What's Good About Today, with Chris Cochran

Gary Michels: 00:00:00

Welcome to Let's Talk Legacy. I'm your host, Gary

Gary Michels: 00:00:02

Michels, and today we're really excited to have Christopher

Gary Michels: 00:00:05

Cochran on. Chris is an author, a speaker, and above all, a

Gary Michels: 00:00:09

father. As the founder of the Christian Cochran Legacy Fund,

Gary Michels: 00:00:13

he works to carry on his son's legacy, promoting Christians,

Gary Michels: 00:00:16

humility, kindness, joy, gratitude, self, sacrifice,

Gary Michels: 00:00:20

selflessness, courage and unconditional love for all. And

Gary Michels: 00:00:24

I really believe we're gonna learn a lot more about his son

Gary Michels: 00:00:27

and a lot more about Chris and next little time we have here

Gary Michels: 00:00:30

together. And so welcome to the show, Chris.

Chris Cochran: 00:00:32

Thank you, Gary, it's a pleasure to be here. Love

Chris Cochran: 00:00:34

your show.

Gary Michels: 00:00:34

Thank you. So let's start right there. Tell us

Gary Michels: 00:00:37

a little bit about Christian what type of a man was he? What

Gary Michels: 00:00:40

was he like? What kind of effect did he have on others around

Gary Michels: 00:00:44

him? Tell us a little bit about your son.

Chris Cochran: 00:00:46

Wow. How much time do you have?

Chris Cochran: 00:00:48

Listen,Christian was the most amazing, remarkable. There's no

Chris Cochran: 00:00:52

earthly terms and earthly words I can come up with to describe

Chris Cochran: 00:00:55

Christian to the full extent. Right? He had deep love for his

Chris Cochran: 00:01:00

fellow man and woman and all people, all cultures, all

Chris Cochran: 00:01:04

religions, all everything. In the end, of course, he's my son.

Chris Cochran: 00:01:08

I love him dearly. I tend to speak to him as he is in the

Chris Cochran: 00:01:11

presence. But Christian was an amazing individual, just from

Chris Cochran: 00:01:15

the day he was born to the moment he took his last breath.

Chris Cochran: 00:01:18

And I was with him at both events. Since he was a child, he

Chris Cochran: 00:01:22

was so compassionate for others. It was an unusual trait. Even

Chris Cochran: 00:01:26

before 13 months, he was speaking in full sentences,

Chris Cochran: 00:01:28

which was pretty unusual. I knew this kid was destined for

Chris Cochran: 00:01:31

something special. He had this incredible ability to see the

Chris Cochran: 00:01:36

goodness in everything. Even when he was little, he was a

Chris Cochran: 00:01:39

very we called him Mr. Comforter all the time, because he could

Chris Cochran: 00:01:42

comfort us. Even as adults, he could make us feel good. He did

Chris Cochran: 00:01:45

that for other children. I remember the first day of school

Chris Cochran: 00:01:47

getting on the bus. You know, kids clamor they want to get on

Chris Cochran: 00:01:50

the bus, and we get the best seat they want to be in,

Chris Cochran: 00:01:52

whatever with their best friend Christian, was always making

Chris Cochran: 00:01:55

sure he was the last person on the bus, because he wanted

Chris Cochran: 00:01:57

everyone to be happy, to have what they wanted on that bus.

Chris Cochran: 00:02:00

And as a young adult, he was incredibly talented, the prom

Chris Cochran: 00:02:04

king in school, a big school here in Pennsylvania, I'm in

Chris Cochran: 00:02:07

Pittsburgh, he was the lead actor in every drama. He was in

Chris Cochran: 00:02:10

every play and every musical. And he had been in a movie and a

Chris Cochran: 00:02:13

Batman movie. He was kind of on track to do the things he wanted

Chris Cochran: 00:02:17

he was going to head to, like graduate from college, and he

Chris Cochran: 00:02:22

felt a pain in his back. We had just come back from a vacation

Chris Cochran: 00:02:25

out in Vegas, Christmas in 2020, and we had a beautiful time as a

Chris Cochran: 00:02:29

family, and this pain just came up and just thought it was

Chris Cochran: 00:02:32

normally. I was a healthy, young, good looking boy.

