July 29, 2025 • 43 mins
Military spouse unemployment is 21%, which is 5 times the national average, often because employers don't want to hire people like Michelle Penczak who move every 3-4 years. So Michelle started a virtual assistant company called Squared Away where location wouldn't be an issue. And it's skyrocketed to employing 400 military spouses who serve 1,000 clients!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
I have countless emails and messages from people who worked
with sweared Away over the past eight years and just
said thank you for being a part of my journey,
because you gave me myself back. And it's amazing to
be able to say, you know, we've paid out over
thirty million dollars to military spouses and military families over
(00:24):
the last eight years. How much over over thirty million
at this point in souris.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
In salary and income to military spouses.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yes, welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in
Inner City Memphis. And somehow that last part led to
an oscar for the film about our team. That movie
(00:56):
is called Undefeated. I believe our country's problem, this will
never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in
nice suits using big words that nobody ever uses on
CNN in a Fox, but rather by an army of
normal folks. That's us, just you and me deciding Hey,
you know what, maybe I can help. That's what Michelle Penzac.
(01:18):
The voice you just started is done. Michelle is the
founder of squared Away, which has helped four hundred military
spouses find work as virtual assistants, and I cannot wait
for you to meet her right after these brief messages
from our general sponsors, Michelle Penzac, Welcome.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
To Memphis, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
How'd you get here? Where'd you come from? Did you
come here last night?
Speaker 4 (01:55):
I did?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I can't last night or yesterday afternoon from just outside
of Wilmington.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And Memphis is hot.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, it's warm.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
The eastern North Carolina. Breathing through a hair dryer and
I didn't even think that was possible.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Memphis has humidity that is ridiculous. You can you can
get dressed, walk outside during the summer and you're soaking
wet immediately.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
I didn't even try to do my hair, so don't
judge me.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, I won't. So where'd you grow up?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I actually grew up in North Carolina about an hour
from where we are now, in Clinton and Little Washington,
both places.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, and you go to college or anything?
Speaker 4 (02:37):
I did.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I actually went to college in Tennessee in Bristol U
T or in Bristol out of King College, King University.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
No, we had another guest about a year ago. Yeah,
I think so that went to King Yeah, no way, yep. Yeah,
there's something in the water there apparently.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Hey, there's good things in East Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
So Michelle everybody is the founder and CEO of Squared Away,
which we're going to get to all of it. We've
had a few guests that are similar to Michelle, and
we talk about a lot of times on an army
in normal folks that you don't have to start some
massive five OHO one c three, that you can serve
(03:22):
anywhere in your community. You can serve in your home.
You can be a member of the army of normal
folks by just doing what you can where you can.
We've also talked about there are occasions where we find
people that have for profit organizations, but the organization itself
has a social mission to it, and not necessarily just
(03:45):
in who that company serves in terms of their client base,
but also who works with them. And Michelle is one
of those rare folks who has bumped around found a
way to start a business that also has a really
poignant social mission. And I can't wait to unfold that
for everybody. Let's go back to the beginning. All I
(04:08):
know is that you were a young woman, single and free,
and the one thing you were not going to do
is marry anybody in the military.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Oh yeah, I met my husband, my now husband, at
a wedding Labor Day weekend twenty thirteen, and it was
somebody else's date.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Funny story.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Oh nice, but that's really that's.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Win his friends.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Why don't we open with the fact that you two
times your date to find your current husband. All right,
so you go to a wedding with a date and
this dude comes in and scoops you up and breaks
your date's heart.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Is that what happens?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Well, I've kicked his butt at beer pong, So there's that.
And at a wedding.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
It was in Virginia.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
This is Appalachia. We're talking East Tennessee over in Virginia.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Appalachis beer pong is more important than first dance, so
I mean, and.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
It was a military wedding, so I mean, you have
to have beer pong or.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Something going on there.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So I kicked his butt at beer pong and apparently
that hooked him. And I was like, I don't even
like Marines, and you guys have bad haircuts, like I
but he was really nice and we had a really
good time and it kind of kicked off from there and.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
You end up marrying a freaking' is it a jar head?
Is that what marines are? What are marines?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Ah?
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Yeah, pretty much? Okay, jar head?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
But he calls himself the elite because he's a V
twenty two.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
What does that mean?
Speaker 4 (05:46):
He's an osprey pilot.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Which is first of all, very cool.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Oh yeah, so an osprey is it's osprey or osprey osprey.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
It's a tilt roter so it can be.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
It's an airplane that can can they take off vertically
but then fly like airplanes?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
What do they do? Are they? Are they assault vehicles
or are they transport?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Transport troop transport kazavaks so casualty, evacuations, that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
So that's really cool thing.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, so he's kind of a boss.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
He thinks he is, right.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Right, all right? So you dumped your date.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Now you're married to this rotor fly fixed wing doesn't
really know what he's flying. Marine who thinks he's the
boss And you're starting life and I'm starting life, which
is wonderful, but I mean nothing overly crazy. Just start
in life, yep, right, And you first get based where.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
In Jacksonville, North Carolina?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So what is Jacksonville, North Carolina?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Basically the biggest Marine Corps town because it's nothing but marines.
And if you're there for a different reason, I would
be curious what that would be, honestly, But I grew
up about an hour from there, so I felt like
I was.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Going back to my roots in my hometown.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
And I was very much the brand new military spouse,
everything patriotic Marine Corps wife.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Sticker on the car type deal supermoto.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
And so you went from I don't like marines to
all in.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I was like, I mean if I'm to marry you,
like I'm committed, Like let's let's do this. And I
went in very optimistic about the opportunities because I wanted
to work.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
I still wanted to have a.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Career, and I was like, this is my hometown, like
I can, I can do this, and I have this
great experience from working in DC.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Like I can what you do in DC? I was
a personal assistant to a lobbyist.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Really, now, that's interesting.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Chaos all day every day.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Well, and why don't you tell us what lobbyists do?
I know because my kids work in DC and one
works with lobbyists every day.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
But describe that world advocating for different things, basically getting
in politicians' ears and saying, this is what we want
from you, and this is why.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
A lot of deal making behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
As an assistant, what are you doing?
Speaker 4 (08:33):
You name it?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
A little bit of everything from managing dinners and coordinating events,
travel planning, washing dogs they get in calendars for calendars,
chasing down dresses from the postal service they got lost
in DC, like everything you can absolutely imagine.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
And literally taking all of the minutia off of the
boss so the boss can go do the work they
have to do to make a living. That's it, exactly
all right. So you had that experience in DC, which
kind of cool. How'd you get into that?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Completely by accident? I started as a nanny and after college. No,
I'll go back a little bit. So I graduated from
college with the intention of going into the Navy as
an officer.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
You didn't want a date a marine, but you're gonna
go to the Navy.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Yeah, the Marine's Air Department of the Navy.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Okay, I get it, Okay, go ahead. So that's what
you wanted to do.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
That's what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I want to be a surface warfare officer because I
wanted to shoot the big guns and blow up Are.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
You kidding me?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Really what I told them when I joined, I was like,
they were like, why do you want to be a
surface warfare officer?
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Well? You see that gun on that destoyer I would
have blow shu up with.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
So really, you're the boss. That's what we just found out.
The iceprey guy, this transports people. You want to blow
stuff up.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
All right?
