happy-go-lucky on the outside, had low self-esteem because he was having a very difficult time in school.

Stephen is a risk-taker. A spiritual revelation one day made him realize that his real purpose and passion was to become a global transformational speaker and author. In the late 1990′s, he left his six-figure Wall Street career, learned how to fly and began a new journey as a speaker and author. His stories began making their appearance in bestselling books including Chicken Soup for the College Soul and others. In 2009 he decided to go back to school and graduated from Maharishi University of Management with honors with a Masters in Vedic Science (study of consciousness). Throughout all of this, he continued writing his life story.

Because he wanted to inspire others to overcome their shortcomings, usually imaginary, the way Stephen had experienced his life; he turned his life’s journey into a national bestselling book Obstacle Illusions: Transforming Adversity into Success. Through his writings and keynote speeches, Stephen is inspiring thousands of people worldwide to believe in themselves and achieve the impossible.

Obstacle Illusions contains 25 stories – the highs, the lows and the most embarrassing moments – from his life and the lessons he learned from them. Each chapter ends with exercises that ask readers to reflect on their own lives and see beyond their so-called obstacles. His publisher says this is the greatest self-help book ever. “I absolutely recommend it to anyone needing inspiration to get back in the game and win big time!” Click here to read a sample chapter: Harry the Arrogant Bank Boss.

On the national release day of March 17, 2011 Obstacle Illusions shot through the ranks and became #4 in the Happiness and #13 in the Self-Help categories. On that day, Stephen was featured in the Huffington Post, which was reported to have had one of the highest volume of traffic: http://is.gd/LLUCuq

To see a short video trailer for the book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfeVDZrZyzY

Stephen has been featured in a cover story for Careers and the Disabled, and interviewed on CNN, Detroit Fox 2 News and Buffalo News 4, to name a few. He has been profiled in numerous newspapers including The New York Times, The Detroit Free Press and has appeared on the national Leeza talk show (Paramount), several cable television programs and countless radio shows including The Mitch Albom Show (author of best-selling “Tuesdays with Morrie”).

Obstacle Illusions is available from 1st World Publishing, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and can also be ordered from Stephen’s website.

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TALKING POINTS TO INTERVIEW STEPHEN HOPSON ON OBSTACLE ILLUSIONS

1. How did you come to write this book, Obstacle Illusions, and what do you mean by obstacles being illusions?

2. You were born profoundly deaf – how did you learn to speak so well?

3. Early in the book you talk about how difficult it was being deaf and that you had a hard time dealing with it. Who or what helped you overcome this challenge?

4. In your book you write about an experience that happened after you were transferred into a department at major Wall Street bank that was run by an arrogant boss who ruled with an iron fist. You say he not only didn’t know what to make of you, but also didn’t treat you very well. Yet a year later, he did the unimaginable that sent heavy shock waves throughout the entire division where you worked. What happened?

5. You were an award-winning stockbroker in the early 90’s. Tell us how you got hired and how you managed to succeed in the rough and tumble world of Wall Street.

6. What made you decide to leave your six-figure career as a stockbroker? At that time you had no other job prospects. What where you thinking?

7. It says on the back cover of the book that you became the world’s first deaf instrument-rated pilot in 2006. First of all, how can deaf pilots fly? And what is an instrument rating?

8. Your book also has exercises at the end of each chapter to help readers reflect in incidents in their own lives and help them look at them from another perspective. Can you give us another example of a lesson you learned?

9. What do you hope people will gain from reading your book?