Chris Cochran: 00:02:35

Eventually the pain became so so bad that we had a blood test.

Chris Cochran: 00:02:39

Told to go see a CT scan. This was during covid, so I was asked

Chris Cochran: 00:02:43

to go meet at the doctor's office. Six people came in white

Chris Cochran: 00:02:46

coats. Their faces were covered with masks. I could only see

Chris Cochran: 00:02:49

their eyes, but I knew at that moment, I kept reassuring

Chris Cochran: 00:02:51

Christian as we arrived, it's going to be okay. Things gonna

Chris Cochran: 00:02:54

be fine. We'll be back to our regular life. And they

Chris Cochran: 00:02:56

immediately came in and said, Christian, you have a grapefruit

Chris Cochran: 00:02:58

size tumor on your liver at this time, we didn't know exactly

Chris Cochran: 00:03:03

what it was at that moment, what kind of cancer, bile duct

Chris Cochran: 00:03:07

cancer, it's a less than 1% chance of of living. You're

Chris Cochran: 00:03:10

lucky if you live six months. So Christian was given a terminal

Chris Cochran: 00:03:14

diagnosis. I remember as parents, we were heartbroken,

Chris Cochran: 00:03:17

and we said we're so sorry, Christian that you have to deal

Chris Cochran: 00:03:19

with this. He said, It's okay. I would never want this on anyone

Chris Cochran: 00:03:24

else. I want this to be my burden. He said, I am so

Chris Cochran: 00:03:28

grateful to you guys. He He never complained one time.

Chris Cochran: 00:03:32

Moment he got his diagnosis to the day he took his last breath.

Chris Cochran: 00:03:35

He never complained one time. All we cared about was everyone

Chris Cochran: 00:03:39

else around him and how the lead a good life for the remainder of

Chris Cochran: 00:03:42

his life. That's why the title of the book is, what's good

Chris Cochran: 00:03:45

about today is because when we would cry and we would say, you

Chris Cochran: 00:03:50

know how horrible this was for us and him and the family, he

Chris Cochran: 00:03:54

would say, No, what's good about today? And it was his daily

Chris Cochran: 00:03:59

reminder about all the good, all the beauty you can find in a

Chris Cochran: 00:04:04

day. Even in the worst of circumstances, when things are

Chris Cochran: 00:04:07

not going your way, you can find nuggets of goodness and beauty

Chris Cochran: 00:04:11

in every single day. So it was, you know, obviously a tough day,

Chris Cochran: 00:04:16

a tough year, a tough every day, but through all that, that's

Chris Cochran: 00:04:21

where we found the the strength of Christian, you know, he, he

Chris Cochran: 00:04:25

exemplified this incredible strength and goodness that to

Chris Cochran: 00:04:29

me, yeah, I had to, that's why I had to tell the story, believe

Chris Cochran: 00:04:32

it or not, the Foundation came up prior to Christian's death,

Chris Cochran: 00:04:34

because I knew he was going to pass.

Gary Michels: 00:04:36

Was it Christian that came to you and said, Dad,

Gary Michels: 00:04:38

I want to start a foundation?

Chris Cochran: 00:04:40

So, yeah, Christian, prior to Christian's

Chris Cochran: 00:04:42

passing, we had, you know, these are conversations as a father,

Chris Cochran: 00:04:44

you don't want to have with your 22 year old son, but we would

Chris Cochran: 00:04:47

talk, but Christian was very conscious of it all, and would

Chris Cochran: 00:04:50

say, you know, Dad, how are we going to take care of, you know,

Chris Cochran: 00:04:54

those who are less fortunate? Christian was big into how to

Chris Cochran: 00:04:56

help others, so he said, it'd be great if we could, you. Know,

Chris Cochran: 00:05:00

build something to help those in areas where there's poverty

Chris Cochran: 00:05:04

areas things that Christian cared about his legacy, and it

Chris Cochran: 00:05:07

was called the Christian Cochrane legacy fund through the

Chris Cochran: 00:05:09

Pittsburgh Foundation, was built based on Christian's ideals of

Chris Cochran: 00:05:13

where he wanted to help people. It was, you know, low income

Chris Cochran: 00:05:16

areas, the kids who were struggling in school. We get to

Chris Cochran: 00:05:19

Animal Resources. We give to parks and natural resources.