Speaker 4 (10:03):
I mean I'm from this house. That's weak.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
I get it, especially the Bristol area. Let's he probably
went out with ten. You're right as a child and
blew up old cars and stuff. Not quite okay, Okay,
so that's what you want to do, But you end
up an assistant to a lobbyist.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
So my story gets a little bit crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I went through OCS and around week.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Eight I got injured and.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
They said that I can have surgery and then start
at the beginning again. And I was like, oh, hell no,
Like I made it through eight weeks, there's no way. Like,
I am not a runner, I am not that person,
and I just have marine jelling at me.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Absolutely not, I'm I can't do it. I know I can't.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But first,
if this episode or any other episodes inspire you, I
hope you'll consider sharing your reflections about it on social
media and tagging us at Army of normal Folks. Your
reflections can help others and also evangelize the Army. Thanks
(11:17):
for thinking about doing this, noble deed.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
So literally kind of fell flat on my face is
what it felt like at the time. And we had
a family friend that had triplets and was moving to
the DC area and needed a nanny.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
So that's how I got to DC.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
So you went to DC as a nanny, and then
that played out and you got a job.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
As a Yeah, I started looking at different roles. I
really liked coordinating things, especially.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
For the girl.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
They were tiny, little crazies running everywhere. But it was
a unique experience because I was courting doctor's appointments and
traveling with them and they had feeding too, so just
making sure all that was maintained. And I was like, man,
I really like coordinating stuff, and I started looking for
(12:20):
assistant roles at that point to get myself into the
corporal world.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
It's really weird how the steps along your life have
led you to where you are now, because these are
just little baby steps to being squared away.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Yes, so very much so.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Now you become an assistant to a lobbyist and then
you marry the marine, and here you are in Jacksonville,
North Carolina, and you feel like, hey, I got skills,
oh yeah, and you want to.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Work and I want to work and I'm motivated. We
weren't ready to start a family.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
At that point.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
You got a degree.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I have a degree, and you know.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
You've got a degree, You've got experience, you've worked in DC,
you done all of this, and you're now in Jacksonville,
North because surely someone wants your skill sets, you.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Would think, right.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
So we were moving from Corpus Christy, where Sean got
his wings, and I started applying for jobs literally immediately
in Jacksonville. In Jacksonville, so that I would have something
when we got there, and I started going on in interviews.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
And the interview was really interesting.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
They would start talking about my background, asking me all
the typical interview questions, and then they would get to
what brings you to Jacksonville, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
How why do they ask they must know everything everybody
that comes to Jacksonville, North Carolina's on the moment.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
I honestly think it was.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
A question to see, like, is this person in military spouse?
I think it was a weeding out question really, to
be perfectly honest, because this was twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
It is.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Very much the military and the community surrounding the military
were ingrained in the well, you're only going to be
here temporarily, temporary, three to four years. That's not temporary
in my opinion, it's not. It's a long time exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
But it was their way to say no, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Their way to say no. And when I would tell
them this is why I'm here. My husband's at New River.
He's learning to fly the V twenty two.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Oh that's such a cool aircraft. Let's talk more about that.
And I'm like, hi, here, Seanerry has a job. Can
we get back to this right now?
Speaker 1 (14:45):
And they were just like, okay, well, we'll be in touch,
and they were in touch and let me know that
they weren't going with me. And finally, the very last
interview I went on, I got so ticked off because
it was going the exact same way, and he goes, well,
what did your husband do?
Speaker 4 (15:04):
I said, I would tell you, but I would have
to kill you.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
And he goes, he goes, what does your husband do?
And I said, well, I would tell you, but I
would have to kill you.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
And he just looked at me like I was crazy.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And I was like, I know how this is going. Thanks,
have a good day, like I just. I was like,
I see it going down the exact same rabbit hole,
Like I'm done.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I was.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I was so over the whole interview process. I'd done
it so many times.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Wow, So.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
It was I depressed.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I was.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
I got very depressed.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
All my military spouse friends were having babies and doing
the stay at home mom thing and we just weren't there.
And I wanted to work, and it was frustrating because
I knew I had the skill set, I had.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
The drive, and nobody wanted to hurt me. So I was.
I went from depressed to ticked off.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
This is for later, So this is a setup question,
but I do want to get between years a little bit.
At that time in your life. All Right, you've done
what everybody says you need to do. You've gotten your degree,
you're married, you're a faithful wife, you're supportive of your husband.
You uproot your life and you move wherever the military
(16:23):
tells you to move, and like a good little soldier,
you soldier on right. And here you are in this
community of a bunch of marines with a degree, talent,
the right attitude, motivation, all you're supposed to have.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
The world says you're supposed to get a job if
you want a job.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
And I can't imagine you had to have been laying
there in bed, looking at the ceiling, going this sucks,
and being really unhappy with your station in life at
that point.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
I was. It was so frustrating because I'm not a
Pinterest person. I don't do Pinterest projects. I need something
for me. I can support my spouse, I can support
my kids, but I need something that brings me joy
as a human and I can be committed to. And
(17:21):
I had that, but nobody wanted to kind of point
me in the right direction. And I kind of had
to figure that out for myself, honestly, And that's when
I found a virtual assistant company that was hiring remotely,
so remote.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Before remote was cool. In the end of twenty thirteen.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
So now you get this job as a virtual assistant,
all right. I don't even know what that means because
I've got a company and I have people in my
office and people outside manufacturing and all of that. How
does how as a CEO, how would a virtual assistant
work for me? How does it make sense for me that?
(18:06):
How do I contact my assistant? How does my assistant
keep up with my calendar? If I'm not there? Kind
of explain the role of a virtual assistant as it
unfolded you when you first started.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Yeah, so a virtual assistant is basically doing.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Everything that you would in a typical office setting at.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Home or wherever in the world they are.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So if you can get on a phone call, if
you can text, if you can send an email, this
person can do essentially the exact same thing remotely that
they could in your office. So honestly, it's delegating everything
to them even though they're not sitting you're my.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Virtual assistant off in North Carolina and Jacksonville. That you
get this job, right, And I'm sitting in Memphis running
my business and I have I coach a football team,
I run a business, I sit on three boards and
I got Alex messing with me over this podcast, telling
me when I got to do interviews, when I got
(19:04):
to do new narrations. And my calendar right now is
booked out until June of next year. All right, that's
what my calendar looks like. It is bonkers. And if
I don't have that, I'm lost.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
I would have worked for you. Tell her why she
couldn't be your virtual assistant.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
You Tell her because he uses the paper calendar.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Oh see that right?
Speaker 2 (19:28):
There was I here today on time.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Yeah, so I'm old school, I admittedly so, but I
got my stuff on lockdown.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
So you've missed one interview so far because of this
paper calendar issue. He booked himself once and I had
to do the interview that.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
I felt so sorry for the guest having to spend
two hours with Alex. So anyway, tell me how you
you replace my world and make things easier for me,
and how it's efficient.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Well, Number one, you can keep your paper calendar. Okay, good,
You can still keep your paper calendar if you're going
to manage it. But if you delegate your entire calendar
and say, here, Michelle, here's fifty different things that has
to be managed. I can set it up so that
number one, you don't miss an interview ever, that'd be good.
You get notifications you are still committed to everything. You
(20:29):
get reminders every single day.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Do I contact you by email, text, or phone or
is the answer to that.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yes, say anything, including smooth signals, like however you want
to communicate. It would just it would be like picking
up the phone just saying hey, I need this okay cool.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
So it's no different than you just being outside the office.
You just happen to be a phone call away instead
of ten steps away. So that's the job you take on.
