My Crunchy Zen Era

Faith, Grit, and the Grace to Quit with Stuart Cooper

• Nicole Swisher • Episode 19

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Sometimes the smartest move isn’t climbing higher—it’s knowing when to walk away.

This week on My Crunchy Zen Era, Nicole chats with Stuart Cooper—a self-described sales hunter who’s grown companies across healthcare, biotech, finance, staffing, and tech—to talk about the art of strategic quitting, taking smart risks, and that one time he ran for Congress in just five months.

They start with intermittent fasting (yes, really) as a small act of discipline that sets the tone for bigger life decisions. From there, they chat about finding purpose, and how marriage and memory can be quiet anchors in seasons of big change. Stuart shares how he bets on leaders, not logos, and why having backup plans isn’t fear—it’s strategy.

They get into all of it: toxic bosses, pivots, faith, politics, personality tests, and the lesson that timing rules everything. His biggest takeaway? Family first—because once your kids hit sixteen, time speeds up fast.

It’s part career therapy, part faith journey, and full of that crunchy zen mix of humor, reflection, and real talk.

Enjoy the episode?  Follow the show, share the episode with someone who needs some encouragement, and leave a quick review. 

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SPEAKER_00:

What something crunchy has done that you've done lately?

SPEAKER_03:

I have been doing is time restricted eating and like intermittent fasting. Like I know everybody's into that.

SPEAKER_00:

I am into that. Do you like that?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I like going till four o'clock. So I'll go till four.

SPEAKER_00:

Wait, wait, from you start at four or you start eating at four?

SPEAKER_03:

I'll start eating at four. So I'll go, so I'll skip breakfast and lunch, and I don't eat my first meal until four o'clock.

SPEAKER_00:

That is a a long time to have for a fasting window, like regularly. I do like five to nine-ish. Yeah. So like, but women have to fast differently to nine a.m.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, you fast at 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I fast for at least like 13 hours.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And like apparently, if women keep with the exact same like fasting schedule that men do, we can start to like lose our hair and stuff. I've heard that. Yeah, it's kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Do it doesn't happen with men, do you know? Do we lose our hair?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think so. I'm not too worried about you guys. You seem to be fine. That's great. You might want to look into that though. Yeah, I need to look into that. Yeah. Well, welcome to my crunchy zen era. This is a weekly podcast filled with a little fun, a little humor, and a whole lot of curiosity. I'm your host, Nicole Swisher, and this week my guest is Stuart Cooper. Welcome. I'm glad that you're here. I was trying to think about how we met, and it was at some very random networking event. And I think it was for your friend with the app that we were talking about.

SPEAKER_03:

I was with him tonight, yeah. Dave Castro. He has the icebreaker app. And uh was it Next Mile with Ginger Jones? Maybe. I think I got an invite for that today. So I think that's what it was. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel like it was last winter. Yeah, it was dark. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So and then I feel like we bonded over stand-up comedy.

SPEAKER_03:

My twin brother. So yeah, my twin brother, I had just done uh like on a whim, I had just gone and on a date with my wife. Uh I said, I just want to go do stand-up comedy. And she said, Why? You know, I would never do that. And I was like, I just want to do it. And I tried it. Yeah. And so I think it was within weeks of of that that I met you and you were talking to my twin brother, Craig. And so he immediately connects us and he went over and grabbed me and grabbed you and said, You guys should talk. And so we wanted over comedy.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh after your stand-up experience, have you done it since? No, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I got I get busy with some other stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, we will definitely talk about what I think you're alluding to. Um if you could relive any memory, what would it be and why?

SPEAKER_03:

With my wife, I I thought about I saw some of these questions you were gonna ask, and I love how all of them are great. Um, it would be with my wife. So uh I have several uh memories that and also my dad. I just lost my dad in April of this year, and I love my dad, he's the best of the best, and uh so I have memories with him, but I but with Jenny, uh so we've been married 26 years. Um different getaways and different things that we've done where we've gotten away from the kids. So there was one where we went to Dandridge, Tennessee, in the middle of nowhere.

SPEAKER_00:

I'd like to say I know where that is, but I don't.

SPEAKER_03:

Literally like two roads. That's that's about it. Like the downtown, if you can call it that, yes A Street. And uh there's a bridge. I remember that. I remember a street, solid bridge, and a bridge, yeah. And uh that we had uh we we got on jet skis and went out on the lake and uh just a good good memory. It was after our third kidda. And um, but yeah, I I remember that I remember that one being a great getaway. So I'd probably relive that.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel like I have so many memories with people of like the travels and when you get out of the day-to-day life, it's so being able to be present in a different way can really just make it a lot more special and memorable.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So um, so I want to talk to you about your career and of course running for office. Yeah. So I was looking all up in your LinkedIn profile, which was super helpful. Um, and you described yourself as a sales entrepreneur and a sales hunter.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

What do you mean by those terms?