Chris Cochran: 00:05:23

There's all kinds of camps we give to. It was Christian's

Chris Cochran: 00:05:26

idea. Christian came to us with that idea and said, you know,

Chris Cochran: 00:05:29

this is what I'd like to do. We do a tremendous amount of work

Chris Cochran: 00:05:33

in something called Yasu with young adult survivors united.

Chris Cochran: 00:05:37

That's where a lot of the effort goes in to help those young

Chris Cochran: 00:05:39

adults who are stricken with cancer. It's an underserved

Chris Cochran: 00:05:42

area, but those young adults who are really just they came out of

Chris Cochran: 00:05:46

their their shell, they're ready to take on the world, none of

Chris Cochran: 00:05:48

the sudden, they get hit with this. And what I found is that

Chris Cochran: 00:05:51

those individuals have less resources, right? They're no

Chris Cochran: 00:05:55

longer attached to their parents, they're on their own.

Chris Cochran: 00:05:57

They don't have the money Christian would give to

Chris Cochran: 00:05:59

everybody. So, you know, we would, we only have so many

Chris Cochran: 00:06:02

resources that we can give to but you know, we're also

Chris Cochran: 00:06:04

implementing what's good about today in lesson plans, which I

Chris Cochran: 00:06:08

think, to me, is extraordinary in terms of the Legacy Fund. And

Chris Cochran: 00:06:13

what we're trying to do is to help spread how kids can come in

Chris Cochran: 00:06:16

in the morning. You know, what's good about today? They write

Chris Cochran: 00:06:19

down what's good about their today. At the end of the day,

Chris Cochran: 00:06:21

they erase that next day, they start over. But it allows

Chris Cochran: 00:06:24

teachers to identify those kids who are having problems in their

Chris Cochran: 00:06:27

day and those who are doing you know really well. But it also

Chris Cochran: 00:06:30

gives kids an idea of what you know look there is lots of

Chris Cochran: 00:06:33

bright things in the day.

Gary Michels: 00:06:35

What did you learn from from the time you do that

Gary Michels: 00:06:37

diagnosis he was able to live what? What did you learn from

Gary Michels: 00:06:41

that, that you could share with others?

Chris Cochran: 00:06:43

I learned mostly that it's about giving all of

Chris Cochran: 00:06:46

yourself to others, right? I I always say there's kind of this

Chris Cochran: 00:06:51

pre cancer Chris, and there's kind of after cancer. Chris, I

Chris Cochran: 00:06:55

don't even identify with the guy pre cancer. My mind was in a

Chris Cochran: 00:06:58

different mindset. It was all gold related to achieve. Keep up

Chris Cochran: 00:07:02

with the Joneses, all those crazy, wacky things in this

Chris Cochran: 00:07:06

world we have to deal with. But I think what it taught me is to

Chris Cochran: 00:07:09

reflect. It taught me. Christian taught me how to pause. Pausing

Chris Cochran: 00:07:14

is so important. The stillness of life can really help you

Chris Cochran: 00:07:18

refocus your energy. Help you refocus how you approach

Chris Cochran: 00:07:21

everyone. Can help you, how you react to someone. It's truly

Chris Cochran: 00:07:25

remarkable. That's how Christian lived it. Christian never

Chris Cochran: 00:07:28

stopped living nothing stopped. He got a full time job. We knew

Chris Cochran: 00:07:32

what we were up against, but Christian wanted to serve a an

Chris Cochran: 00:07:35

example to everyone. Now he did it for, I think, four months

Chris Cochran: 00:07:38

before his body started to take a toll on him. He loved the idea

Chris Cochran: 00:07:42

that we could venture into areas to try to solve this problem for

Chris Cochran: 00:07:45

others, right? He was part of his journey. We always say, make

Chris Cochran: 00:07:48

someone laugh, someone happy, make someone smile. Christian

Chris Cochran: 00:07:51

was always about those three things.

