052: Educating, empowering and positively contributing to the health and well-being of military families with C.C. Gallagher

Artwork for podcast Holding Down the Fort by US VetWealth

Episode 6 • 28th October 2020 • Holding Down the Fort by US VetWealth • Jen Amos

Jen Amos 0:00

Welcome to holding down the fort, a podcast show dedicated to curating knowledge, resources and relevant stories for today's military spouses so they can continue to make confident and informed decisions for themselves and their families. Because let's face it, we know who's really holding down the fort. I'm Jen a Moe's a gold star daughter, veteran spouse and your host for holding down the fort by us that wealth. Let's get started.

Okay, Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of holding down the floor. I am your co host Now Jen Amis and I'm really excited to invite my new co host once again, Jenny Lynch Stroup. Jaylen? Welcome to the show.

Unknown Speaker 0:50

Thanks. Glad to be here.

Jen Amos 0:51

Yeah. And for people that are hearing you for the first time, why don't you share with us just briefly a little bit about your background and what compelled you to co host on holding down the fort?

Speaker 1 1:00

Sure. I'm an active duty military spouse currently stationed in San Diego mama to elementary age, voice and early work in the mental health profession. I'm also a blogger and a writer. And I love being able to join Jen on these podcasts having been a former interviewee, but it's fun to now work with her and be an interviewer.

Jen Amos 1:25

Yeah, and I really appreciate that because I put this like email blast out there saying like, Hey, I think I need a co host. And you were really the first to respond. And, you know, I'm the kind of person that just likes to dive in right away with people and then I figure out if I don't like them or not along the way. So you know, that's just me. That's just how I operate. I just I trust people from the very beginning until I'm told not to trust them, or I find evidence not to trust them. But anyway, it's been great having you so far. Jennylyn. And I've really enjoyed your contribution to the conversations, especially because you are an active duty military spouse. So thank you for being here. Happy to. Yes. And with that said, we are excited to invite another person in our military community. Let me go ahead and introduce her to the show. We have here Christine Gallagher, who is mainly known as Cece. So CeCe is an army spouse, community advocate, entrepreneur and proud mother of two highly mobile military kids. She is the founder of military quality of life consulting, LLC, and the stressless PCs, Kitt, she is a highly accomplished, recognized leader and sought after expert how lucky are we to have her who's dedicated to improving the quality of life for military families across multiple industries. CeCe is a spouse of an active duty military army soldier and a mother. Oh, I already mentioned that. So she has experienced six military moves in the decade of marriage, two deployments and countless extended separations. Cece, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 2:47

Hey, thank you so much for having me. It is a pleasure to be here with you finally.

Jen Amos 2:53

Yes, yeah. Emphasis on finally, because, you know, we had talked a couple months ago with Stephanie Brown on her new podcast show, middle spouse launch, which I'm not sure if the time of this recording is going to be available or not. But yeah, that's an upcoming podcast show in case you want to learn more about Cece, she was on that as well. And, you know, months went by before we had this conversation, and we were talking about this offline, but I would love for you to share why it took the time that it did to have this conversation. Like COVID-19

Speaker 2 3:19

has just like flipped us all around this whole world around. Yeah. But when we spoke on Stephanie Brown's podcast with the Rosie network, that was what, March 8 March

Jen Amos 3:30

timeframe. Yeah, I think so. It was four months ago now. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 3:34

And then the world shut down, basically. And then my little children, I have two boys, very rambunctious, active boys. They were home all the time with me, which is okay, because I enjoy the time. But I knew that if we rescheduled during the time they were around, I would be about 2% with you and about 98% with them screaming, please do not kill yourself. So anyways, I'm now back in working mode. And they're back in the daycare and school age Center here in Fort Bliss. And so I am very blessed that we are we're in this predicament. So now I can focus on you. And Jenny, your co host, I'm so excited to be here and to meet her virtually as well.

