hi everybody jody toeplitz we need to be divorced according more as you know my show talks about the importance of creating a nourishing comforting space right after a divorce or during a divorce or any type of transition like loss of a spouse empty nesters maybe retire release if you're relocating it's really important to create a space that is functional but most of all a space that makes you feel good it's all about how we feel today i am you to be introducing a really special guest a friend of mine robyn cooper got a letter introduced herself but she is going to explain the world of trouble oftentimes after transition and i know this happened with me you're kind of afraid to go out and travel i was i was afraid to go across the across the street quite frankly so we're going to talk to robin and she is going to hold our hand through the process and make it really simple and easy and open up our world in a very different way so having said that hello robin cooper i am so happy to have you with me today thank you so much thank you for having me it's my pleasure i want to start off first of all we were trying to figure out how we met but i think it was through a networking gr so we'll pass we'll pass through that and you know we just kept in contact kind of over the years via facebook and texting and things like that and you're on the show which is fantastic i know i'm really thrilled  i found that traveling once i started traveling i was very excited i did get the bug but getting started for me was terrifying and i'd i'd like you to needy first of all before we can start tell everybody how they can reach to tell everybody your contact information or we're going to do it twice during the show because i think this is really important and i want people to be able to find you so look into the camera first tell them how to find you and then we'll talk about travel ok wonderful hello everybody i'm going to make travel easier for you by the time i'm done you're going to be good looking for your suitcase and ready to pack if you can reach me at i'm going to start with my phone number i have two phone numbers at the landline is nearly seven three nine to one nine seven seven nine that's my office number again nine seven three nine to one nine seven seven nine or my cell phone which is often also an office line is nine seven three four seven  and that's the best way to reach me perfect ok now we could talk about travel so you consider you are a travel advisor a planner and a concierge why don't you first of all explain what that means and why you're different from a regular travel agent i already know why you're different but when you let everybody know what makes you so special in terms of thank you for asking what makes me so special is that i'm set aside for me travel should be easy for me it should be the type of transition where you're going you're taking a trip for fun it's a passion for me so what i do is i make sure that your trip is tailored to what your needs are not the person next door to you not the person in the cubicle next to work or your  neighbors family members it's what fits your parameters that being your budget that being your family make up where you've been high you like to travel what's interesting for you to fill your needs if it's a family vacation it's everybody it's not just the mom and dad or the going for you by yourself on a vacation is very important to be able to know what you're looking for in a vacation and when you're going in a singles and you're on your own you should always feel that you're safe and that you're in the right hotel and that someone is there for you someone's picked it out for you the right restaurants the right format of how your itinerary should be the right activities to to go the ways that your passport needs to be updated everything that's needed in important i make sure that i'm there with you from the beginning of your planning until your feet land on the ground so that's that's really it really does make such a difference to know that i mean i would never even think of this to one if you had a passport question what if you never had a passport what if you maybe your passport is expired they could go to you and say hey robin i don't even know where start i i want to go on the way in on the strip and you're going to say to them hey if this is where you want to go then you're going to need x y and z i'm going to hold your hand through even that process which is really special i don't know any travel agents that are really long focus on that you know helping you with even a passport at that point joe did because a lot of people don't understand and i've been telling and from the get go and especially singles that are going and people that are divorced or people that are widowed in and it's very important to know all the details people don't know they don't look at their passport they come to me and they say i want to go away i don't want to go away in two weeks so we want to go away can you help me plan a trip together with a friend or by myself their passport needs to be good for six months out of date of return i've been saying that to people for ever you know it's going to come down to that so i let them know that i've had people call me two days before and say my passport is expire ok i've told them how to get new passports they're at the airport and they say oh my god i out to kennedy airport you're kidding me i remind them there's a lot of things that people that go on with people in life especially if it's a transitional life event life altering event like say for instance you know i focus on divorce so it's somebody that been divorced and going away for the first time and they're really this very easy for them to get a passport or even their tickets or something so it's nice to know that there's somebody that you would drive