Gary Michels: 00:07:53

The main mission of the Christian Cochran Legacy

Gary Michels: 00:07:56

Fund, is it is it specific to the underserved in this space,

Gary Michels: 00:08:02

or is it all different causes? Does it change? Is it a moving

Gary Michels: 00:08:05

target?

Chris Cochran: 00:08:06

I think it's a moving target. So we don't focus

Chris Cochran: 00:08:08

on any one specific thing. It's it. Sometimes it just comes to

Chris Cochran: 00:08:12

us. A lot of the things that we do come to us because they know

Chris Cochran: 00:08:15

the story. They hear the story of Christian so it happens if I

Chris Cochran: 00:08:19

do podcasts or writing the book. Our mission is truly about

Chris Cochran: 00:08:24

getting that language out what's good about today? I believe

Chris Cochran: 00:08:28

that, out of every person, could simply wake up in the day, the

Chris Cochran: 00:08:33

end of the day, and say, what's good about today, and really

Chris Cochran: 00:08:37

take the time for yourself and think that out and realize that

Chris Cochran: 00:08:41

the sun's on my face. I'm able to take a long walk, but can't

Chris Cochran: 00:08:45

take a long walk. I interacted with my son, my daughter, my

Chris Cochran: 00:08:48

wife or a friend. There are so many things on their day that

Chris Cochran: 00:08:51

are good, they far outweigh the bad. And so I think that's just

Chris Cochran: 00:08:56

a mind shift. You know, the interesting thing is, Christian

Chris Cochran: 00:08:59

had he didn't have to do list. He had to love list. And he kept

Chris Cochran: 00:09:04

those that's, that's how he managed his his life, and who

Chris Cochran: 00:09:07

you love. I think that's a lot all the way of the the

Chris Cochran: 00:09:10

foundation is set up too, is we're not, they're not so much

Chris Cochran: 00:09:13

to do's. They're all about to loves. And how do we put more

Chris Cochran: 00:09:16

love out there to places and help?

Gary Michels: 00:09:18

Well, Attitude of Gratitude is so huge. How do you

Gary Michels: 00:09:22

use your gratitude for everything you've learned? How

Gary Michels: 00:09:24

can others try to look at the glass of water half full?

Chris Cochran: 00:09:28

There's no simple answer to that. One, life is

Chris Cochran: 00:09:31

difficult. It's hard. I do a couple things. Here's where I

Chris Cochran: 00:09:35

found a useful tool for me when I was going through those

Chris Cochran: 00:09:38

difficult times, there's a couple things I came to accept.

Chris Cochran: 00:09:41

One is, I can't control my circumstances in life, right?

Chris Cochran: 00:09:46

I'm not in control of that. People think they're in control.

Chris Cochran: 00:09:49

They're really not that in control, right? So Christian's

Chris Cochran: 00:09:54

passing and what he had to go through, and what we learned,

Chris Cochran: 00:09:56

and for me, what I learned is I can't control that, but I.

Chris Cochran: 00:10:00

Practically, yes, gratitude is great. How do we put that in

Chris Cochran: 00:10:03

practice? And so that's why, you know, the book is, of course,

Chris Cochran: 00:10:06

what's good about today, a purpose driven life. The book,

Chris Cochran: 00:10:10

in the many ways, is a roadmap to how to lead a purposely

Chris Cochran: 00:10:14

driven life. I'm still trying to lead that purposely driven life,

Chris Cochran: 00:10:17

but I think once we live with acceptance, we strive for

Chris Cochran: 00:10:21

optimism. Remain humble, even in the face of despair. We are

Chris Cochran: 00:10:26

lunging forward. We are actually moving to better ground. I think

Chris Cochran: 00:10:31

when you check on others, you nurture others, other human

Chris Cochran: 00:10:34

connections, stay living mindfully all the time. And I

Chris Cochran: 00:10:39

think a big thing is, strive for empathy. You know, honor your

Chris Cochran: 00:10:43

connections, show love, open your heart. Christian knowledge

Chris Cochran: 00:10:47

used to say to me, most of all, don't take life too seriously.

