Welcome to the #piratebroadcast: 

Russ Johns 0:00
Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings where you can expand your connections, your community. Where #Kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. And let's get this party started.

It's a great day and we have the #PirateBroadcast. You interesting people talking about interesting things. I just want to thank you, for everyone that joins in the #PirateBroadcast and actually has a moment of their day taken out and join in the conversation, drop some comments in the messages. I know it's, it's challenging for all of us right now. And I just I just want to thank you and I send out kind thoughts and just applaud the efforts of everyone around us that are doing work on it. Today, we have Caren Cooper, how are you, Caren?

Caren Cooper 1:04
I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Thank you, hanging in there.

Russ Johns 1:08
It's been an interesting challenging time. You're safe and sane and healthy and everything else is going well for you?

Caren Cooper 1:19
Sane could be relative starting off, no i'm just kidding! Thankfully, yes, I'm healthy. My kids are healthy. My family is healthy. We are safe. We're in Staten Island, New York, so almost sort of the epicenter of all the craziness. Yeah, it's certainly been, you know, interesting. My daughter is a freshman in college, but she's not at college anymore. My son's in eighth grade. He's missing out on some senior activities, which I know, in the grand scheme of things it isn't that. He should be enjoying things and he's not necessarily so yeah, it's been interesting.

Russ Johns 2:00
Yeah, well we're all going through this together and hopefully that there'll be some shared experiences that we can talk about in history, right?

Caren Cooper 2:10
Yes! Yes!

Russ Johns 2:11
As we get through this and pass this. I really think it's the, we're talking a lot about resiliency, adapt and go through this. I think it's important for us to understand some of the basics of what that looks like. You have had history in your career, and your work experiences being a data analyst and looking at numbers and things like that. I want to talk a little bit about that. More than that, I want to talk about how you got to where you are today in terms of LinkedIn in your journey and what you're doing now and what you're focusing your attention on to stay safe and sane

Caren Cooper 3:00
Okay. I'm good with all that. I keep it real. That's just how I am. I keep it real.

Russ Johns 3:12
You're a New Yorker, right?

Caren Cooper 3:14
Yeah, Brooklyn, New York. Born and bred. I live in Staten Island, like I said. It's sort of in the blood, if you will. We're resilient. We kind of, we get knocked down, we get back up again. I always quote that song, but it's really very true. In life in general, I've done different variations. I've been in advertising for quite some time and different variations of advertising. I think being in the advertising industry, you have to be a little bit off. I don't mean that in a bad way, at all because like nurses and teachers. I think it takes a special kind of person to do, what they do, whatever it is that they may, do. You know what I mean? I've had different incarnations of my career. Different chapters have closed different chapters of open, and I've had to adapt, if you will, to them.

Russ Johns 4:12
Yes. Yes. There are a lot of people right now that are adapting they are. A lot of people are out of work right now. Restaurants are closed down, facilities are closed down, there's a lot of things that are taking place. Rather than panic about it. I know a lot of people are looking at acquiring new skills.

Caren Cooper 4:39
Yeah.

Russ Johns 4:39
Looking at new opportunities and making adjustments in their life is that something that you've gone through? You've had to go through and are still continuing to go through?

Caren Cooper 4:49
I'm still continuing to go through it actually, to be honest with you. I actually talked about this because for four and a half years I've done a side health wellness business, and I'm not like trying to throw it in people's faces or anything now or anything like that. I always talked about when I talked about it, like having a plan B and stuff like that. Now like the world is ended. There's 6 million I read this morning, it's about 6 million that have filed for unemployment. We're all going through this together. I think that's partly why we can kind of keep the faith even if you haven't put in the work with personal development, knowing that you're not alone in this, I think is very important. Is it great, that 6 million to file for unemployment? No, but think about it this way. You're not alone. We're all trying to figure something out. So why not use this time to say and I even posted about this today about disconnecting? Use this time to be like, Okay, what is it that I really want to do? Yeah, what is it that I really want to be who do I really want to surround myself with? I hate to use the word because I always think of the friends episode, but pivot. You know what I mean? It's like how do I want to pivot because I think a lot of us are, We're kind of going through life doing something that we thought we should be doing. You know what I mean? I know it's a pandemic. I don't want to get the whole you're living a Pollyanna world, like my daughter says, because I understand what's going on the world. It's not that I don't. I also think it's the universe almost saying, or however you want to say, like, press pause. We're given this opportunity, and we all have 24 hours in the day, what exactly are we going to do with it? Really?