All right, So you're first when you get hired, what
do they do? Assign you three or four companies that
how's Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:01):
So clients sign up for support for any number of
reasons and then they select you based on your experience
as to who would be the best fit for you.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
So I started off.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
With five different clients in totally different niches, things that
I had never experienced before, venture capital, e commerce, travel,
so many different things that I was learning as I went.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
But I still had that basic core skill set that
I had of being an assistant in DC. Yeah translated
amazing all.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Right, so are you on eight hours and you're just
at home and or I guess you could be anywhere.
As long as you have your phone.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
As long as I had my laptop, I was good
to go. I was coordinating stuff all the time. One
of my clients used to love to call me with
a task when I was going to the grocery store,
and I was like, you know where I am. I'll
give me an hour, I'll work on it. It's fine. But
it worked really well with the Marine Corps lifestyle because
(22:06):
there were days my husband was working days. There were
days he was flying at night and he was home
during the day, and it worked out really well.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Okay, so here you are. You finally found your spot.
You're over your depression. You got a job. You feel
like you're doing something, you're earning, you're doing something for you.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And I made it to a manager position. So I
was now teaching other assistants how to work with their clients,
be better task managers, put together processes, and I loved it.
It was amazing. And then we found out in twenty
(22:44):
fifteen that we were going to have our first little boy,
which was insanity, and Sean was getting ready to deploy
for the second time, so he was due to miss
pretty much all.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Of my pregnancy.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yikes, what does deploy mean?
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Go overseas or be stationed somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
And you guys don't get to go with them when
they do that.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
That was for our second deployment.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
His first deployment was to Afghanistan five months after I
started working.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Let's talk about that for a minute.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
What is it like as a spouse when you have
now married and followed your husband to some base and
then he comes home and says, Okay, I've been deployed.
I'm gone for nine months and you're not going to
see me and I may be in arms way.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
What happens in you?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Oh my gosh, every emotion that you can possibly have
runs through your body a multitude of times.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
And the lead up to the actual deployment is just awful.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
You're grab, you're sad, You're trying to help them coordinate
all of their stuff. We lost our cat like three
hours before he left, and I'm crying because I can't
find the cat and he's going to Afghanistan and my
life is chaos. And he's going to Afghanistan for the
(24:21):
first time in twenty fourteen, and we didn't know how long,
we didn't know what communication would be like.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
And you know, it's just me and my job.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
I think it's important for people to we hear about deployments,
and it's always from the perspective of the deployed. We
rarely talk about the spouses and how hard that must be.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I think only it was very lonely. And the military
spouse community is just amazing. It's like an ingrained family
that you have, and you embrace the suck together.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
You embrace the suck together. Yes, it's funny to hear
a cute young lady say that. I've heard that from
guys before, But I guess the spouses have to take
the same mentality.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Yeah, oh yeah, very much so.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And did you have friends whose husbands were lost?
Speaker 6 (25:30):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Yeah, we There is no community like the military spouse community.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
It's you grow together in every possible way. You cry,
you laugh, you're ticked off because the Marine Corps does X,
Y Z, and so it's it's kind of like being
married to the spouses in a way. It's just they're
your support and but.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Them the commitment to our nation's sovereignty and our liberty
and the freedoms we enjoy. Forget politics for a little while,
for God's sakes, I'd like to forget politics every day.
But the commitment, the dedication to the strength of our country,
(26:23):
which is on the backbone of men like your husband
who maintain our liberty and our freedoms, that that sacrifice
is very much borne by you guys. The spouses too,
and I think they get I think they're unherlded.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Very much so.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
And I've seen some of the strongest men and women
because guys are military spouses too, just figure it out
without any accolades or any support when it comes to that.
So we have to lean on each other more so
(27:06):
than anything, And even our families don't get it sometimes, well,
this is what you signed up for.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
Can't tell you how.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Many times I've heard that and still want to bob
somebody in the head for it. But meanwhile, meanwhile, like
my spouse is, you know, I haven't heard from him
in two weeks. I can't turn on the TV because
I'm watching all this crazy news about where he's at
right now, And every time my doory gets knocked on,
(27:36):
my heart sinks into my toes and because.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
You think it's someone coming to tell you.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
You don't want that. Like that is a feeling that
it's so hard to understand. It's it's dread, it's fear,
it's sadness, it's anxiety of every level.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
And at the same time, you can't even get hired.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Exactly, I need something to detract distract me from this,
and otherwise it's just an emotional turmoil.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
You need a distraction during deployment.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Okay, so now you have a job that you love,
you've made manager. Sean comes home and says, I'm being
deployed again second time.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
We knew.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
He came home in October twenty fourteen from Afghanistan, and
we knew before.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
He got home that he would be leaving again in July.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
To go to Spain at least not Afghanistan.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
At least not Afghanistan. They closed out Afghanistan.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
But now you're pregnant.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Now I'm pregnant and your husband's leaving.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
And you got this job. So how's that all unfold?
Speaker 1 (28:52):
He he left the beginning of July, and I was like,
you know what, I'm trucking along, you know, growing baby,
doing my thing, having a grand old time. And I
actually went to Hilton Head, South Carolina with my in laws,
and I had gotten there on Sunday, and my husband's
(29:15):
brother was also in the Marine Corps.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
At the time.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
They were in transition from moving from Germany to Japan,
so they were stopping in Hilton Head just to have
a week of family time. And I got to meet
our baby niece that I hadn't got to meet yet.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
And so it was like family vacation slash working vacation.
So this was August twenty fifteen, and I was like, Okay,
I'm going to get up. I'm going to log into work.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
On Monday morning, couldn't get in my laptop, and I
was like, what's going on? My team started calling me,
I had clients calling me, what's going on. I can't
get my laptop. Virtual is sending these really weird emails about,
(30:04):
you know, talk to your assistant. I hadn't seen what
was going on, but I got a news article a
few minutes later, and it was Virtual lays off over
four hundred employees with no notice.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
So now your husband's deployed.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
The one thing that's keeping you busy and hanging on
is your job. You're pregnant.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
I'm with my in laws. Let's put that out there.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Your husband's missing your pregnancy and you go to work
one day virtually and now that you're jerked out from
under you.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
I was a hot, hormonal mess.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Hot hormonal. I think you're allowed to be hormonal. You haven't.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
I was.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
I mean, I was crying.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I would clients that were asking me what's going on.
I'm like, I have no idea. I'm I can't call Sean.
He's in Spain, he's on answering his phone right now.
And I was just like, what the heck am I
gonna do? And one of my clients, who is a
very near and dear friend, he was like, just form
(31:23):
an LLC.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
You can just start an LLC.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
I was like, you made that sound so easy. He guys,
go online and start an LLC.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
And he was like, virtual released your clients, like, we'll
come work with you, we'll put you on a contract
today and we'll take it from there.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
And all my clients came with me.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I had seven clients at the time, and they all
came with me.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
So you just decided I'll start a company and I'll
be a virtual assistant with mown business.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Yep, I don't. I don't care about what are you
at this time?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
I was three yeah, just over three months okay.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
So close morning segment. So I was feeling creepy, very
motivated at that point.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
So how's that going?
Speaker 4 (32:11):
It was great.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
I it was just me, so I wasn't managing anybody.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
It was my clients. I was like, man, no pressure here, How.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Did you know how much to charge?