Chris Cochran: 00:10:52

And so there's plenty of things, I think. The other thing

Chris Cochran: 00:10:55

negative thoughts come into our brain all the time. I'm sure

Chris Cochran: 00:10:57

they do for you too. And I, and I still have those things. I

Chris Cochran: 00:11:01

have flashbacks to these particular moments, whether it

Chris Cochran: 00:11:04

was at the end of Christian's life, all kinds of different

Chris Cochran: 00:11:07

things in between which he was surrounded by his loved ones in

Chris Cochran: 00:11:10

his house together. I karate chop those things. I karate chop

Chris Cochran: 00:11:14

everything that comes into my head that puts me in a place

Chris Cochran: 00:11:16

that's negativity. That's the point of finding purpose too,

Chris Cochran: 00:11:19

right? It's, it's we're all seeking to find purpose in this

Chris Cochran: 00:11:22

life, right? Some of us haven't found it yet. We're, you know,

Chris Cochran: 00:11:25

we're on that, that constant marigold will of just trying to

Chris Cochran: 00:11:30

make things happen and so. But I think pausing is important,

Chris Cochran: 00:11:33

because pausing really allows me, really, to meet life with

Chris Cochran: 00:11:37

grace and see beyond pain and find gratitude in the present.

Chris Cochran: 00:11:43

That's space you can you can genuinely find really, really

Chris Cochran: 00:11:48

great things. I can get down, but I get back up really fast.

Chris Cochran: 00:11:51

So, you know, I think it's, it's a matter of pushing yourself

Chris Cochran: 00:11:54

through these things and understanding, of course, to

Chris Cochran: 00:11:58

have be grateful, of course, but pausing to understand in your

Chris Cochran: 00:12:02

daily life.

Gary Michels: 00:12:03

For sure. And I just wanted to spend a little

Gary Michels: 00:12:06

time on that gratitude stuff, because that sounds like so much

Gary Michels: 00:12:09

where your head's at and who Christian was. You know, our

Gary Michels: 00:12:13

show, everything's about legacy, and legacy is such an important

Gary Michels: 00:12:16

thing. What does legacy mean to you?

Chris Cochran: 00:12:19

Legacy means love. It means the love you want

Chris Cochran: 00:12:23

to continue to put out into the world. So I hope you know that I

Chris Cochran: 00:12:28

can continue to do what I'm doing, so that I could leave a

Chris Cochran: 00:12:30

legacy. I think leading by example is is part of a legacy

Chris Cochran: 00:12:36

fulfilled because I've switched gears, right? I'm a corporate

Chris Cochran: 00:12:40

CEO. I sit on the board for a public company. I'm busy on that

Chris Cochran: 00:12:44

side. But does it really bring me passion? What brings me the

Chris Cochran: 00:12:49

most passion is to build build legacies, where it's filled with

Chris Cochran: 00:12:53

love and the gratitude, right? And so I think creating random

Chris Cochran: 00:12:58

acts of kindness, whether it's to strangers, loved ones,

Chris Cochran: 00:13:02

that's, I think, what legacy is all about.

Gary Michels: 00:13:05

The Pay It Forward, stuff, all those little

Gary Michels: 00:13:07

things that giving without even needing to be acknowledged for

Gary Michels: 00:13:10

giving. Right?

Chris Cochran: 00:13:11

Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, I think

Chris Cochran: 00:13:14

that's the greatest form of giving, right? The greatest form

Chris Cochran: 00:13:16

of giving is to give without asking for anything in return. A

Chris Cochran: 00:13:21

lot of times. You know, when I first got started in the Legacy

Chris Cochran: 00:13:24

Fund and Christian Cocker Legacy Fund and all this stuff, I was

Chris Cochran: 00:13:28

just wanting to bring awareness. Now, this awareness has done

Chris Cochran: 00:13:31

amazing things, right? I have people down in Tennessee. I had

Chris Cochran: 00:13:33

people in Florida that heard the story and said, Can you get me?