SPEAKER_03:

So I can't call myself an entrepreneur. I wish I could call myself an entrepreneur. Maybe at some point I'll I'll be able to do that. My dad was an entrepreneur, so he had our my last name is Cooper, and he had Cooper on everything growing up. So he had multiple businesses. And but dad would go boom, bust, boom, bust. And so we experienced, you know, as a teenager, um my house got auctioned off, like in front of me, like we saw our house get auctioned off. My mom crying. I was like, what's going on? All the furniture being removed, people selling pictures that she had and and you know, different furniture that she had. And so I never wanted to go through that. So I've always put the risk out on other people. So I help, so as a sales entrepreneur, I help entrepreneurs grow their business, is how I would say it. And that mostly has been in um, and I think that'll change at some point as the kids get out of the house and that type of thing, maybe I would feel more comfortable taking some risk and and and doing that. Jenny's also very conservative. But I uh as a sales hunter, I just I've I'm always I'm always asked to grow businesses. So uh, and it's been in different, you know, spheres like healthcare, pharmaceutical, uh, biotech, uh finance, recruiting and staffing, and technology. Then I stumble into MA type stuff, so I've had like multiple conversations about well, we should just buy your business, and then I set that up, and we end up buying the whole company, and that's happened three times. Uh I've had seven, seven, I think seven different times at bat for that, and three of them have worked out, and um that's kind of cool because you end up growing the company rapidly through a strategic acquisition. And so that's that's how I define that.

SPEAKER_00:

How many uh how many jobs have you had?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh you know I was gonna ask, even though I didn't tell you. Oh, because we talked about that.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, right, that one night.

SPEAKER_00:

Um my goodness, that's right.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, so that's part of why I wanted to do, I wanted to just go make fun of myself, like at the stand-up and mostly my career, and then what what it's like to be an identical twin too, which is has been crazy um and fun. But yeah, I I I want to say 22. Like it's it's probably more than that. It might be 26. Um, it's a lot. So if anybody's listening, like whoever's listening, you know, like uh I'm not I you know it's wild. I wouldn't I wouldn't put myself as a job hopper or anything like that. Um I've I'm a I'm an eight wing seven on the Enneagram uh Enneagram or Myers back on the Enneagram, yeah. So cu uh control is something I I like to have. And so if I feel threatened, like at a company, um I I I'm I do not ever want to be on the street. So I always have backup plans. I was talking to somebody about this today. I literally have an app or not an app, but the notes section on my phone.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh where I I have multiple backup plans. So if I have so the role that I'm in right now came about because I had one coffee meeting uh out of the blue, by the way, out of the completely out of the blue, uh, my boss says, Hey, can we go grab coffee? And so we go grab coffee and we were hanging out for two hours. It's very cordial. But then at the very end, he paid for the you know, tab and he said, Hey, I want to give you a heads up on something. Um I had been there for 22 months, I think at the time, and I had set up an acquisition I set up a company acquisition or I initiated it. Other people I know on that one uh started too as well. But anyway, um I um he just said, Hey, you know, this one partner's looking at numbers and uh your name has come up a couple of times. Maybe we should start meeting and trying to figure out an action plan. It felt like a uh what do you call it, a pip, a performance improvement plan uh might be coming toward me. Uh and I I I just don't I'm too uh old for that. Like, you know, I don't know. I just I literally called the guy I'm working for right now. So I got in the car and I called uh Ken Wagner and he said, Stuart, what's going on? I was like, what's going on is I might need to come work for you. And he said, Why? What happened? Yeah, I thought you were happy, and I explained it and he said, Oh yeah, we'll come over. And then I told him, I said, Hey, don't be surprised if I come over there and initiate an acquisition because that's what I do in my spare time. Sometimes I happen, yeah. And it happened, you know. So I came over and then we and so he's been great and has given me a lot of autonomy. And he let me do the uh congressional run, and that was awesome. And so I feel like it's checking boxes for me, but yeah, I've had multiple uh yeah, five five different industries. Tech has been the hardest. Tech has been hard because uh there is no job security in technology if you're in sales. Yeah. Uh 80% of sellers um don't hit their number. Like in sales is quota, your quota. Only 20% of sellers in technology actually hit their quota. So something's wrong with the entire industry when only 20% hit their quota. And so you have 80% that are looking over their shoulder, wondering if they're gonna get axed. Uh companies like Microsoft and um some of the very, very large companies will just they'll just every year they'll just cut, you know, 10,000 people or something like that. It's crazy. Yeah, and so it trickles all the way down. I've been in smaller businesses than I've been in some of the large ones, but I've been in smaller ones. And so just being um aware of that, I've always got backup plans.