Russ Johns 6:27
How do we want to spend our time? There's a lot in fact, I was just talking about this yesterday, and the fact that sometimes our self awareness is so clouded because we are doing things that we think we should be doing, when in reality, it's not bringing us joy. It's not bringing us happiness. It's not bringing us anything. Sometimes it's not even bringing us a living.

Caren Cooper 6:54
Right, exactly.

Russ Johns 6:56
We have to have this, like you said, put it on pause. Take a moment and actually reflect on what it is we really need to do for ourselves and our families and our people and friends around us.

Caren Cooper 7:11
Right.

Russ Johns 7:13
You had conversations with your family around this?

I have!

What are some exercises or thoughts that you've gone through that could be beneficial for the

Caren Cooper 7:23
I actually asked my husband because my husband actually was affected by this, and I'm like, Well, what do you want to be when you grow up? Even though he's 50, I'm giving away his age, but okay.

Russ Johns 7:34
Yeah.

Caren Cooper 7:34
he's like, well a job is a job. I'm like, Well, no, that's not necessarily true. I'm like write pros and cons, like write things that you like. I was like, write down things that you like to do. I read a lot. I do a lot of personal development, podcasts, motivational videos, inspirational videos, stuff like that. A teammate of mine, actually, every day at 10am. She does a gratitude call. It's open to like, everybody. Not just people in the health and wellness business that we do. It's amazing like I've been going on the call every morning, it's obviously not today, but normally. She just posted videos by Les Brown and different Inky Jones. I think his last name is Johnson, and all these other kind of things. We just kind of talk about what we've gotten out of those videos. She'll post funny parries and things like that. Those are the things that I've been doing. I also say focus on the good, like, I actually created a Facebook group called no Corona for you. I was tired of scrolling through all the doom and gloom on Facebook, and people have commented and said to me how they were enjoying my content. So I was like let's have a place of escape. Because people need to laugh. People need to still enjoy life even though I know people are affected less than I was, I know people have who had it and I know people have passed from it. It's not as though I'm not personally affected by this in a way but at the same time, You can't focus on the doom and gloom If at all, you just can't and that's part of the things that I tell my kids and my kids have been, I've been learning from them. I mean, to be honest with you, I mean, my son's been playing fortnight, and I don't monitor screen time, that's another thing I've been doing is just sort of surrendering and letting it be. He's at least communicating with his friends in some way. Right? He's still getting enjoyment of being 14 and doing something he enjoys and being with his friends, and my daughter's sorority has been doing zoom calls. So all of that combined, is how we sort of attempted to stay sane in all this.

Russ Johns 9:37
Especially companies and I think all of us are evolving, to adjust and make adjustments in our lives around zoom, around doing live broadcasts, doing Facebook Lives and communicating in a different way. We need to put a pause on listening to the news as much as I do. The doom and the gloom and listen to the train wreck and the sky is falling kind of activity because it doesn't help us. It doesn't add value to what we're doing. It doesn't add in enhance our ability to learn a skill or stay positive and really reach out and make connections. It's really something that we have to focus our time and attention on and stay positive.

Caren Cooper 10:35
Right!

Russ Johns 10:40
Like your daughter in college and zoom, that's not necessarily how this thing started out. It's like, okay, I don't know where it's gonna end and I don't know how long it's gonna last.

Caren Cooper 10:54
Right.

Russ Johns 10:56
However, I love what you said to your husband. What do you want to be when you grow up? I have to say your kids are probably doing the same thing. Well, what do I want to do? How do I want to help?

Caren Cooper 11:08
Yeah, I've had the conversations with my son, he started in high school in the fall. He applied to two high schools, one of which we rezone for one of which my daughter went to actually. We actually got into the one my daughter went to, and I was like, Well, what do you want to do? It wasn't about me. It's about him making the decision of what he wants and why. A friend of mine was like, let's write pros and cons that I actually use that like writing pros and cons. They think that's perfect for anything at this point. You're writing the pros and cons and you see how many pros you have, how many cons you have, and things like that. Even the other day I posted about just, we all come up with different ways to be scrappy, and do different things and figure out different ways to do things. I honestly think as crazy as it sounds, we'll come back to this even better. You know what, you never had time to do something for whatever reason. Now all you have is time, you know what I mean? I get that people are working, I understand people are working still at home and things like that. There's no community. A lot of us are working from home. So that time that you would be using commuting. It's wonderful to sleep in, but why not still use that time for something else? Why not?

Russ Johns 12:26
Yeah!

Caren Cooper 12:27
Why not? I mean, really, why not?