Chris Cochran: 00:13:38

You know, we have wristbands that say, what's good about

Chris Cochran: 00:13:40

today, we have stickers, things like that the way, I just get

Chris Cochran: 00:13:43

them. And I want people to have them, you know, I want them to

Chris Cochran: 00:13:46

constantly be reminded of and they go to festivals and they

Chris Cochran: 00:13:49

set up stands on their own. I'm not even a part of this. So

Chris Cochran: 00:13:52

there's people who, who, who are doing things with that message

Chris Cochran: 00:13:56

on their own, which is great. I'm all for it. So to me, that's

Chris Cochran: 00:13:59

all part of the legacy it's about and it's to build a

Chris Cochran: 00:14:01

legacy. You got to connect the dots. You got to connect the

Chris Cochran: 00:14:04

dots to other human beings. Because without connecting to

Chris Cochran: 00:14:07

humans, you're not going to be able to to generate the

Chris Cochran: 00:14:10

opportunities to talk to more people talk about the good

Chris Cochran: 00:14:13

things you can do. So I think legacy, to me, is just that

Chris Cochran: 00:14:17

spreading the message love. Love is first and foremost, how do

Chris Cochran: 00:14:21

you extend that love to so many and share goodness, and how they

Chris Cochran: 00:14:25

can share goodness as well?

Gary Michels: 00:14:27

What are some of your partners in the fund, and

Gary Michels: 00:14:30

how can listeners get involved?

Chris Cochran: 00:14:32

Sure, so I partner with Yasu, which is

Chris Cochran: 00:14:35

young adults, survivors united. It's Yasu is, for short, the

Chris Cochran: 00:14:39

fund is through the, like I said, Christian Cochran Legacy

Chris Cochran: 00:14:42

Fund, through the Pittsburgh foundation, you can find all

Chris Cochran: 00:14:46

kinds of you can probably Google Christian Cochran, and you'll

Chris Cochran: 00:14:49

get all kinds of information on my son. And there's Christian

Chris Cochran: 00:14:52

cochrane.org which talks about, of course, Christian the Legacy

Chris Cochran: 00:14:55

Fund, the foundation. It talks about Christian and talks about

Chris Cochran: 00:14:59

all the goodness that. We're doing events that we're involved

Chris Cochran: 00:15:01

in, where we sponsor, where we try to get out and see the

Chris Cochran: 00:15:04

community. So to me, we're still in the grass. You know,

Chris Cochran: 00:15:07

Christian just passed away three years ago, so it's still very

Chris Cochran: 00:15:10

raw, in a way, you're still just trying to get her name out there

Chris Cochran: 00:15:14

to do the good works. And certainly, if your audience, if

Chris Cochran: 00:15:16

there's anyone, thinks that this will be a good message,

Chris Cochran: 00:15:19

certainly reach out to me, and you can do that personally,

Chris Cochran: 00:15:22

anytime, anytime.

Gary Michels: 00:15:23

So, a lot of this that we talked about today is

Gary Michels: 00:15:26

covered in in your new book. What's good about today, Purpose

Gary Michels: 00:15:29

Driven Life, inspired by Christain Cochran. Tell us a

Gary Michels: 00:15:32

little bit more about the book, and specifically about how you

Gary Michels: 00:15:35

came up with that title.