SPEAKER_00:

And so I think I think it's interesting how our society really views like changing jobs as almost like a moral failure sometimes because Well then I'm a big failure.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean, I am too.

SPEAKER_00:

I've had plenty of jobs. Um I think I've been at five law firms, six.

SPEAKER_03:

And especially in the legal industry, it's like, oh that probably sounds like it's for your industry that maybe that's a lot.

SPEAKER_00:

But for me, I had very like solid reasons why I made the moves, and some that I won't ever share publicly because I shouldn't, due to like an NDA. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um so it's like people would want to know, you could say right now. Yeah. You tell them it's a great context for you to listen to the end.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. But I think it's interesting when you you know, you're I don't think well, I think there are job hoppers who are just like, I just want the next new thing, I can get lured over. But for some people, I think yourself, myself, it's like we have a story that like makes sense that was thought through. And sometimes, you know, just judging by pay like what's on paper, people might look at you sideways.

SPEAKER_03:

But I've had those, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that being knowing when to quit and move on is also a skill. And I think it's 100% staying in a a bad relationship that is like toxic or something. Like, why is there a moral high ground to that versus leaving and knowing yourself? And yeah, so this is my soapbox.

SPEAKER_03:

No, I I completely agree with you. I I I've only had, I will say I I can't remember the number if it's 25 or whatever. So I've probably had twenty five bosses. Uh 23 of them were phenomen were great, we're good. Uh, and some of them got better and better and better, and sometimes I pick who where I go based on who I'm who I would be reporting to. And I would like to stay somewhere for a long time. I mean, that's the goal. I would love I want to be where I'm at right now for 10 years if I could, that'd be great. But then companies get bought, right? And acquisitions happen and and different things like that. And uh sometimes there's ads, moves, and changes. And I had one guy that I was reporting to. I've had a couple that were tough, and I was having nightmares, and uh he was from a different country. I don't think he got the memo, uh certain certain memos um that of what you can and can't say or do. And so he would deride me in front of my team and come in, you know, and they would look at me like, I've never seen anything like this. Are you okay? He'd leave the room, are you okay? I was like, I think I am. So he can't he did that and came back in and uh, all right, let's get started. And I go, We're not, we're no, we're respectfully, we're not getting started. Yeah. He's like, What do you mean? And I said, Well, you just you just stormed off you know, angry after, you know, a public publicly saying some stuff that I just don't agree with, and I don't think you talked to me privately like that, and now you're doing it publicly, and I can go work somewhere else, you know, like yeah um, and so I stayed there another six months after that. I shouldn't have, I probably shouldn't have, but I was looking the whole time, you know. And so sometimes you have to look. It's career discernment, right? You know, and that guy told me um uh a recruiter called and asked me, hey, uh, you know, he was trying to ask me about something, and I was trying to be sensitive and not say anything negative. And I haven't even heard I haven't said who that was, or um, and he said, Hey, I'm an advocate for you. You need to speak openly. And so I I told him, Oh, this happens, that happens, this happens, that happens. And then he said to me, uh, well, you need to get out or get a therapist, like and do it quickly. Like, and so that was helpful.

SPEAKER_00:

I've had a recruiter say that to me. It's very validating, yeah, yeah, 100%. But yeah, I mean, there's just some things like I had one company I worked for where I found out they were struggling and that they were probably gonna be acquired or break up or like dissolve, and it was like I was planning on staying here longer if I could, but you know, you you just don't see life coming, and I feel like just rolling with it a little bit and being able to get into a new place and like get your feet under you. I I've always tried to bring with me of like some of the negative experiences as I've gotten senior, being like, I I'm not gonna do that. I'm going to make sure that the people who are junior to me are having a better experience than I did. Absolutely. I just think it's important. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. So, okay, you have an MB MBA.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you think that was worth it?

SPEAKER_03:

I do, yes, yeah, I do. So my my under my undergrad was in speech communications, and I took uh I was there in '95 at UT at University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The year we won the national championship is when I graduated, '98. It was a great time to be there. I had one class, it was a speech communication class, and there were 12 people in it. And they they said, we're going to teach you to say what you need to say, uh, say it, say what you're going to say, say it, say what you said, sit down, or something like that. And then there's also going to be interpersonal, uh, and and all kinds of personality tests and dealing with people. And actually, there's probably some business majors in here that you'll probably get more out of this than you would out of business. And you could drop business and make this your major. And at the time Peyton Manning was in that major, there were only a hundred of us in it. And so um I I looked at my twin brother because he was in there with me, and we both said, Yeah, let's do that. So we dropped that and did it, but I didn't pick up any of the business knowledge. And so when I was 30, um, so I worked for my dad for a while, and I kept telling dad, you know, Dad, I'd I'd love to do an MBA. And he said, Well, everything you can learn from those guys, you can just learn from me. And a lot of it, he was right. And uh but I ended up leaving the family company. He had a medical issue at the time that uh caused us to all leave, except for my older brother Tyson. And so I um when I got out of the company, I uh Clayton Holmes had this program where they would pay for your uh for your for your degree and I asked them, hey, could you pay for this? And if I had just started working there, and they uh had some where I had to stay there for a certain amount of time or whatever.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm always curious about the MBA because I've heard some people describe it as like expensive networking. Other people really learn a lot. Um I'm I've wanted to get my MBA for like 10 years, but I've but I'm always like that's a lot of work after already getting a JD.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, you don't need to do it. Yeah. I like saying do it, don't do it, you know, all within.

SPEAKER_00:

That was less than a minute. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I've I've just been like very curious because some people are like, uh so I was an English major, so half the time in MA, I'm just like, what's happening? Like I I mean, I know better. Yeah, when I do like MA deals.

SPEAKER_03:

That's what you do. That's what I mean. You inked the deals.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I do. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. So it's I learned that, yeah. Yeah, I learned like the financial side of business just from having to do due diligence and the number of times I've taken an accounting for lawyers CLE, and I'm still just like, I don't know. Great. I'm like, I can tell when there's money going places there shouldn't be, and that's kind of it.

SPEAKER_03:

You probably don't need you probably don't need you, I I would say you don't need the M the MBA because you do you've got the accounting side of of actually doing the numbers, you have a law degree. I did it because at when I was 18 I didn't understand any of the marketing finance econ. And then when I went back, I think after being in business for a while, I started to understand it more.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I struggle with the numbers quite a bit. Like I started using AI to like I'm like do this calculation and it just like spits it out, and I'm like, it's right, I think. Um no, my the partner like double checked it, don't worry. But I I was like, okay, I see why AI is helpful. Yeah. I don't have to math anymore. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so you've been in uh actually before I move on, I so you had to choose your major at 18.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I don't know if I had to, but I did. Yeah. That's so young.

SPEAKER_00:

And do you think that it's helped you where you are now?

SPEAKER_03:

I I yes, yeah. I would go back. That that degree, the speech communications degree, I would do that again. I would recommend people to do it. I don't know what it's like at other universities, but at Tennessee, it was all helpful for what I ended up what I ended up doing. Sale mostly sales and dealing with people and relationships and um so yeah, it was great. It was a lot of um what group setting communication, uh public speaking, one-on-one personality type test, and and just trying to discern how to relate to people. Um I I I got a lot out of it.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, all that I I feel like communication and understanding people is it's a skill that you can be taught and people need to learn. And a lot of times I think people look at it as it comes naturally or it doesn't. And I've been in many situations where people just be like, Well, that's just how they are. Yeah. Like, I mean, they don't have to be like that though. Like they could learn to not be that way. Yeah, yeah. Um, so I've yeah, I feel like knowing what you've done this year, I assume it's come in handy with like running for Congress.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. My so my twin brother, it was interesting because my twin brother got into pastoral ministry and he immediately for 20 years put together the the aspect of you know writing a 45-minute speech basically and delivering it every week to you know, fift fifteen hundred people or however many people were in the in the room. And um, I didn't do that part of it. It dawned on me later that a lot of my sales career was 80% of the what they taught in the speech communication class was all about the group setting type communication and one-on-one. And I don't I couldn't even remember all of it right now, but it's only probably only 20% was stand up and speak. Um and so but I did, but I've used both you know all throughout, and definitely on the congressional uh run. Yeah, you it comes in handy when you're talking to the media and you know, different and one I'm remembering one of the things I remember right now is and you know this and everybody knows this, but it's fun to say it again. But uh people usually don't listen to what you're saying, they look at your mannerisms. Isn't that weird? Like it's a I think 70% or 80%, nine sometimes even 90% of your communication is coming from your demeanor. Isn't that wild?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_03:

And so you just kind of learn, and my wife reminds me of that a lot, you know, and then your tone. So your tone, uh, so and she'll call me out on my tone all the time. I think women, I think this is not I'm just saying, I'm just calling it as it is. I think you guys have something special we don't have. We pick up on things, you pick up on stuff, yeah. And yeah, so she could well you uh you said this, but your tone, you know, came out like that. I think she said that yesterday morning. And then she said something back to me, and I said, Well, your tone, you know, like I can tell, you know, you're upset, you know. We just go back and forth. I want you to know that. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. She's like, good.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh so can you tell me about why you decided to run for Congress?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, so when I so my freshman year at UT, we're talking about UT. So my freshman year at UT, I'm in my dorm room, and I was J609 on Hess in Hess Hall, which is the largest dorm on campus at the time, and it was co-ed. You got guys on one side, girls on the other side with a big red door. I want to say red door, a big wall in between multiple stories or whatever, and no air conditioning. So people would always leave their windows open and they'd leave their doors open so that the wind could pass from one side to the other and cool us all down. And so if you weren't an extrovert, when you moved there, you would do two things. One, you would go to Hodges Library, which is a walking distance, and you'd just get away from all of it. And the second thing is you'd you'd either become an ext you'd either become one or you would just loosen up around people, you would uh recognize that's how people are and you'd you'd you'd get relaxed about it. But but fall break in ninety-five, I was, and this this is coming up on Saturday. Saturday is the 25th, I think. I think Saturday's the 25th. So that's my I it's the day uh I'll tell the story first and I'll tell you what the 25th is. The day around this when this happened. And so I'm in my dorm room, and um fall break, everybody cleared out. So 900 students, I was probably there were probably two of us in the in the dorm, is what it felt like. And so first time I had been alone and and that it was quiet, and that I could remember in a long time, and basically I'm sitting in my dorm room listening to Hootie and the Blowfish, like uh number 11, which is nobody's listening to me, not even the trees. And there I was wrestling with some internal stuff, and I was really down, I was fighting discouragement, depression, that type of thing. And so I look out the window and I prayed. I just uh the you know, windows right here, and I look out and I'm like, God, I don't even know if you exist, but if you're out there and you exist, um do something. I need help, like do something right now. And uh because the the song was nobody's listening to me, not even the trees. And so I just prayed. And right when I prayed that, uh I heard something slide under my door uh to my foot, and I thought it was a Papa John's flyer because the guys would go through and knock and throw it. Yeah, yeah. College, yeah, yeah. And so I'm like, oh great, you know, this is what I need. And I I'm crying at the time, and looking, and I and I pick it up, and it's an it's an invite to a campus ministry. It says victory and life through Jesus Christ, uh, reason to believe, come hear this message or something like that. And it had a um an invite of where the meeting would be, and I had just prayed and so I picked that up and I did a double take, like what? And so then I called Jenny, who was my friend at the time. We weren't even dating, and she became my wife. And so I just said, Hey, I I got this invite, I think I need to go to this meeting. And so would you come with me? It was I think for the next night. And then I called her and said later and said, I just want to go by myself. So I go to this meeting and I hear the gospel, like I literally hear um a very simple message, you know, but it was communicated in a really winsome way by a guy that was from Nashville, uh, a guy named Rice Brooks. And um I just remember going, I that guy's kind of cool. Like he had anyway, he just had the Nashville look or whatever, and he was making he was I was tracking with what he was saying, and then he uh he basically shares the simple truth, you know, God is holy, man is sinful, there's a separation between God and man that your good works can't bridge, and different religions can't nothing can bridge that. Um but Jesus uh was fully God and fully man, and he was born as a uh uh from a virgin, sinless, and then as God man died on a cross and on that cross received the punishment for your sins and the wrath, like the wrath of God that you deserve was poured onto Jesus. And if you believe that and turn from your sins, you'll become a Christian. And I was sitting in the room and I heard that and I was like, Well, that's a that's good news. You know, like I had been fighting, struggling with stuff that you know I was thinking through and sin and different things, and I was like, I believe I believe that. And so I became a Christian that night, just literally while that guy was sharing that message, I believed it, and that's all it took. And so my life was totally changed. I was born again, and so at that moment, um, I had this desire to want to serve also to serve, you know. I was kind of like, I'd love to do what that guy is doing, you know, which I thought for a while I thought I'd be a pastor. And then um then somebody introduced me to William Wilberforce. Uh, do you know that guy?

SPEAKER_00:

I know who that is, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

What do you know about him?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, isn't he the one who wrote Amazing Grace?

SPEAKER_03:

So he was best friends, or not best friends. His pastor was John Newton, the guy who wrote that.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Was he the one who helped end slavery? Yes. Okay. Like it's one of these. Yes. Yeah, I've read I read a book about him a while ago.