to their house to drive to the airport go get it take care of them that's that's that's huge for him to do what i will do is i will also give them a checklist and in that checklist i will do you know i am very big on sending out e mails and follow ups and making sure that you understand what i do is i have a nice habit i think of writing and color and a lot of the wholesalers and a lot of my tour companies a lot of my hotels they write back in that and the reason for that is not because i think i'm trying to be cute what i do is that it stands and they go to line purple and it's number three go to there make sure that your checklist make sure you that you check off i have my passport i've called my friend she's coming with me and she's going to we're going to have the taxi you know all the things and no question for me is a silly question and i will be available for them twenty four and seven so that's really terrific to know i i wish i had known you many years ago before i went on my first trip and kind of pulled it all together with another friend on my own and so many things went wrong but i've now since learned and i just know that it was terrifying but i also know it was really exciting to go and i also know that if i had somebody like you the trip would have been better i can say that for sure i already know there were so many mistakes that were made but i would love for you to meet share well be before we get into like say the do's and don'ts of travel maybe three tips you want to give or buddy i would love for you to share maybe your most favorite story where you probably just change somebody's life somebodies life because you will enable them to travel you taught them how to go someplace and be free and start something brand new and just be open to the world and not be scared because it is scary after a divorce sometimes in i think your self esteem is kind of shot down and there's a there's a lot of i guess self doubt so to be able to take a trip is really a briefing to do and to have someone like you to have back that is fantastic so could you share a story that just maybe just touches you when you think about it short of a couple of them i think when people are downsizing their lives yeah elation ships and there are divorce or there are widowed or they've gone through so much and sometimes they are not the person in the house that put the trip together and rationally let's say it's women not necessarily but just saying they have not they met may not have done all the duis and don'ts and they're very afraid and all of a sudden they'll come to me in law say i really want to travel but i had this woman that called me and said you know i really want to travel but i have not i lost my husband i by myself i am a biker and i love to go places and i haven't been anywhere and she started to cry and it broke my heart and i said you know what you don't need to feel this way and what i did was i put together in her case not only and i tend to worry but i pulled together two other women and it's a thrill oh that i had to see mentioned as a same interest to know more about the same age and i put them together this places in different countries and they had the same interests you know they like to lie in the sun they like to go shopping in this case they like to go out into the wineries so i put together a trip for them for italy and i was with them every step of the way did you didn't really go with them or you checked in with no you went with them you actually went with them and so this way i wasn't in their face and i wasn't in their way but that i was able to not only put it together but i thought send them to the best restaurants and and what their interests are but maybe they won't go maybe they'll be hazards and to go so i was sort of like the little pushy yeah that said i'll go with you and i'll bike if you want if not i'm going to set you up i'd get out there with my helmet and yeah but you know a bicycle one time they had me movie under the tuscan sun oh yes that's what it was like they were kind of leaving behind and they went out in the fields and they picked the bit the grapes for the winery to use and it was just and they they just came back love about you it's not like you you know it's a certain amount of money and up it's anybody it's somebody that could be you you know somebody that maybe can't go even to far away maybe they want to take baby steps maybe for them it's going someplace it within this country to start and then moving out who knows but you were you were there to guide them and certainly not judge them you are what's nice about you is your empowering your behind them wherever it is they want to go saying you know this is going to be good for you i'm going to base this trip on your interest and exactly what it is that would make you feel happy and rejuvenated after something that could be not such a happy experience like right now i'm divorced and i asked out wish makes you happy yeah and a lot of times they'll say to me i'm not sure yet and so then i know that they're open to looking at different aspects of of travel within the parameter that's important for them some things i mean a look at maybe it's fear of the unknown that we all have you know and you can feel more comfortable because we all have those fear we have all those fears in different categories and john was in our lives in and and you take care of the whole travel aspect of eliminating the fear and making the person feel confident and that they can go forward and i think that's really important i think that's i think travel is you know i started traveling years ago when i married my husband he travels all the time and it's a travel i have a travel bug now i mean i the joy i get from seeing other cultures and colors and people and food and all of that is just so exciting and and i can relate