Speaker 1 (32:23):
I just charged them the exact same thing. I was
already like, they were already paying.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
And so basically your customer said, started business, I'll be clients,
and other clients came cool.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
So now you got a gig yep. And then the
Marine Corps shows back up.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Oh yeah, it was I mean it was fantastic. From
August to the beginning of January. I was living my
best life.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
And now you're eight months pregnant.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Though, yeah, and I was due the end of January.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Got it.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
So Sean came home a week and a half before
Sawyer was born, so I think he came home around
like January fourteen, fifteenth. But I didn't have coverage for
my clients, so I had to get other assistants to
basically fill in for me, and I didn't want them
(33:13):
to lose confidence in me. So I scheduled two weeks
off to have Sawyer, which is insanity. Don't ever only
take two weeks off for maternity leave when you're having
a baby, ever. But it worked, and Sorry was born
the end of January and he was an infant and
(33:36):
I was recovering from a C section. Again, don't take
only two weeks off. So but it worked, and my
clients stuck with me and they were fantastic through that
crazy period of my life.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
And then you get to move.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, by the time I was kind of getting in
the swing of things with having an infant, run a
new company, Yeah, doing all that.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
Sean came home in April very excited.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
He was.
Speaker 6 (34:11):
He was like, they're setting up a new unit in Hawaii,
and I think I just stood there and I was like, wait,
what come again?
Speaker 1 (34:26):
And I went and sat in our bedroom closet and
I was like, I cried for like forty five minutes.
I was like, Holy crap, I I.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
Just had a baby. I'm just figuring this out, and
now I have to move six time zone.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
That's what I was going to ask. Five is Hawaii five?
Or it's six from North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Spring forward, spring forward is six, fall back is five?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Okay six six times soon.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
So I kind of imploded for about forty five minutes.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
And most of my clients were on the East Coast,
so I was like, well, this is going to be fun.
But I told him I was moving in October, so
I had a little bit of prep time too. There
is no guide to moving to Hawaii. It is insanity,
especially with a baby, and you don't have housing, and
(35:19):
it's a whole different ball game from being in North Carolina.
So that was a coordinating effort. So I tell my clients,
I said, we're moving with the Marine Corps. Didn't tell
them where I'm taking a week off. They were fine
with it.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
So I get to.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Hawaii in October of twenty sixteen. Keep in mind we're
still on the housing list.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
On the housing list, where do you live when you
don't have a house.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
The boq.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
It's basically a hotel on base of military, which was
fabulous with a ten month old at that point or
nine month old.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
And why didn't you tell your clients you're moving to Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I didn't want to freak them out and be like Okay,
you can't support me from Hawaii, and I wanted to
show them, not tell them, basically, And so we got there.
We were literally in a room that has a small kitchenette,
a bedroom, a playpen, and a bathroom.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
That was it because we didn't have housing, and we
didn't have housing for two months after we got to Hawaii.
So I had an infant basically still and a husband
who had to go to work in the morning. So
I was doing zoom calls and emails from the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Are you kidding now? At what time? That had to
been two or three in the morning.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I set my alarm for three am, so I was up.
I was in my client email by three fifteen Hawaii time.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Case you could be a commercial for red Bull or
I'm kind of stimuli.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
You know what. I've been trying to get sponsored by
any caffeine products for like ten years.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Let's do this.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
That's insane, it is.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
Looking back, I'm like, what the heck was wrong with me? Truly?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
But you needed you needed that.
Speaker 5 (37:16):
I needed you want ever ask like, why are you
doing the zoom call from a bathroom?
Speaker 4 (37:19):
No, because the way I had my the way I
have my setup.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Why is there right now?
Speaker 4 (37:26):
I can only see the door.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
I can always I can only see the door closed,
so oh yeah. I was like, yeah, I know, I'm
gonna just have to hold it. But uh, they could
only see the door at that point, so I was like,
all right, this works. And they didn't ask questions. They
were just like, how was your move? And I'm like,
I have my laptop sitting on the top.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Of the toilet, so.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Is it a toilet flushed or something? In the middle
of those.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Like, thank god, there's only one bathroom.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Oh my gosh, Okay, so how long how's that going?
Speaker 1 (38:04):
I did that for six weeks before we moved into
our house, and I was like, thank you Lord, I
don't have a back toilet as.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
A disc right now for calls. And it worked.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
It actually worked out really well because I would work
from three to noon Hawaii time, and taken out with
Sawyer in the afternoon and then I had the rest
of the day with him in Hawaii.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
So it was actually a really great setup.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
You made it work.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
I made it work, all right.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
So then I think, if I remember the story correctly,
A client calls and says, we're growing, we need more.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Yeah, So Shane, who is my co founder. He was
ACTUALLYE Shane mc.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Yeah, but your husband's name is Sean.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
It's Sean, Sean, Shawn and Shane.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Okay, So Shane.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Shane was one of my clients and he was actually
south By south West in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
He was in Austin, Texas.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
He was running a tech company at the time that
was growing and he was scaling and doing all kinds
of crazy things. And he called me and was like, hey,
we need we need you to scale. And I was like,
you mean scale like I have like I have a
one year old and like I'm in Hawaii, Like I
(39:26):
haven't slept in three years.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Like come on, I can't do this.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
I haven't slept in three years.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Like That's that's what it felt like. And I was
just like, Yeah, I'm gonna have to get back to
you on this. We're gonna have to think about it.
And one of my friends at the time actually came
to my house and she was a new military spouse
in Hawaii.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
And is it just as hard in Hawaii for military
good jobs the same?
Speaker 2 (39:57):
How long are you going to be here?
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Yeah, we're looking for someone more permanent that's not Germane
to only Jacksonville. It's all military spouses facing.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
That free military town around the world.
Speaker 5 (40:11):
Remember doctor Trina Clay you from given hour, She's a
military spouse, and remember she lied. She faced the exact.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Same issue exactly like most people. I've seen it on
Facebook pages constantly, I'm hiding the fact that I'm a
military spouse, Like, why the heck should you hide it?
Speaker 2 (40:33):
You should be in factor?
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Should where does badge of vine? And more importantly, employers
have an opportunity, not I'm not saying irresponsibility, but an
opportunity to maybe be a little supportive in.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
That role exactly and if they but they're not, and
I think it's because they feel like there's a bottleneck
in how they can support a military spouse or support
them in a remote capacity, because you.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Kind of get it.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
On the one hand, you spend a lot of time
and a lot of money, a lot of efforts employer
training somebody to be proficient in their job, and you
don't want to invest that amount of time and effort
training someone to be professionally their job for them to
them in a year and a half or two, get
transferred and you're starting over and so.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
But what if you can make it work remotely?
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Okay, that's I'm teeing you all but agreed. If you
can make her work remotely, then it doesn't matter when
they move.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
So but here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
So this guy, Shane, his business is blowing up, and
you have another military spouse friend and you bring on
and say.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Hey, I was I didn't bring her on at that point,
but I was like, you know what, if we're going
to do this, We're going to do this with military
spouses being the focus because you have an immense talent
pool that people are just completely glossing over and not
(42:00):
been trying to employ and making it their mission to employ.
So I said, let's do this. I didn't know how
the heck to start a company, and I knew enough
to be dangerous basically at that point.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
But you are surrounded your clients are all pretty high energy.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Business folks exactly, so you do have a pool of
mentors at YaST.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Shane was a fantastic He has been a fantastic mentor
over the past eight years. And he kind of gave
me the lay of the land and told me, Okay,
here's how you.
Speaker 4 (42:38):
Start putting the idea in minds. Here's how you.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Start talking about Squared Away and you know, just kind
of guiding me through the blueprint of what we were
trying to build.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
And that concludes Part one of my conversation with Michelle Pensack.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
And you don't want to miss part two. It's now
available to listen to it together. Guys, we can change
this country, but it starts with you. I'll see in
part two.