SPEAKER_03:

No way. What happened with Wilberforce is he he was a young man who was privileged, and I wouldn't say he was a merchant's son, so he was he he was very rich. I wouldn't say at all that I can relate to that. But when in his twenties, I think he ran for parliament and won. He just spent a bunch of money and won the seat, but then he became a Christian. So he was he was a partier and did a bunch of stuff. But while he's in parliament, he became a Christian. So then he starts thinking, Oh, I should be a pastor because I'm a Christian. He wants to quit. And uh John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, uh said, No, God put you there, like stay there, you know, don't quit. And so he He ended up people then presented him Problems, which was the a lot of different ones. I think he had two main aims, the ref reformation of manners and to end slavery. And so anyway, I read that and I thought, oh, that's kind of cool that you and he could quote Psalm 119 is this massive psalm, right? Like at the middle of the Bible. And it's probably it would probably take 20 minutes to quote it. It's very long, but he would quote that psalm uh as he walked to Parliament and back because he used to walk. And so I I I read about him, I read about different people, and then I just started uh thinking about it. And then I had so I had this internal desire when I was in my twenties, and I'm 48 now, so it's been 20 something years that I've I've had this desire. Um and I've had external confirmation where people have said, Hey, have you considered politics? I think you'd be really good at that. And uh I went to go get advice from a guy, uh a profess a professor at UT during the MBA program. I called my wife and I said, Uh Dr. Carcello, I'm getting with him, about to take him to lunch. Uh should I bring up politics? Because we're talking about career. And sh and he Jenny said, No, that's keep that close to the chest. Don't bring that up because it's 20 years from now, you if it even happens. And I said, Okay, so I sit down and he's from New York and said, Stu, tell me, what do you like about your current job? You know, and he's like, and I'm like, Well, I like you know, this, that, that, that, that. I start naming it. And he said, Have you ever considered a career in politics? You know? And I'm like, okay, you know, and so different, and then I've had different things like that where um anyway, I have I'm thinking of something that I'm not gonna share.

SPEAKER_00:

And so so what what was the impetus this year to do it, given that it's been there for so long?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, so in 2016, I was was convinced by some people to run for school board. And so then another almost 10 years went by. I didn't win that. But the guy who won became a customer and a friend, and uh he's a neighbor, and so um I just but I got involved more in Williamson County at that time, and so I b somebody made uh me uh there's a guy named Stephen Schau, who was the chief of staff for the current congressman, that he was current a few months ago, he's resigned uh midterm.

SPEAKER_02:

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03:

And so he made me his chairman for Williamson County. I said, What does that mean? And he said, Well, if there's a couple hundred people that show up for a rally and Mark Green, Congressman Green, can't be there, you'll speak on his behalf. And I said, Oh, that sounds like an honor, that's great. Never happened. Uh but I, you know, but I got around the Green team and I was um I did volunteered for them and that type of thing. And Mark Green resigned abruptly. That's right. So that when his term was up, I was getting ready to run and mentally in other different ways, and uh it just happened very abruptly. And I had his team had been his campaign manager had been calling me Congressman Cooper for a year. And so and he would say, Hey, are you ready? Are we ready for this? Are we doing this? And so I found out um kind of quickly in that they that that they had picked another guy that they were gonna support that had military experience. Okay. And so, but I said, I'm still gonna stay in it. I'm just gonna this is and I'm glad I did it. So historically, I think six thousand people have this is not this is just me consoling myself. You know, on your podcast, you know. Uh I hope that's okay. You got a mic, go for it. Uh sorry, I I got this from Chat GPT, but I said help me understand what it's helpful. It's helpful. I was like, what just happened in my life statistically? And so um I think I think Mount Everest, so 6,000 people have climbed Mount Everest since 1950, since recorded it, they started recording the history of it. And so only 25,000, somewhere between 25 and 30,000 people have had had their name on the ballot for United States Congress in the 250-year history. And so according to Chat GPT, it's a lot more rare to run for Congress than climb Mount Everest, which is interesting. So then then I said, Well, how rare? And it was like, you know, you're you're three times as many people have been struck by lightning in recorded history or something like that. And so I uh I take solace in that. I like to do I want to do hard things, and uh it was helpful for my the kids. My daughter was very encouraging to me, and uh the boys have been encouraged. I've got a a girl and three boys, and they were all very encouraging. Jenny was very encouraging, and uh my pastors and yeah uh you know friends were encouraging with it. So I I take solace in in that.

SPEAKER_00:

How much uh time did you have to invest in that? Because you were working full time. Yeah. So this is like a side gig.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Nor so normally when you if you're gonna run for uh for US Congress, it's normally gonna be an 18-month uh endeavor and it's gonna cost three million dollars.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh for congr for really?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, to run for yeah, to r run for a congressional seat. Now, so like some of the Senate seats are that will go up to 30 million.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that's why I mean that's why I was like Senate, but I I mean running every two years and having to raise that money.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and it will for an open seat. And so uh but yeah, then the coffers just it's crazy. I'm learning I've learned a lot.