having gone through a divorce many years ago when i think back then and now how different i was than and if i had known somebody like you i would have been traveling a lot sooner and i would have probably felt very proud of myself that i was able to go and do that i kind of came from a family where no one traveled i don't know about what your background is but that was my background my mom never went anywhere she was very fearful of getting on a highway getting in a car so you can only imagine i grew up never traveling always wanted to end now there's someone like you out in the world that can just literally hold the person's hand and take them through this journey or guide them and push them off like the mother bird out of the nest fantastic you know what people there's a message out there and also say this to you audience listening there really is a myth that single travel is not on the rise i will tell you that i get a lot of single people and if you go out there and you go to different countries where there be domestic or international even local you know austin texas and people go to down to waco to see the magnolia store that  chip in joanna yes right all right i'm actually general joe and i don't realize that there are more and more people it is the one thing you can do as a single and if you're going to a place and safe you can feel wonderful because it's like being in new york you are surrounded by people that are also single that are going for different reasons yeah or they just do you know in their case they don't have a husband or in their case their their husband doesn't wan travel they travel with the girls so there's different ways to do it and now being with women together you know going together is on the rise will this whole empowerment that yes they lined it up in me to movement i am so happy that we're at least experiencing this and seeing what's what's happening because i'm sure you and i have been through i know in my career i've been through moments where i've been through those things and it's it's so nice that it's just become a huge awareness and it does tie into travel and it ties into so many other things including your home you know for me it's hugely important to create you create a place to travel so people feel safe and i create own home a space where people can feel safe after a transition like divorce a lot of times people feel unsettled they don't know really what to do with themselves they don't know how to make the space feel comfortable they don't know how to get rid of things that might be weighing them down or or giving them you know negative memories they may not even be aware so it's really important to be able to take someone through their space and make that feel like it belongs to them and make it feel as though it's comfortable  nourishing and it's also important for people to be able to travel outside their home and feel that same comfort and nourishment knowing that they're being taken care of whether they're out of the country or not i i do have to stop for a quick commercial and i'm going to i'm going to ask you a quick question so it's a devoted joke or question i'm wondering if you happen to know what the most popular color in the entire world is among travelers and among the the world in terms of people have a favorite color around the world and the most popular color people are attracted to around the world when they travel it's the same color do you happen to know what their color if i take a guess ok i'll take a guess oh yes oh yes yes it's below and i say we're to go for a commercial break and i am going to you're going to see tips about the color blue and why blue is so popular so stay tuned for those design tips will return momentarily and we're going to come back with robin cooper and ask her some travel tips maybe do's and don'ts i'm going to let her decide what she decides to see in a few minutes tips either a do it or don't or both what would you say to someone who's never traveled besides calling you of course that would be my advice please call her but just in general like say they're out on their own or they're thinking about travel what do you think are the top three do's or don'ts it doesn't matter whatever you choose the first one i would say is be safe and know your surroundings of where you're going and in my case there are not there are some travel advisories but i really make a point of sharing with you all of if you're going to an international country the things that you should be aware of the things you should be aware of in your they will try to talk to you when you think that they have this little baby that are there and that they could possibly have drugged to have you come over to them just sort of illicit you to come over to them and you country and it's very few but yet to be careful of that you check your passports before you're going wherever you're going whether it's your licenses or your passport very important and i will always ask people when they're on the phone with me or in person when they do their airline tickets make sure that or your names are on a correctly make sure everything is done do you suggest carry your passport and everything with you every time you leave the hotel yes ok that's a real point question i mean it's you know you can leave it in the safe but i say that if you do make sure you go back to that safe and make sure that it's absolutely law if you can wear it on you you know there are body you know  pouch they have that will bone side your pain right inside your pocketbook the body bag around you is very important you want to make sure that you're safe and you're doing safe you want to make sure that the hotel that you're in knows where you are you want to make really before you leave say to the concierge by the way we're going we're taking a tour here we're we're walking to