I have countless emails and messages from people who worked
with sweared Away over the past eight years and just
said thank you for being a part of my journey,
because you gave me myself back. And it's amazing to
be able to say, you know, we've paid out over
thirty million dollars to military spouses and military families over
(00:24):
the last eight years. How much over over thirty million
at this point in souris.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
In salary and income to military spouses.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yes, welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in
Inner City Memphis. And somehow that last part led to
an oscar for the film about our team. That movie
(00:56):
is called Undefeated. I believe our country's problem, this will
never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in
nice suits using big words that nobody ever uses on
CNN in a Fox, but rather by an army of
normal folks. That's us, just you and me deciding Hey,
you know what, maybe I can help. That's what Michelle Penzac.
(01:18):
The voice you just started is done. Michelle is the
founder of squared Away, which has helped four hundred military
spouses find work as virtual assistants, and I cannot wait
for you to meet her right after these brief messages
from our general sponsors, Michelle Penzac, Welcome.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
To Memphis, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
How'd you get here? Where'd you come from? Did you
come here last night?
Speaker 4 (01:55):
I did?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I can't last night or yesterday afternoon from just outside
of Wilmington.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And Memphis is hot.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, it's warm.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
The eastern North Carolina. Breathing through a hair dryer and
I didn't even think that was possible.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Memphis has humidity that is ridiculous. You can you can
get dressed, walk outside during the summer and you're soaking
wet immediately.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
I didn't even try to do my hair, so don't
judge me.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, I won't. So where'd you grow up?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I actually grew up in North Carolina about an hour
from where we are now, in Clinton and Little Washington,
both places.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, and you go to college or anything?
Speaker 4 (02:37):
I did.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I actually went to college in Tennessee in Bristol U
T or in Bristol out of King College, King University.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
No, we had another guest about a year ago. Yeah,
I think so that went to King Yeah, no way, yep. Yeah,
there's something in the water there apparently.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Hey, there's good things in East Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
So Michelle everybody is the founder and CEO of Squared Away,
which we're going to get to all of it. We've
had a few guests that are similar to Michelle, and
we talk about a lot of times on an army
in normal folks that you don't have to start some
massive five OHO one c three, that you can serve
(03:22):
anywhere in your community. You can serve in your home.
You can be a member of the army of normal
folks by just doing what you can where you can.
We've also talked about there are occasions where we find
people that have for profit organizations, but the organization itself
has a social mission to it, and not necessarily just
(03:45):
in who that company serves in terms of their client base,
but also who works with them. And Michelle is one
of those rare folks who has bumped around found a
way to start a business that also has a really
poignant social mission. And I can't wait to unfold that
for everybody. Let's go back to the beginning. All I
(04:08):
know is that you were a young woman, single and free,
and the one thing you were not going to do
is marry anybody in the military.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Oh yeah, I met my husband, my now husband, at
a wedding Labor Day weekend twenty thirteen, and it was
somebody else's date.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Funny story.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Oh nice, but that's really that's.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Win his friends.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Why don't we open with the fact that you two
times your date to find your current husband. All right,
so you go to a wedding with a date and
this dude comes in and scoops you up and breaks
your date's heart.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Is that what happens?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Well, I've kicked his butt at beer pong, So there's that.
And at a wedding.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
It was in Virginia.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
This is Appalachia. We're talking East Tennessee over in Virginia.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Appalachis beer pong is more important than first dance, so
I mean, and.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
It was a military wedding, so I mean, you have
to have beer pong or.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Something going on there.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So I kicked his butt at beer pong and apparently
that hooked him. And I was like, I don't even
like Marines, and you guys have bad haircuts, like I
but he was really nice and we had a really
good time and it kind of kicked off from there and.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
You end up marrying a freaking' is it a jar head?
Is that what marines are? What are marines?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Ah?
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Yeah, pretty much? Okay, jar head?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
But he calls himself the elite because he's a V
twenty two.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
What does that mean?
Speaker 4 (05:46):
He's an osprey pilot.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Which is first of all, very cool.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Oh yeah, so an osprey is it's osprey or osprey osprey.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
It's a tilt roter so it can be.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
It's an airplane that can can they take off vertically
but then fly like airplanes?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
What do they do? Are they? Are they assault vehicles
or are they transport?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Transport troop transport kazavaks so casualty, evacuations, that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
So that's really cool thing.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, so he's kind of a boss.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
He thinks he is, right.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Right, all right? So you dumped your date.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Now you're married to this rotor fly fixed wing doesn't
really know what he's flying. Marine who thinks he's the
boss And you're starting life and I'm starting life, which
is wonderful, but I mean nothing overly crazy. Just start
in life, yep, right, And you first get based where.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
In Jacksonville, North Carolina?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So what is Jacksonville, North Carolina?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Basically the biggest Marine Corps town because it's nothing but marines.
And if you're there for a different reason, I would
be curious what that would be, honestly, But I grew
up about an hour from there, so I felt like
I was.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Going back to my roots in my hometown.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
And I was very much the brand new military spouse,
everything patriotic Marine Corps wife.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Sticker on the car type deal supermoto.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
And so you went from I don't like marines to
all in.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I was like, I mean if I'm to marry you,
like I'm committed, Like let's let's do this. And I
went in very optimistic about the opportunities because I wanted
to work.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
I still wanted to have a.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Career, and I was like, this is my hometown, like
I can, I can do this, and I have this
great experience from working in DC.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Like I can what you do in DC? I was
a personal assistant to a lobbyist.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Really, now, that's interesting.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Chaos all day every day.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Well, and why don't you tell us what lobbyists do?
I know because my kids work in DC and one
works with lobbyists every day.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
But describe that world advocating for different things, basically getting
in politicians' ears and saying, this is what we want
from you, and this is why.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
A lot of deal making behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
As an assistant, what are you doing?
Speaker 4 (08:33):
You name it?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
A little bit of everything from managing dinners and coordinating events,
travel planning, washing dogs they get in calendars for calendars,
chasing down dresses from the postal service they got lost
in DC, like everything you can absolutely imagine.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
And literally taking all of the minutia off of the
boss so the boss can go do the work they
have to do to make a living. That's it, exactly
all right. So you had that experience in DC, which
kind of cool. How'd you get into that?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Completely by accident? I started as a nanny and after college. No,
I'll go back a little bit. So I graduated from
college with the intention of going into the Navy as
an officer.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
You didn't want a date a marine, but you're gonna
go to the Navy.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Yeah, the Marine's Air Department of the Navy.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Okay, I get it, Okay, go ahead. So that's what
you wanted to do.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
That's what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I want to be a surface warfare officer because I
wanted to shoot the big guns and blow up Are.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
You kidding me?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Really what I told them when I joined, I was like,
they were like, why do you want to be a
surface warfare officer?
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Well? You see that gun on that destoyer I would
have blow shu up with.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
So really, you're the boss. That's what we just found out.
The iceprey guy, this transports people. You want to blow
stuff up.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
All right?