SPEAKER_00:

But once you're the incumbent, it's not I mean, we all know it's not as hard to realize. So it's just kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_03:

The guy who won will have I told him the other day because we did a Barry the Hatchet meeting, and I said, You've got this locked down for as long as you want. I mean 16 years if you want it. Marsha Blackburn was in that seat for a long time. Um, yeah, most most people if if they're serving well and it's going well, it's a 85 to 90 percent win rate for an incumbent. Yeah. And so if you challenge an incumbent, it's kind of a it's not uh statistically, it's a hard it's an uphill battle to challenge an incumbent. Yeah. And so that's why you have to wait for open seats. And so hence the 10, you know, I had 10 years of of sort of waiting. It's a weird, it's all timing, it's an interesting uh thing I've I've learned. But this one didn't take that's one of the reasons I did it too, is this is it this it sounds funny because uh I mean it was five months, like it was five months, start to finish. This whole thing was for me. Now the person who won the election on October 2nd, 7th, will go to the general December 2nd, and he'll be in it longer, but I was only in it for five months.

SPEAKER_00:

That's what I thought when I saw you post it whenever we had had coffee, I I knew you had an interest, but then I see you post and I was like, this timing, yeah, what is going on? So now I understand. I was like, that is so fast.

SPEAKER_03:

I did have people, I had family members who called and said, I've got a cousin in Chicago, and she said, How did this come about? How in the world did this come about? And I'm like, Well, it's it's been 20 something years in the in the making. The other thing about it, uh, the average everyday person probably doesn't know that you there's qualifications to even run. They look at your voting record and really yeah, at least who looks at it? Uh the there's uh uh committees and like on the the party, yeah. Yeah, like a state executive committee. Probably on either side, on the side of the aisle that I ran on that I'm on, they they definitely look at all of that. So they can they can tell every election I've ever gone to if I voted early, if I didn't vote. And so then you have uh if you're gonna run for Congress, you've got to have showed up at everything. I mean, you're voting all the time. And so I learned that when I ran for school board. Wow. Um so I don't miss an election, you know, because partly because of that.

SPEAKER_00:

So Okay. That's I'm just thinking through, I'm like, I will never get elected to anything. No, I get it. But I won't say why. No.

SPEAKER_03:

But the other the other thing, but from a time standpoint, I had yeah, just the invites started coming like crazy. And one of the most surreal things now being out of it is my phone doesn't ring and and I'm not getting pinged uh by by different invites. So I would have four invites for one night, and we'd have to pick you talk to your campaign manager, you pick one and decline three, and uh it's it was it was it was crazy. I mean it's a it's definitely a you know 70 hour work week for and then work was great. I didn't uh I had just landed a big deal at work that is a recurring revenue type deal, and I just set up an the acquisition uh here, and so they've they've been very kind to me to let me um to let me have Slack so that I could go do that. And I I'm very grateful for that.

SPEAKER_00:

What would you say is like the big the biggest takeaway from this experience?

SPEAKER_03:

Um my family. I I treasure time like right now uh like I I can see the the sand and the glass just kind of going out really quickly. Um because somebody at church told me it's not like you you don't have to get your kids to 18 necessarily. I mean you have to, you I mean you have to food, water, shelter, all that type of stuff, and hopefully influence and but uh at 16 you stop seeing them. And so now I guess it's taken I'm thick, it took me a while to understand. I'm glad I I'm glad I can focus on my family. So that's probably what I've learned.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, we I think we could talk for another hour.

SPEAKER_03:

I love this, by the way. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

It's fun to we'll have to do a part two, I feel like. I would love that. That'd be great. Yeah, we didn't get to have my questions because we were chatting.

SPEAKER_03:

What's one that you that you wish you had asked?

SPEAKER_00:

Um if there's one. Yeah. I mean, I was super interested in some of the personality traits stuff, but you want to do we have I can do it short.

SPEAKER_03:

Um I know I'm long-winded, but if you want to dive into that, I could Can you do it in one minute?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, yeah, challenge.

SPEAKER_03:

What would yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

What um how would you say like the personality assessments have helped you navigate your career?

SPEAKER_03:

So I love the Myers Brig. I love the Enneagram, uh Disc personality, there's a bunch of other ones. Um and I would, yeah, I I think they help me looking backwards after something happens. Yeah. And so then I then I'll I'll go and I'll read about ENFP eight wings seven. How does this person respond to conflict or something like that? And then it just ex it just lays it out in such a way that reads my mail. Yes. And I go, oh, I feel understood. Yes. And so that's why I want autonomy and freedom and some control, but why I'm also not, you know, I don't go about it this way or that way. And uh, so yeah, I it's so helpful. No, somebody is it was it Socrates that said know thyself?