this rest right that's one of those are those are fantastic tips those are tips people would normally think about you know it just seems like it's so natural but it half of what you it's like at home you will not wear half of what you're packing you need to go less and less and less and start rolling things in the suitcase lie them down there or organizers that are out there that and they teach you put  your pants here take one pair of pants and three shirts and match them up yeah because is nothing worse than being bogged down guys don't want your clothing right oh my gosh that we all women think that we have to have yeah now food for every minute of the day it's so true i learned that the hard way and now i do that those are those are fantastic tips so let's review the first one is if you are bleeding heart in you looks like somebody needs your help try to just not not be the bleeding heart understand that it could be a scam that's really important to make sure that you have a body bag or something that's close to where you do you use suggest you do take your passport i know i do make sure that you let the concierge in the hotel know where you're going i'm reviewing your tips and number four because you give us four i love it more than three i'll take four is to pack less than you think you would need because it is true you're never going to wear half the things you bring if you overpack it's crazy and there's no room to shop now is there so having said that i would love to tell you why the color blue is so popular in all countries of the world so just because you answer the question correctly and i don't know what's happening here excuse me guys the reason why people love the color blue is because it has been scientifically proven to lower your blood pressure decrease your respiration and as human beings  all want to feel and be near nature and because blue is the sky and water we're church we're naturally attracted to that color and it naturally calms us down and and just to tie in with travel how many people say to you robyn i to room with a view why is that because they want to be connected to outside they want to see the sky in the water so that's one of the reasons why blue is the most popular color in the world most liked by all countries it's  amazing with the exception of russia and sweden they seem to like read more isn't that bizarre but i just thought i would share that with you because it ties into the whole travel thing everybody wants a room with a view if you're going to have a choice you're going to take the room with the view right so having said that i would love to have everybody here one more time how to reach you because i think this is really important for them to know how to get you and i want to tell everybody before robin says anything these travel trips are things you probably normally wouldn't think of that's why somebody like robin is so important to have if you're even contemplating going on a trip and even if you're super nervous about it robyn you're going to take a phone call you're going to talk to the person doesn't mean maybe they will go on the trip right away but maybe they establish a connection with you first and maybe they call you back in a month and say ok hey robin i'm ready now you don't mind if people call you like that right mean and also when they're putting together when they're thinking about a trip even if they think that it's an international they do that how can i handle that yeah i'm there from them and i always say this i'm there from you from the beginning of your planning stage to the minute you hit the ground on the way back so in other words all the way through i have people that call me and they're out on a banana boat and they said are they going to call the hotel but you know they have my car yeah and they call me and they say i want to change the reservation or women will say i will give them more shopping tips and we'll say this more thing we want to get can you so there's a yes communication i am with you when you get to each hotel i walk you through everything i make sure that if there are worries that i can get for you and make sure i don't make sure that happens make sure that the concierge on the other and knows i do special you know a good feeling for you they know you i did read your background and people do know you when you call a hotel there they want to make you have you because they all know you were running out of time so having said that please tell everybody again you know you are i have your phone number here but let everybody know what your phone your two phone numbers are again and how they can reach you one more time absolutely it's robin cooper travel global travel international my phone line is nine seven three nine to one nine seven seven nine that's my landline again nine seven three nine to one nine seven seven nine and mine landline for cell is nine seven three four seven nine two six five six again nine seven three four seven nine two six five six and my e mail is our cooper zero three and a well thought calm again that's our c o o p e r the number zero the number three at a o l perfect and also you guys know watching that if you can't find robyn for some strange reason you know how to reach me we to me dot com you can go on my website and just send me a message and i will definitely connect you to robin having said that i want to say one more thing i have only a minute left but thank you you guys i got most online views for two thousand and seventeen award i am so incredibly proud of this award and that's because you guys are watching thank you so much for this this belongs to you and i feel good like a celebrity and robin cooper you were my first guest on the show after having won this award so this must mean some kind of good luck for both of us next time thank you so very much by everyone