Speaker 4 (10:03):
I mean I'm from this house. That's weak.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
I get it, especially the Bristol area. Let's he probably
went out with ten. You're right as a child and
blew up old cars and stuff. Not quite okay, Okay,
so that's what you want to do, But you end
up an assistant to a lobbyist.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
So my story gets a little bit crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I went through OCS and around week.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Eight I got injured and.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
They said that I can have surgery and then start
at the beginning again. And I was like, oh, hell no,
Like I made it through eight weeks, there's no way. Like,
I am not a runner, I am not that person,
and I just have marine jelling at me.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Absolutely not, I'm I can't do it. I know I can't.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But first,
if this episode or any other episodes inspire you, I
hope you'll consider sharing your reflections about it on social
media and tagging us at Army of normal Folks. Your
reflections can help others and also evangelize the Army. Thanks
(11:17):
for thinking about doing this, noble deed.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
So literally kind of fell flat on my face is
what it felt like at the time. And we had
a family friend that had triplets and was moving to
the DC area and needed a nanny.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
So that's how I got to DC.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
So you went to DC as a nanny, and then
that played out and you got a job.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
As a Yeah, I started looking at different roles. I
really liked coordinating things, especially.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
For the girl.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
They were tiny, little crazies running everywhere. But it was
a unique experience because I was courting doctor's appointments and
traveling with them and they had feeding too, so just
making sure all that was maintained. And I was like, man,
I really like coordinating stuff, and I started looking for
(12:20):
assistant roles at that point to get myself into the
corporal world.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
It's really weird how the steps along your life have
led you to where you are now, because these are
just little baby steps to being squared away.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Yes, so very much so.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Now you become an assistant to a lobbyist and then
you marry the marine, and here you are in Jacksonville,
North Carolina, and you feel like, hey, I got skills,
oh yeah, and you want to.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Work and I want to work and I'm motivated. We
weren't ready to start a family.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
At that point.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
You got a degree.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I have a degree, and you know.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
You've got a degree, You've got experience, you've worked in DC,
you done all of this, and you're now in Jacksonville,
North because surely someone wants your skill sets, you.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Would think, right.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
So we were moving from Corpus Christy, where Sean got
his wings, and I started applying for jobs literally immediately
in Jacksonville. In Jacksonville, so that I would have something
when we got there, and I started going on in interviews.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
And the interview was really interesting.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
They would start talking about my background, asking me all
the typical interview questions, and then they would get to
what brings you to Jacksonville, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
How why do they ask they must know everything everybody
that comes to Jacksonville, North Carolina's on the moment.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
I honestly think it was.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
A question to see, like, is this person in military spouse?
I think it was a weeding out question really, to
be perfectly honest, because this was twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
It is.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Very much the military and the community surrounding the military
were ingrained in the well, you're only going to be
here temporarily, temporary, three to four years. That's not temporary
in my opinion, it's not. It's a long time exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
But it was their way to say no, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Their way to say no. And when I would tell
them this is why I'm here. My husband's at New River.
He's learning to fly the V twenty two.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Oh that's such a cool aircraft. Let's talk more about that.
And I'm like, hi, here, Seanerry has a job. Can
we get back to this right now?
Speaker 1 (14:45):
And they were just like, okay, well, we'll be in touch,
and they were in touch and let me know that
they weren't going with me. And finally, the very last
interview I went on, I got so ticked off because
it was going the exact same way, and he goes, well,
what did your husband do?
Speaker 4 (15:04):
I said, I would tell you, but I would have
to kill you.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
And he goes, he goes, what does your husband do?
And I said, well, I would tell you, but I
would have to kill you.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
And he just looked at me like I was crazy.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And I was like, I know how this is going. Thanks,
have a good day, like I just. I was like,
I see it going down the exact same rabbit hole,
Like I'm done.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I was.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I was so over the whole interview process. I'd done
it so many times.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Wow, So.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
It was I depressed.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I was.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
I got very depressed.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
All my military spouse friends were having babies and doing
the stay at home mom thing and we just weren't there.
And I wanted to work, and it was frustrating because
I knew I had the skill set, I had.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
The drive, and nobody wanted to hurt me. So I was.
I went from depressed to ticked off.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
This is for later, So this is a setup question,
but I do want to get between years a little bit.
At that time in your life. All Right, you've done
what everybody says you need to do. You've gotten your degree,
you're married, you're a faithful wife, you're supportive of your husband.
You uproot your life and you move wherever the military
(16:23):
tells you to move, and like a good little soldier,
you soldier on right. And here you are in this
community of a bunch of marines with a degree, talent,
the right attitude, motivation, all you're supposed to have.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
The world says you're supposed to get a job if
you want a job.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
And I can't imagine you had to have been laying
there in bed, looking at the ceiling, going this sucks,
and being really unhappy with your station in life at
that point.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
I was. It was so frustrating because I'm not a
Pinterest person. I don't do Pinterest projects. I need something
for me. I can support my spouse, I can support
my kids, but I need something that brings me joy
as a human and I can be committed to. And
(17:21):
I had that, but nobody wanted to kind of point
me in the right direction. And I kind of had
to figure that out for myself, honestly, And that's when
I found a virtual assistant company that was hiring remotely,
so remote.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Before remote was cool. In the end of twenty thirteen.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
So now you get this job as a virtual assistant,
all right. I don't even know what that means because
I've got a company and I have people in my
office and people outside manufacturing and all of that. How
does how as a CEO, how would a virtual assistant
work for me? How does it make sense for me that?
(18:06):
How do I contact my assistant? How does my assistant
keep up with my calendar? If I'm not there? Kind
of explain the role of a virtual assistant as it
unfolded you when you first started.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Yeah, so a virtual assistant is basically doing.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Everything that you would in a typical office setting at.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Home or wherever in the world they are.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So if you can get on a phone call, if
you can text, if you can send an email, this
person can do essentially the exact same thing remotely that
they could in your office. So honestly, it's delegating everything
to them even though they're not sitting you're my.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Virtual assistant off in North Carolina and Jacksonville. That you
get this job, right, And I'm sitting in Memphis running
my business and I have I coach a football team,
I run a business, I sit on three boards and
I got Alex messing with me over this podcast, telling
me when I got to do interviews, when I got
(19:04):
to do new narrations. And my calendar right now is
booked out until June of next year. All right, that's
what my calendar looks like. It is bonkers. And if
I don't have that, I'm lost.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
I would have worked for you. Tell her why she
couldn't be your virtual assistant.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
You Tell her because he uses the paper calendar.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Oh see that right?
Speaker 2 (19:28):
There was I here today on time.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Yeah, so I'm old school, I admittedly so, but I
got my stuff on lockdown.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
So you've missed one interview so far because of this
paper calendar issue. He booked himself once and I had
to do the interview that.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
I felt so sorry for the guest having to spend
two hours with Alex. So anyway, tell me how you
you replace my world and make things easier for me,
and how it's efficient.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Well, Number one, you can keep your paper calendar. Okay, good,
You can still keep your paper calendar if you're going
to manage it. But if you delegate your entire calendar
and say, here, Michelle, here's fifty different things that has
to be managed. I can set it up so that
number one, you don't miss an interview ever, that'd be good.
You get notifications you are still committed to everything. You
(20:29):
get reminders every single day.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Do I contact you by email, text, or phone or
is the answer to that.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yes, say anything, including smooth signals, like however you want
to communicate. It would just it would be like picking
up the phone just saying hey, I need this okay cool.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
So it's no different than you just being outside the office.
You just happen to be a phone call away instead
of ten steps away. So that's the job you take on.
All right, So you're first when you get hired, what
do they do? Assign you three or four companies that
how's Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:01):
So clients sign up for support for any number of
reasons and then they select you based on your experience
as to who would be the best fit for you.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
So I started off.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
With five different clients in totally different niches, things that
I had never experienced before, venture capital, e commerce, travel,
so many different things that I was learning as I went.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
But I still had that basic core skill set that
I had of being an assistant in DC. Yeah translated
amazing all.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Right, so are you on eight hours and you're just
at home and or I guess you could be anywhere.