SPEAKER_00:

Probably, yeah. It's helpful. Yeah, I I think I'm fascinated. Was that one minute? I think it was, yeah. I'm I'm fascinated by the motivations of like Enneagram because I've had the same experience. So another day we will delve further. So, what are you obsessing over lately?

SPEAKER_03:

This is silly, but the SORA app I that I said I put it on LinkedIn that I was gonna be on your podcast, and I I had a cameo of me with Mark Cuban, and because you can do the AI type stuff and mix it together, and somebody showed me that. I just think it's hilarious. I can waste so much time on that, and you can get your friends on there and then put different scenarios for them to be talking. And uh I wouldn't say I'm obsessing over it, but I I deleted it off my phone because I was probably obsessing over it. So maybe I would say I was like, You put a stop to it. I had to I'm like, I gotta get this off here.

SPEAKER_00:

And what's your recommendation?

SPEAKER_03:

Is it also the Sora app or do you think that's uh so the Bi I when I read that I was like, what would I recommend to people? So uh the Bible reading plan, like I'm serious, like I would I would do I would download um it's a it's a brown app and it audios the Bible. And you can set seven minutes a day if you speed it up. And what you you can, why not? You know? Yeah, and uh or 15 minutes a day and you read through the entire Bible in a year. And so that's how I I I I do it every every day. I'll go through and I'll just listen. I'll just I'll put it right here and I'll audio, you know, I'll sit down and I'll listen. So I don't read, I don't read as as much as list, I just will audio it. And you can brush your teeth and do it, you can be in the car and do it, you can be on a walk and do it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's habit stacking, right? Isn't that what it's called? I feel like you should say that with the Bible.

SPEAKER_03:

No, no, no, but it's a great book too. Uh I know the book and I read it. I don't remember it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but it's not the seven habits of highly effective people, is it or is that totally different? No, that's a different thing. I have not read the book, so I just know the term.

SPEAKER_03:

I know I know that, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um my recommendation is rise mushroom coffee.

SPEAKER_03:

I read about I I saw a video on this last week.

SPEAKER_00:

It's really good. Really? I've been trying to get off of regular coffee. Yeah, but what has happened is I've just stacked them. Regular coffee, then my mushroom coffee.

SPEAKER_03:

You do like you'll do it, you'll drink regular and then double my coffee intake, is what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow.

SPEAKER_03:

But I need to does it taste like a mushroom though?

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, it just it's just tastes like really good coffee. Really? It's more natural, so I like it a lot.

SPEAKER_03:

I will literally buy it this week. Yeah, and I'll try that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they also have like chai and matcha.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I like matcha too.

SPEAKER_00:

What are you looking forward to this week?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh my niece just had a baby. Oh, that's exciting. And I get to go into Chattanooga and visit my my niece's baby, which is my grandniece. My grandma, yeah. Yeah. My or grandnep grandnephew. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Grandnephew. Yeah Oh, nephew, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Got confused.

SPEAKER_03:

Although I will say I called Craig on the way, and I'm like, I don't remember if Berkeley is a boy or a girl. Honestly, I wasn't a hundred percent sure what you said. Yeah, I saw my grand something nibbling.

SPEAKER_00:

Niece or nephew, yeah. I my brother just had his baby, well, his wife had the baby on Saturday. Oh, right. Liam John Swisher. So I'm super excited. I don't get to see him. Strong name. Yeah. John, my dad's name is John. So I don't know where Liam came from, but I like it. Liam Mason. Liam, maybe we'll find out. Strong. Yeah. Well, I am looking forward to on Saturday I'm recording a podcast, not this podcast, different podcast with friends where we read a romance novel and discuss it, and it's so bad. I can't wait. Where can people find you?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh, so I I'm on uh I never get on Facebook and Instagram. I have uh Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. If anybody joins, they'll be my 17th Twitter follower or whatever. Don't do it, but LinkedIn. I do everything on LinkedIn. And so it's um linkedin.com forward slash N forward slash Stuart Cooper S-T-U-A-R-T, uh Cooper like the tire. And then two number two.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll make sure to link it for everybody. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And link LinkedIn, that's where I'm most of my time. You can message me on LinkedIn, I'll respond. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Watch your video with Mark Cuban. Yeah, and this one, I'll post this one.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I know it'll go to YouTube, but well, thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_00:

This was awesome.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, this was great. I enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00:

Good. Well, thank you guys. Thank you so much for watching or listening. Um, please give us a follow and rate and review the end. Thanks for listening to my crunchy zen era. Please subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcast. This podcast is produced by me, Nicole Swisher, and my good friends Summer Harcup and Liz Golder. Editing is by Drew Harrison Media and recording is done by Logos Creative in Nashville, Tennessee. Thanks for hanging out. We'll be back next week.

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Nicole Swisher

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