- Cal is a corporate consultant on interviewing and storytelling.
- He is the renowned author of Esquire Magazine’s “What I’ve Learned” column.
- He shows how changing your questions can change your life.
Cal Fussman is a New York Times bestselling author, world-renowned interviewer, keynote speaker and corporate storytelling consultant.
His keynotes and interactive workshops are derived from decades of interviewing hundreds of the world’s most extraordinary people for Esquire Magazine’s What I’ve Learned column. He inspires organizations to take a new look at their business through storytelling, communication and the fundamental idea that Changing your Questions can Change Your Life.
Over the past year, Cal has delivered keynotes at dozens of companies, including General Motors, Pixar, Twitter, Apple Music, Snapchat, Samsung, Facebook, Turner Broadcasting, Vans, Lululemon; colleges like UCLA and Georgetown; and at conferences as far as South Africa. After Cal spoke at Facebook, Chris Sanders in Global Marketing Solutions said: “We literally have people using the term, ‘Cal Question.’ He has become a part of our culture.”
As a writer for Esquire, GQ, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and The Washington Post Sunday Magazine over the years, Cal has transformed oral history into an art form, conducting probing interviews with the icons who’ve shaped the last half-century of world history, including: Mikhail Gorbachev, Jeff Bezos, Jimmy Carter, Serena Williams, Ted Kennedy, Quincy Jones, Jack Welch, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Muhammad Ali, and hundreds of others. The Austin Chronicle has described Fussman’s interviewing skills as “peerless.”
Born in Brooklyn, Fussman spent ten straight years traveling the world, swimming over 18-foot tiger sharks, rolling around with mountain gorillas in Rwanda, and searching for gold in the Amazon. He boxed against then-undefeated world champion Julio Cesar Chavez, won a James Beard award and served as sommelier atop of the World Trade Center.
He now lives with his wife—whom he met while on his quest to discover the world’s most beautiful beach—and his three children in Los Angeles, where he spends every morning eating breakfast with Larry King.
Using anecdotes from his greatest interviews, Cal speaks about how changing your questions in an interview will allow you to understand how that person will affect your company before even hiring them.