As long as you have your phone.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
As long as I had my laptop, I was good
to go. I was coordinating stuff all the time. One
of my clients used to love to call me with
a task when I was going to the grocery store,
and I was like, you know where I am. I'll
give me an hour, I'll work on it. It's fine. But
it worked really well with the Marine Corps lifestyle because
(22:06):
there were days my husband was working days. There were
days he was flying at night and he was home
during the day, and it worked out really well.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Okay, so here you are. You finally found your spot.
You're over your depression. You got a job. You feel
like you're doing something, you're earning, you're doing something for you.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And I made it to a manager position. So I
was now teaching other assistants how to work with their clients,
be better task managers, put together processes, and I loved it.
It was amazing. And then we found out in twenty
(22:44):
fifteen that we were going to have our first little boy,
which was insanity, and Sean was getting ready to deploy
for the second time, so he was due to miss
pretty much all.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Of my pregnancy.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yikes, what does deploy mean?
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Go overseas or be stationed somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
And you guys don't get to go with them when
they do that.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
That was for our second deployment.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
His first deployment was to Afghanistan five months after I
started working.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Let's talk about that for a minute.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
What is it like as a spouse when you have
now married and followed your husband to some base and
then he comes home and says, Okay, I've been deployed.
I'm gone for nine months and you're not going to
see me and I may be in arms way.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
What happens in you?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Oh my gosh, every emotion that you can possibly have
runs through your body a multitude of times.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
And the lead up to the actual deployment is just awful.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
You're grab, you're sad, You're trying to help them coordinate
all of their stuff. We lost our cat like three
hours before he left, and I'm crying because I can't
find the cat and he's going to Afghanistan and my
life is chaos. And he's going to Afghanistan for the
(24:21):
first time in twenty fourteen, and we didn't know how long,
we didn't know what communication would be like.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
And you know, it's just me and my job.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
I think it's important for people to we hear about deployments,
and it's always from the perspective of the deployed. We
rarely talk about the spouses and how hard that must be.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I think only it was very lonely. And the military
spouse community is just amazing. It's like an ingrained family
that you have, and you embrace the suck together.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
You embrace the suck together. Yes, it's funny to hear
a cute young lady say that. I've heard that from
guys before, But I guess the spouses have to take
the same mentality.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Yeah, oh yeah, very much so.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And did you have friends whose husbands were lost?
Speaker 6 (25:30):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Yeah, we There is no community like the military spouse community.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
It's you grow together in every possible way. You cry,
you laugh, you're ticked off because the Marine Corps does X,
Y Z, and so it's it's kind of like being
married to the spouses in a way. It's just they're
your support and but.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Them the commitment to our nation's sovereignty and our liberty
and the freedoms we enjoy. Forget politics for a little while,
for God's sakes, I'd like to forget politics every day.
But the commitment, the dedication to the strength of our country,
(26:23):
which is on the backbone of men like your husband
who maintain our liberty and our freedoms, that that sacrifice
is very much borne by you guys. The spouses too,
and I think they get I think they're unherlded.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Very much so.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
And I've seen some of the strongest men and women
because guys are military spouses too, just figure it out
without any accolades or any support when it comes to that.
So we have to lean on each other more so
(27:06):
than anything, And even our families don't get it sometimes, well,
this is what you signed up for.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
Can't tell you how.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Many times I've heard that and still want to bob
somebody in the head for it. But meanwhile, meanwhile, like
my spouse is, you know, I haven't heard from him
in two weeks. I can't turn on the TV because
I'm watching all this crazy news about where he's at
right now, And every time my doory gets knocked on,
(27:36):
my heart sinks into my toes and because.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
You think it's someone coming to tell you.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
You don't want that. Like that is a feeling that
it's so hard to understand. It's it's dread, it's fear,
it's sadness, it's anxiety of every level.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
And at the same time, you can't even get hired.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Exactly, I need something to detract distract me from this,
and otherwise it's just an emotional turmoil.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
You need a distraction during deployment.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Okay, so now you have a job that you love,
you've made manager. Sean comes home and says, I'm being
deployed again second time.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
We knew.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
He came home in October twenty fourteen from Afghanistan, and
we knew before.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
He got home that he would be leaving again in July.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
To go to Spain at least not Afghanistan.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
At least not Afghanistan. They closed out Afghanistan.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
But now you're pregnant.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Now I'm pregnant and your husband's leaving.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
And you got this job. So how's that all unfold?
Speaker 1 (28:52):
He he left the beginning of July, and I was like,
you know what, I'm trucking along, you know, growing baby,
doing my thing, having a grand old time. And I
actually went to Hilton Head, South Carolina with my in laws,
and I had gotten there on Sunday, and my husband's
(29:15):
brother was also in the Marine Corps.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
At the time.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
They were in transition from moving from Germany to Japan,
so they were stopping in Hilton Head just to have
a week of family time. And I got to meet
our baby niece that I hadn't got to meet yet.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
And so it was like family vacation slash working vacation.
So this was August twenty fifteen, and I was like, Okay,
I'm going to get up. I'm going to log into work.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
On Monday morning, couldn't get in my laptop, and I
was like, what's going on? My team started calling me,
I had clients calling me, what's going on. I can't
get my laptop. Virtual is sending these really weird emails about,
(30:04):
you know, talk to your assistant. I hadn't seen what
was going on, but I got a news article a
few minutes later, and it was Virtual lays off over
four hundred employees with no notice.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
So now your husband's deployed.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
The one thing that's keeping you busy and hanging on
is your job. You're pregnant.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
I'm with my in laws. Let's put that out there.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Your husband's missing your pregnancy and you go to work
one day virtually and now that you're jerked out from
under you.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
I was a hot, hormonal mess.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Hot hormonal. I think you're allowed to be hormonal. You haven't.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
I was.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
I mean, I was crying.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I would clients that were asking me what's going on.
I'm like, I have no idea. I'm I can't call Sean.
He's in Spain, he's on answering his phone right now.
And I was just like, what the heck am I
gonna do? And one of my clients, who is a
very near and dear friend, he was like, just form
(31:23):
an LLC.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
You can just start an LLC.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
I was like, you made that sound so easy. He guys,
go online and start an LLC.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
And he was like, virtual released your clients, like, we'll
come work with you, we'll put you on a contract
today and we'll take it from there.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
And all my clients came with me.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I had seven clients at the time, and they all
came with me.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
So you just decided I'll start a company and I'll
be a virtual assistant with mown business.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Yep, I don't. I don't care about what are you
at this time?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
I was three yeah, just over three months okay.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
So close morning segment. So I was feeling creepy, very
motivated at that point.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
So how's that going?
Speaker 4 (32:11):
It was great.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
I it was just me, so I wasn't managing anybody.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
It was my clients. I was like, man, no pressure here, How.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Did you know how much to charge?