Russ Johns 12:30
Yeah, why not? Why not? For myself, I've been working remotely on law for last 10 years in my life inherently because I'm a caregiver and I help my folks here, my sister and I work together and we have a business and we do media and broadcasting and all of these things our life has. In fact, I've been busier now than ever. Before, I had the opposite challenge, I have to make sure that I take breaks and, and slow down and things like that. It seems kind of odd because we don't go out because we can't go the movies, can't just go to the grocery stores or planned events. Now on and so our life has changed, and we're still busy. I'm still thinking, Man, I love the opportunity to learn something new. In fact, I'm on a course right now to improve my photography skills. Learn how to is. I want to take pictures of my folks and collect some memories and things like that. it's just some of those things that you think about. Take advantage of these. Take advantage of this time take advantage of the the moment to learn something to work skill that you are looking to accomplish here.

Caren Cooper 14:03
I'm actually looking to, oddly, right now, my social media game, to be honest with you.

Russ Johns 14:14
That's a thing?

Caren Cooper 14:15
Well, you know how to really, social media is part of it. I'm really trying to be a better person, as I know that sounds slightly ridiculous but honestly, I'm just trying to really be beautiful. Just be a better human and stuff like that like Excel and stuff like that. That's something that I get enjoyment of, so I was like, Okay, what do I like to do? I like helping people. I like networking with people. I like talking with people. These are things that I like to do. How do I optimize my social media to do that? What I mean use it for the greater good. That's what I've been doing stuff like that. There's so many people offering you know, free classes and things like that now, because Have it. I've been networking a lot more and just talking to people and trying to help people in their businesses and stuff like that, just collaborate, which I've always been about, but I've been doing a lot more of that. I joined Todd Falcone, he's a big network marketing guru. I joined his team, which starts next week to better my health and wellness business also. So all of those things are things. Rachel Hollis is doing something not in the next 90 day challenge the calling at the house company. It's just about finding joy, and different perspective. Every week they have sort of a challenge going on, of finding joy in one week, your perspective and another week, and just pivoting, how you look at things and how you perceive things and things like that. Those are all the things that I've been doing, to better me.

Russ Johns 15:54
Self improvement.

Caren Cooper 15:57
Yeah.

Russ Johns 15:57
I don't think you can ever stop self improvement. I'm a lifelong learner. I've always been a lifelong learner and I love the opportunity to see things from another perspective. That's the whole point of the pirate broadcast is, I want to talk to interesting people doing interesting things. You reached out to me and you said we started online conversation, this is the first time we saw each other. The whole point is that I'm open to the opportunity to have these conversations and I think it enhances and expands the way we think about things and I just love having these conversations. Social media is a thing and I make light of it because I've been in social media for so long and it's like, that's the thing? Like, yeah, this internet might catch on.

Caren Cooper 16:51
Right! Exactly. Exactly. I've toyed with Tick Tock because my kids are like obsessed with it. I'm like, I should maybe try it. Just If nothing else did like torture them, if nothing else.

Russ Johns 17:06
So I want to give a shout out to some of the people in the room Wendy. Hello, pirates! These are all wonderful supportive individuals that are here. Maureen, thank you so much. Hi Caren!

Caren Cooper 17:20
Hello!

Russ Johns 17:20
She says accepting our new reality. Vicki O'Neill. Good morning. How are you? It's wonderful to have you as always being flexible and looking for ways to celebrate small things. I love that Wendy thank you for sharing that. Laurie Knutson. Good morning. And Karen. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to have a meeting but I wanted to say hi, Angie's. I know she's working from home Sherry lolly. Good morning, Karen and Russ. And if you're not connected with Karen, you need to get that corrected here quickly.

Caren Cooper 17:58
Yeah you do!

Russ Johns 17:59
David Good morning. How are you? I hope you're well. Arcot. Good evening. I kno it's the end of your day. Thank you for joining us before you take off. Gabriel Good morning fellow pirates. Yes. I love to do it. Uh, David member says I have started my normal routine so I don't get too much. Yeah, so you don't get pressed in. Please, I know that depression is a real thing and I've encouraged so many of you to stay in contact and reach out Topis. Good morning. Lindy Chapman Hey, Caren Cooper. As part of the pirate broadcasting, part of the stream, some of the things we have to do is it's community we can actually stay up there. So we can actually, here's Gabriel. Good morning Caren!

Caren Cooper 19:06
Good morning Gabriel!

Russ Johns 19:06
Do you know, Gabriel, Karen?

Caren Cooper 19:08
Actually I know of him. We've never actually spoken.

