Charmaine Cooper, Published Author, Speaker & Skin Health Educator.
I first met Charmaine back when I started working for Dermalogica in 2010. She was a senior educator and I was fresh out of the gates making the jump from a sales rep to a manager. We were hosting a National Sales & Education meeting and we had Charmaine open with a presentation for the entire National Sales & Education team. She was amazing in her role as a senior educator and was able to flawlessly present and inspire a whole team of sales professionals, educators and management. Flash forward 11 years, she has founded her own PodCast as well as authored a book called The No Compromise Black Skincare Guide with another one on the way (The Purpose Project). We love the initiatives Charmaine has taken in her career and were excited to feature her success. Read on to find out more about why she authored her first book, why she was driven to create her own podcast and advice for the next generation of business women.
Tell us a bit about yourself? What is your background and how did you end up where you are?
My name is Charmaine Cooper and I have had the esteemed honour of being in the health and wellness industry for 24 plus years. Of those years, 20 of them have been as a Skin Professional Educator. My passion is for skin health and for people. I truly believe that the career that I have had has only been enriched as it has due to the incredible and diverse range of skin professionals that I have had the honour of working with, training and meeting.
Over the years in this prestigious and evolving industry, I have however noticed deficiencies in inclusive and diverse approaches to adequately preparing all skin professionals when it comes to darker skin. A recent poll that I put out to a network of my colleagues in the field concluded that there still is too grave of a chasm between skin professional’s confidence in treating skin and skin professional's confidence in treating dark skin. We should not still be there as an industry. At the end of Summer 2020, in the light of a sobering year for all communities and all industries, I decided to start towards helping to effect change for greater skin health equity in the health and wellness sector. And to my delight, I have since come to know of other professionals who are also doing their part.
I have always believed that change cannot truly take place unless it is at an educational level And so I created a resource for skin professionals and non professionals alike, who are skin enthusiasts to raise their level of confidence and dispel common myths associated with darker skincare practices.
In 2020, I also wanted to connect people with stories that united. And as humanity, we all go through challenges but we never want to sit there. We long to hear from people who made it across challenging barriers into better places. That was when I decided to also launch out and start Hosting a Podcast. This has been a wonderful and learning journey for me, hosting solo episodes and also hosting a myriad of remarkable guests!
When you were a Senior Educator with Dermalogica, you gave the most inspiring presentations! I remember being in awe with your presentation skills and how you were able to inspire everyone in the audience, regardless of backgrounds. How did you get started in public speaking?
Thank you so much Reagan. I truly Appreciate your generosity. I never set out to be a public speaker. But I have learned that sometimes you don't need to seek after certain things, they have a way of finding you. Even the most unlikely people.
I was a shy, kept-to-myself sort of individual in my teens and in my early twenties. When I was green in the skin health industry, I was given a wonderful opportunity to work for a Japanese Skin Health Institute of Beauty. If I named it now, you would know it well. I will just say, they are phenomenal masters of skincare and also discipline. I was also fortunate enough to have a tremendous professional Mentor who helped to train me on classroom ethics and gaining adult learner’s attention. This was where I first got started in public speaking. Trembling, but doing it anyway.
I found what also really helped me was to remember what it was like to be sitting in a presentation of a brilliantly connective speaker versus a speaker who was not connected to their audience. I wanted the audience to feel like I genuinely cared not just for the work, but for their success. I tried to translate that in my presentations.
I still learn so much to this day, when I speak. But the number one thing to notice is that an in-touch speaker can truly flow off of the energy of their audience. It is almost like a dance. Every speaking engagement, there are new dance partners to acclimate to and get to know. So it is still as thrilling as the first time.
Can you tell us about a presentation that you did that really resonated with you the most?
I can recall one particular presentation that still resonates with me to this day. I was honoured to be one of the speakers at an International Conference, where the room was filled with hundreds of my fellow peers and Instructor colleagues. Many with far greater experience than I. I spoke on the topic of Remaining Inspired in order to inspire those that we teach. I called it the SWEET SPOT; where there is an exchange between both the audience participants and the speaker/Instructor. THE SWEET SPOT is were both the giver and the receiver feels inspired.
The presentation resonated with many of my peers and colleagues and I was honoured to have been afforded the opportunity to being among their welcomed company.
Congratulations on the success of your podcast, Char Candid Podcast! Can you share with us how the idea came about?
Thanks again. I never entered 2020 thinking anything close to the remote possibility of launching a Podcast. But it was a year of tremendous shifting. It also clearly hit me one day that there is a community of listeners who feel detached, discouraged and voiceless. Even helpless. And stories of triumph through genuine struggle, I felt would resonate well.