Speaker 1 (32:23):
I just charged them the exact same thing. I was
already like, they were already paying.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
And so basically your customer said, started business, I'll be clients,
and other clients came cool.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
So now you got a gig yep. And then the
Marine Corps shows back up.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Oh yeah, it was I mean it was fantastic. From
August to the beginning of January. I was living my
best life.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
And now you're eight months pregnant.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Though, yeah, and I was due the end of January.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Got it.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
So Sean came home a week and a half before
Sawyer was born, so I think he came home around
like January fourteen, fifteenth. But I didn't have coverage for
my clients, so I had to get other assistants to
basically fill in for me, and I didn't want them
(33:13):
to lose confidence in me. So I scheduled two weeks
off to have Sawyer, which is insanity. Don't ever only
take two weeks off for maternity leave when you're having
a baby, ever. But it worked, and Sorry was born
the end of January and he was an infant and
(33:36):
I was recovering from a C section. Again, don't take
only two weeks off. So but it worked, and my
clients stuck with me and they were fantastic through that
crazy period of my life.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
And then you get to move.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, by the time I was kind of getting in
the swing of things with having an infant, run a
new company, Yeah, doing all that.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
Sean came home in April very excited.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
He was.
Speaker 6 (34:11):
He was like, they're setting up a new unit in Hawaii,
and I think I just stood there and I was like, wait,
what come again?
Speaker 1 (34:26):
And I went and sat in our bedroom closet and
I was like, I cried for like forty five minutes.
I was like, Holy crap, I I.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
Just had a baby. I'm just figuring this out, and
now I have to move six time zone.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
That's what I was going to ask. Five is Hawaii five?
Or it's six from North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Spring forward, spring forward is six, fall back is five?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Okay six six times soon.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
So I kind of imploded for about forty five minutes.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
And most of my clients were on the East Coast,
so I was like, well, this is going to be fun.
But I told him I was moving in October, so
I had a little bit of prep time too. There
is no guide to moving to Hawaii. It is insanity,
especially with a baby, and you don't have housing, and
(35:19):
it's a whole different ball game from being in North Carolina.
So that was a coordinating effort. So I tell my clients,
I said, we're moving with the Marine Corps. Didn't tell
them where I'm taking a week off. They were fine
with it.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
So I get to.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Hawaii in October of twenty sixteen. Keep in mind we're
still on the housing list.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
On the housing list, where do you live when you
don't have a house.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
The boq.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
It's basically a hotel on base of military, which was
fabulous with a ten month old at that point or
nine month old.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
And why didn't you tell your clients you're moving to Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I didn't want to freak them out and be like Okay,
you can't support me from Hawaii, and I wanted to
show them, not tell them, basically, And so we got there.
We were literally in a room that has a small kitchenette,
a bedroom, a playpen, and a bathroom.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
That was it because we didn't have housing, and we
didn't have housing for two months after we got to Hawaii.
So I had an infant basically still and a husband
who had to go to work in the morning. So
I was doing zoom calls and emails from the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Are you kidding now? At what time? That had to
been two or three in the morning.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I set my alarm for three am, so I was up.
I was in my client email by three fifteen Hawaii time.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Case you could be a commercial for red Bull or
I'm kind of stimuli.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
You know what. I've been trying to get sponsored by
any caffeine products for like ten years.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Let's do this.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
That's insane, it is.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
Looking back, I'm like, what the heck was wrong with me? Truly?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
But you needed you needed that.
Speaker 5 (37:16):
I needed you want ever ask like, why are you
doing the zoom call from a bathroom?
Speaker 4 (37:19):
No, because the way I had my the way I
have my setup.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Why is there right now?
Speaker 4 (37:26):
I can only see the door.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
I can always I can only see the door closed,
so oh yeah. I was like, yeah, I know, I'm
gonna just have to hold it. But uh, they could
only see the door at that point, so I was like,
all right, this works. And they didn't ask questions. They
were just like, how was your move? And I'm like,
I have my laptop sitting on the top.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Of the toilet, so.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Is it a toilet flushed or something? In the middle
of those.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Like, thank god, there's only one bathroom.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Oh my gosh, Okay, so how long how's that going?
Speaker 1 (38:04):
I did that for six weeks before we moved into
our house, and I was like, thank you Lord, I
don't have a back toilet as.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
A disc right now for calls. And it worked.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
It actually worked out really well because I would work
from three to noon Hawaii time, and taken out with
Sawyer in the afternoon and then I had the rest
of the day with him in Hawaii.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
So it was actually a really great setup.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
You made it work.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
I made it work, all right.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
So then I think, if I remember the story correctly,
A client calls and says, we're growing, we need more.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Yeah, So Shane, who is my co founder. He was
ACTUALLYE Shane mc.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Yeah, but your husband's name is Sean.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
It's Sean, Sean, Shawn and Shane.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Okay, So Shane.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Shane was one of my clients and he was actually
south By south West in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
He was in Austin, Texas.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
He was running a tech company at the time that
was growing and he was scaling and doing all kinds
of crazy things. And he called me and was like, hey,
we need we need you to scale. And I was like,
you mean scale like I have like I have a
one year old and like I'm in Hawaii, Like I
(39:26):
haven't slept in three years.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Like come on, I can't do this.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
I haven't slept in three years.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Like That's that's what it felt like. And I was
just like, Yeah, I'm gonna have to get back to
you on this. We're gonna have to think about it.
And one of my friends at the time actually came
to my house and she was a new military spouse
in Hawaii.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
And is it just as hard in Hawaii for military
good jobs the same?
Speaker 2 (39:57):
How long are you going to be here?
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Yeah, we're looking for someone more permanent that's not Germane
to only Jacksonville. It's all military spouses facing.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
That free military town around the world.
Speaker 5 (40:11):
Remember doctor Trina Clay you from given hour, She's a
military spouse, and remember she lied. She faced the exact.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Same issue exactly like most people. I've seen it on
Facebook pages constantly, I'm hiding the fact that I'm a
military spouse, Like, why the heck should you hide it?
Speaker 2 (40:33):
You should be in factor?
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Should where does badge of vine? And more importantly, employers
have an opportunity, not I'm not saying irresponsibility, but an
opportunity to maybe be a little supportive in.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
That role exactly and if they but they're not, and
I think it's because they feel like there's a bottleneck
in how they can support a military spouse or support
them in a remote capacity, because you.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Kind of get it.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
On the one hand, you spend a lot of time
and a lot of money, a lot of efforts employer
training somebody to be proficient in their job, and you
don't want to invest that amount of time and effort
training someone to be professionally their job for them to
them in a year and a half or two, get
transferred and you're starting over and so.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
But what if you can make it work remotely?
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Okay, that's I'm teeing you all but agreed. If you
can make her work remotely, then it doesn't matter when
they move.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
So but here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
So this guy, Shane, his business is blowing up, and
you have another military spouse friend and you bring on
and say.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Hey, I was I didn't bring her on at that point,
but I was like, you know what, if we're going
to do this, We're going to do this with military
spouses being the focus because you have an immense talent
pool that people are just completely glossing over and not
(42:00):
been trying to employ and making it their mission to employ.
So I said, let's do this. I didn't know how
the heck to start a company, and I knew enough
to be dangerous basically at that point.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
But you are surrounded your clients are all pretty high energy.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Business folks exactly, so you do have a pool of
mentors at YaST.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Shane was a fantastic He has been a fantastic mentor
over the past eight years. And he kind of gave
me the lay of the land and told me, Okay,
here's how you.
Speaker 4 (42:38):
Start putting the idea in minds. Here's how you.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Start talking about Squared Away and you know, just kind
of guiding me through the blueprint of what we were
trying to build.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
And that concludes Part one of my conversation with Michelle Pensack.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
And you don't want to miss part two. It's now
available to listen to it together. Guys, we can change
this country, but it starts with you. I'll see in
part two.
Host
Bill Courtney
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