Russ Johns 19:11
Okay. He's a great one. No notification on LinkedIn. Arcot! I know that LinkedIn is challenged. Let's do it live on Facebook, not on LinkedIn. Dang. So thank you for being here. I just wanted to give a shout out to everybody that's joining in right now and I know it'll evolve. If you're watching the replay, just step on the replay and just watch it and you can always watch it at russjohns.com and subscribe to the YouTube channel, the podcast and all the social channels that you can. I love growing the community and I love supporting each other and helping those that are out there. This time in history. Karen, is there any epiphany? Is there anything that has really kind of stopped you and made you think about? Wow, I hadn't thought of that before, as you're going through this social media evolution and discovering how to make connections and having conversations?

Caren Cooper 20:23
Yeah, there have been a few, but one of them was I did a training two days ago, the days or melding, it's like bad, but two days ago, I did a trading and one of the people were saying just about how, and I've always sort of, like I said, I've always sort of been there for people listening to people, but he's like, people want to hear that you understand what they're going through. That was like, a huge, like, aha moment for me. Then that was one of them because it's like it's a true for all of us who have businesses and are trying to sell something or whatever it may be. We sort of sometimes come from the place of, you should get this because, or this is the problem I'm solving or something like that, you know what I'm saying? I was like when he said that I was like, interesting, I do try to relate to people and stuff like that, but I don't think I've been as good as I could have been doing it. That was a huge, huge moment for me. I hear what you're going through. I've been there. I understand. Almost putting yourself out there. I mean, I keep it real and stuff like that normally, but I was like, I think to be a little bit more open and honest, is not gonna hurt anybody. That was a huge one for me. Then the other one for me. I talked about that title, how call, she played a Simon Sinek video who I loved him. He was just talking about how it's an infinite game. In business, people talk about being number one, but what is really number one and who said, like who did that's the title of a book by the way, I decided who said you're only number one, right? And it was like, he's like, it's a game. It's like, we want to be better than ourselves. You know what I'm saying? It's like, he's like, if there's no finite point that you get to that you say, Okay, now I'm done. Yeah. And I was like, wait a minute.

Russ Johns 22:14
Be your own number one.

Caren Cooper 22:14
Right! He's like, it's a game. We want to be better than ourselves. You know what I'm saying? He's like, if there's no finite point that you get to that you say, Okay, now I'm done.

Russ Johns 22:17
Yeah.

Caren Cooper 22:17
I was like, wait a minute.

Russ Johns 22:18
I just improved the person I was yesterday.

Caren Cooper 22:20
Exactly. You always think of it, but when somebody else says it, that's why I liked the whole self improvement, listening to podcasts and even engaging on LinkedIn and whatever. Like, I love that because I love the different perspectives, because, listen, I don't pretend to know it all. I tell my kid and I even say that sounds to my kids all the time, because they're 18 and 14. So of course, they know everything. They don't need to learn anything else. I kind of feel like you're always forever growing and you're always forever learning something, no matter what. That took me a long time to even realize for myself. You know what I mean? So those were big aha moments. I've had those in the last few days, huge, huge moments.

Russ Johns 22:20
I think another trend that I'm seeing is people are realizing that they don't need to be a victim.

Caren Cooper 23:10
Right!

Russ Johns 23:10
They have control over their future, they have control over what they're doing in their life. Although it may not necessarily be exactly what they planned, or anticipated or imagined, it is something that they do have control over, there's more control and there's all these kind of constraints that there's always going to be a spectrum of and a range of opinions about a subject. And, you know, if you're a conspiracy theorist, this is all, one way and if you're not, case serasa, raw.

Caren Cooper 23:48
Right, exactly.

Russ Johns 23:49
It's somewhere in between is your reality, and your reality is the one that you need to live with and adjust to and become acquainted with. I love the idea of the self improvement. I love the idea that you can actually an empathy. What we're talking about really is empathy towards what others are going through and everybody handles things a little differently then the rest of us know.

Caren Cooper 24:24
Exactly! Very much so.

Russ Johns 24:26
As this thing goes along, I mean, I'm sure you're kind of like in the middle of it, and it sounds as if things are flattening out a little bit. However, we still have a long road to go.

Caren Cooper 24:40
Yeah.

Russ Johns 24:40
I'm thinking, I don't know.