As great of a career as I have had in the industry that I call home, I have had my fair instances of difficulty. Difficulty that also seemed to bend me, but not break me, discourage me but not keep me down, disappoint me but not to the point of removing my sense of hope. I remember distinctly that there came a point where I had to make a choice. Either to seek revenge, a reset, or retreat. I chose to reset and look at those difficult moments as an opportunity for growth. To see that same space of seeming constriction as a space of refinement.
From there I decided to journal my thoughts throughout that process. In the Summer of 2020, I decided to launch Season One of the Podcast with excerpts of my journaled story of struggle to triumph.
Season two, I moved from solo episodes of my own story to sharing the rich but candid stories of others on the Podcast. I have had magnificent and diversified guests that have enriched the Show.
What has been the most challenging aspect of starting your own podcast? What has been the most rewarding?
The most challenging aspect would have to be the one woman production! Lol. The video editing, the audio mixing, the marketing and promotion, the social media and also being the lighting and filming crew! But the rewards far outweigh the challenges and that is so worth the investment. I cannot ignore the fact that now I have acquired skills that will remain with me for future projects! That is a bonus.
Not only do you have your own podcast, but you recently became an author with your first book, The No Compromise Black Skin Care Guide. Can you share with us how the idea came about?
As mentioned earlier on, I did release my first solo publication in the Skin Health niche. I thought it was going to be in the motivational /inspirational niche, which I started to write a book in three years ago. Providence would have it that Covid delayed a lot of things for this project and the wake of unrest in our societies caused me to shift gears for a heart focus of mine in the industry of my expertise.
This book was to level the equity in skin health. As previously said, adding a resource to help effect change for Skin Professionals and non Skin professionals, where darker skin was concerned.
The progress in which the book came about seemed to have a supernatural momentum. Bigger than myself. I felt that this was the perfect time to release the first of a three part series in this niche. This first release serves as a foundational release - an easy to read, but research based work to help all to gain insight to what has been overlooked for so long.
Now that the book has been released this Summer, it has allowed me to complete the finishing release of the inspirational book, called "The Purpose Project". That will be released this coming Fall. An exploration at what so many of us ignore in our own lives; that is, the Purpose we were meant to fulfill. We get caught up in so many other things, people, causes, but sometimes, leave our dreams on the back burner. When those dreams were placed there to do something about it. We were meant to see them come to fruition. "The Purpose Project" is the "Project of US"
Writing a book is no easy feat! How did you navigate the process of publishing, shipping and marketing?
I had a great deal of learning to do, as I am a self-publisher and also have worked with a company that helps self-publishing. I have grown immensely in discovering the various parts that make the Publication of a work go from conception to realization. It's thrilling, scary and rewarding all at once. Its’ great to learn of the wealth of professionals available to the community of authors and publication houses to help a dream come to life!
Is there a business book you would recommend to everyone?
I have not recently read a Business Book. However, there is one that I read many years ago that has profoundly helped so many people and the principles taught and shared in the book are principles to live by. That book is "Rich Dad Poor Dad" - by Robert T. Kiyosaki This book has transformed business men and women over the past 20 years. I probably could use a re-read! lol
Speaking as someone who is passionate and will always remain passionate about skin, I MUST also recommend Jane Wurwand's, soon to be released book, Skin In The Game. Jane Wurwand, as you know is the founder of Dermalogica, a company I spend a great deal of my career with. She, to this day, is a source of inspiration to many business men and women and Skin Industry moguls. I consider myself extremely blessed to have worked for her and in the company that she founded. Her book is on my Pre-order list!
Is there a business person you admire?
I would have to say Jane Wurwand is a business person that I have always admired. Her expertise, her ability to engage and resonate with various markets and her passion for human touch speaks volumes in a space that is consumed with building up one's own empire. She is the epitome of Business Savviness with Human grace and compassion.
Do you have any advice for the next generation of business women?
My advice to the next generation and to the current generations of business women would be to preserve, protect and promote your passion. I like to say that your GIFT makes room for you. You don't have to prove yourself to anyone. But what you do have to do is prove to yourself that you will stick this out through the highs and lows. Your passion, in my opinion is the one thing that will help you to ride the WAVE of momentum and achieve great feats even in the face of storms.
What do you think is one thing women can do more to support each other?
I think the one thing women can never do enough of is to celebrate one another. I recently saw on social media "COMMUNITY over COMPETITION" and it resonated with me so much that I carry it in my heart at most of my interactions. The very thing we desire is the very thing that we should be the first to give to other women. I believe in sowing and harvesting what you sow and women are fertile ground. Not just in the natural child bearing sense, but we bring fruitfulness to businesses, board rooms, communities, neighborhoods and industries of all sorts.
By supporting, encouraging and cheering on, we are sowing seeds that will soon spring up in the life of another woman!
Learn More About Charmaine Here:
https://linktr.ee/charmainecooper
Instagram: @charcoop2