Chris Cochran: 00:15:36

The book was something that I started about a

Chris Cochran: 00:15:39

year and a half ago, and when I say started, it's sort of

Chris Cochran: 00:15:41

putting my head together. I was just coming out of one year

Chris Cochran: 00:15:44

being with Christians passing, and I'm a writer. I like to

Chris Cochran: 00:15:49

write, not necessarily. I'm a great writer, per se, but I

Chris Cochran: 00:15:52

write a lot of journaling. I'm a journaler. So I during the

Chris Cochran: 00:15:56

course of Christians sickness, every day I sat and I journaled

Chris Cochran: 00:16:00

and I wrote what I was feeling, good thoughts, bad thoughts. It

Chris Cochran: 00:16:04

was a way for me to escape many times these were going on

Chris Cochran: 00:16:07

between midnight and four o'clock in the morning. I didn't

Chris Cochran: 00:16:10

think I slept much during that first year at all, and it was

Chris Cochran: 00:16:13

just this whirlwind of trying, of course, to save Christian's

Chris Cochran: 00:16:15

life, first and foremost, because I learned so much in

Chris Cochran: 00:16:18

that process of RNAs and DNAs and sequencings and how to, you

Chris Cochran: 00:16:23

know, figure out how we can solve this, this terrible

Chris Cochran: 00:16:26

cancer. It literally went back to about a year and a half ago,

Chris Cochran: 00:16:29

taking those journals, compiling them, reviewing them, which was

Chris Cochran: 00:16:32

not a fun task for me, because it was bringing back everything

Chris Cochran: 00:16:36

to life, how I felt during those times. But I knew I had to do

Chris Cochran: 00:16:39

it. I knew that it was important to bring purpose to Christian's

Chris Cochran: 00:16:42

passing. And then I decided to tell a story. And there's people

Chris Cochran: 00:16:47

have asked me. They said, What's your book about? What's this all

Chris Cochran: 00:16:49

about? Is it your son die in a kiss? No, no, see, this is a

Chris Cochran: 00:16:52

book of love. It is a love story. That's what this book is

Chris Cochran: 00:16:56

about. Is about telling people that, yes, it's you can be

Chris Cochran: 00:17:00

resilient. One universal thing that we all deal with is grief.

Chris Cochran: 00:17:03

It's universal. We're all going to experience it. We're all

Chris Cochran: 00:17:06

going to be one day at those those moments in our life. But

Chris Cochran: 00:17:09

it really is, how do you navigate life so that you know

Chris Cochran: 00:17:13

you can, you can come out on the other side, and, you know,

Chris Cochran: 00:17:16

leading this purposely driven life? So the book has just been

Chris Cochran: 00:17:19

a cathartic process, and ultimately, following the

Chris Cochran: 00:17:23

guidelines of Christian. I didn't write this book.

Chris Cochran: 00:17:25

Christian is always the star. He always was the star. I always

Chris Cochran: 00:17:28

think of myself in the background, kind of just

Chris Cochran: 00:17:30

painting a picture and looking at things. And so I tell the

Chris Cochran: 00:17:32

story that's inspired by Christian as how he solved the

Chris Cochran: 00:17:36

world. I think that's how I envisioned writing the book.

Chris Cochran: 00:17:39

That's how I wanted people to see it, but I certainly wanted

Chris Cochran: 00:17:41

them to come away with hope, gratitude and a lot of love.

Gary Michels: 00:17:46

I love it. I love it. If someone wants to get

Gary Michels: 00:17:49

involved in your organization, what would they do, and how

Gary Michels: 00:17:51

would they contact you?

Chris Cochran: 00:17:53

So they didn't get in contact with me two ways.

Chris Cochran: 00:17:55

There's Christiancochran.org and then there's

Chris Cochran: 00:17:58

ChrisCochranspeaks.com that's me, and you can find all my

Chris Cochran: 00:18:02

information there. You can find the book there. Certainly, if

Chris Cochran: 00:18:06

anybody needs more information, they can get it there. For sure.

Gary Michels: 00:18:09

Awesome. Well, I really appreciate your time

Gary Michels: 00:18:11

today. What you're doing in memory of your son and to help

Gary Michels: 00:18:15

others touches my heart.

Chris Cochran: 00:18:16

Thank you, Gary. Thank you to you and your staff.

Chris Cochran: 00:18:18

You guys are amazing, privileged, and this is honestly

Chris Cochran: 00:18:21

what's good about today. So I am very blessed. I'm very thankful

Chris Cochran: 00:18:24

for the opportunity to speak to you. Really am.

Gary Michels: 00:18:27

All of you guys. I'll just leave it at this. Make

Gary Michels: 00:18:29

it a great day. What's good about today?