Caren Cooper 24:44
Listen, I hate to say this, but my son like neither one of my kids are going back to school until September, or August for my daughter but. I hate to say it, but I know that. I don't want to say they're okay with it. They've realized that that's a very good possibility. What I said like even I was talking to a neighbor of mine, there's a lot of kids in my neighborhood, who are graduating and go to the same school my son does. So we were like, okay, we'll do a social distancing graduation for everybody. We're coming up with different ways to sort of celebrate things, if you will. The way I fee,l my hope, and I've said this a couple of times, I don't know how long this is going to be. I truly hope that by September the kids can be back in school and living semi. We can go out and about, you know what I mean, and not have to wear masks and things like that. I just hope that once we do go back to whatever normal it is, Dave Hollis had a quote about going back to normal. He's like, be careful of what normal you want to go back to. I'm paraphrasing it, which I thought was very interesting. My hope is that we don't get complacent. I feel like every time we have some sort of moment in history, if you will, like 911, or like now, we all kind of come together for the greater good. We do good for others and whatnot, right? The community comes together and all those kind of things. Then everything gets back to the way it was before. The incident, we'll call it, I guess, if you will happen, and then we get complacent. You know what I mean? I truly hope that that doesn't happen this time. I truly hope that this kind of sheds light on a lot of things. I don't want I'm not a political person, I don't want to get political, but I hope it just sheds light on a lot of things. That changes are made for the greater good. That's what I honestly really hope from all the way up till doubt. I really do hope that and I try to tell my kids that. My son plays baseball, I gotta have a T and net so that he can still be, but I'm like that's a privilege. It really is. I'm really starting to realize that how good we have it. That's the other thing. You don't realize how good You actually have it until, or you do, but you don't maybe pay attention to it. I think it's very important for us to realize, how good we have it and to stop complaining about every little thing. To your point about the victim. You know what, 6 million people fall for unemployment. It may not cover in anything, but thank God there is something called unemployment that we can get, as ridiculous as that sounds. It's just sort of, I really hope that

Russ Johns 27:26
Bring back the perspective, right?

Caren Cooper 27:28
I hope so. I really, that's Honest to God, my hope, because it's just we all do. What I was, admittedly, even though I do personal development, everything, I was one of those. I mean, my son does travel baseball, I was working in corporate America, and having a solid business and I was just like, all over the place. As much as I was appreciating and having gratitude for it, I was like, Okay, I need a minute. You know what I mean? You get to that point.

Russ Johns 27:57
Can I just take a nap right now?

Caren Cooper 27:59
I just need a Just in a minute. I hope that we don't you know, yes, we need a minute of course we do to recalibrate and stuff but we realize that there was a lot of good there is a lot of

Russ Johns 28:12
You do have an opportunity to change our normal.

Caren Cooper 28:15
Yeah.

Russ Johns 28:16
Yeah. Angie, Angie put out two things we can control our attitude and our effort.

Caren Cooper 28:22
Exactly.

Russ Johns 28:23
Rachel Hollis next 90 days. It's really it's really fascinating to me to have conversations like this, Caren. I do appreciate the fact that you're here. I thank you so much for reaching out. I just really want more than anything to for people to realize that you can make a difference, you do make a difference. It may not be a global impact that we're all making. However, we make an impact to the people that we care about. That care about us. Stay in the conversations

Caren Cooper 29:07
Yes. Yes!

Russ Johns 29:07
Stay Involved in the activities, even if we can't be face to face, we can be having conversations.

Caren Cooper 29:15
Right! I just might add, if you don't mind just a second because you you said at the beginning like about kindness and you and I have talked about kindness and everything. There's a lot of people on LinkedIn who talk about kindness and everything. Just one thing and I've said this numerous times, you never know what's going on behind closed doors, you have no idea what people are going through. They may be projecting, smile and happy and peppy, merciful love, but you don't know what's going on. A simple Hi, how are you? Or a simple Have a nice day or evening and I know we're on social media now, but it's simple. How are you holding up during all this insanity? Message to somebody can mean the world. I had a conversation with somebody yesterday and I was just like, I really enjoyed this conversation. If you need anything, I'd be more than happy to hear you and listen to you. She was just so appreciative about that. It's just a matter of just kindness does really matter. It really does. Even if you can see people face to face, even if you can't do a face to face, it really seriously is important.

Russ Johns 30:12
Thank you, Karen, I really appreciate you all the gratitude in the world for you being here and taking the time out of your day to join us and talk about this important subject. As everybody knows me, you know, it's like, #kindnessis#cool.

Caren Cooper 30:29
Mm hmm.

Russ Johns 30:30
#Smilesarefree. You #enjoytheday.

Caren Cooper 30:35
I thank you so much for having me and being open to me sort of, being like, hey, let's get on together. I appreciate you taking the time to have me on today. It was amazing. It was really amazing. You're pretty awesome. So thank you.

Russ Johns 30:50
Thank you, Karen. I really appreciate you.

Caren Cooper 30:52
I appreciate you too.

Russ Johns 30:53
Have a fabulous day, everyone. Take care. Until tomorrow.

Caren Cooper 30:56
Enjoy. Bye.

Russ Johns 30:57
Bye.

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