Jen Amos 4:13

Yeah, and also offline. I know that Jenny Lynn was sharing with us her experiences having two sons,

Speaker 2 4:18

yes. For at least for us. It was it's still scary. I would say that just to be realistic, open and honest. But once the school shut down and they came home, it was trying to redefine what success was in our home. Right. And so I was trying to juggle clients I was working with the stress less PCs kid and also my boys being home on my husband's essential for the army. And so it was very interesting. We are still making it day by day. I feel like I became more primary caretaker which I typically am but now that daycare and schools were shut down, it's it's difficult. This is a stressful time for many parents with young kids.

Jen Amos 5:00

Yeah, absolutely. I

Unknown Speaker 5:00

totally agree.

Speaker 2 5:01

Danny, what are you? What are your thoughts? Because I know you have to be on boys.

Speaker 1 5:07

I think for us, so my boys were during the school year we just finished were third and fourth graders. And so you know, it really it took away their social network, they played baseball, it took away that and so we had a lot of like, grief and loss initially, and not really knowing where everybody fit because my husband is also a central personnel. But when everything first happened, they made everybody work from home. And so everybody was home. We were all in the same house, very small house because we live in California, and it's expensive. And my boys fundamentally didn't understand, like, well, daddy's here, and everybody's off. No one could see my air quotes, everybody's off. You know, why is he always on the phone? Why is he always on the computer? Why are we like, we don't have any school? Why is he still doing work? And so we had that was probably the harder transition for us. And then his base opened back up, and he went back to work every day. It's normalized a little bit. Yeah, I mean, trying to keep two kids entertained, when you can barely see people, there's nothing open. And now it's hot outside is really interesting predicament as parent,

Speaker 2 6:18

I'm gonna throw one more thing into that, because when schools shut down for us, it was in March for pretty much the whole nation. And it's like, not only are you trying to juggle the work, the parenting the children, but also trying to teach them and I was like, my background is not education, I'm not developed or, or, you know, in that area. And so I felt like such a failure, because I couldn't keep pace with my oldest son who's six, I couldn't keep pace with him. His attention span is super short. And so I felt like it was such a battle just to get him to work through spelling and math, and doing language arts. And while I'm chasing around my three year old Oh, and juggling a business, and all this is happening under one roof, because I'm by myself all day with them. So it was a lot. It is a lot. Yeah,

Speaker 1 7:06

we kind of we went the route of typically for public school, you're kind of done with main content teaching by Spring Break ish anyway. So it's mostly reviews. So for us as parents personally, we'd rather build good humans than like good readers and writers did a lot of like, this is how you sort laundry, and this is how you load the dishwasher. And this is how you participate in a family, and also read 30 minutes a day and do some math.

Speaker 2 7:36

There you go, Hey, their wives will thank you for that. I will tell you that. Yes.

Jen Amos 7:41

Yeah, I think it goes back to I don't know if we mentioned this offline, or the beginning of this conversation, but really defining what success looks like today, you know, what does it look like for the military spouse for the military family? So you know, with that said, I thought we could dive into one of my first questions, or maybe a second question at this point. But CC for people that are getting to know you for the first time. And I think given current events, I'm curious to know, what does your new normal look like today, if you can give us a snapshot at all of what that looks like for you?

Speaker 2 8:13

Oh, my new normal. So and my new normal I would say happened within the past few weeks because our kids started back at the Child Development Center in school age center on posts where we are. But before I felt like I was so imbalanced, because I was the full time caretaker right. And then a lot several of my clients put a stop on work in March because internally, they were focused on crisis communication. So for those who are just learning a little bit about my background, I own and operate an organization called military quality of life consulting, where I equip organizations to greater fulfill their mission of serving our military, in terms of like social impact operation and cause marketing. And so again, back in March, several, the clients were like, listen, we're gonna put a hole until things start to clear up. So naturally, as my portfolio shrank, I would say I still had a few clients I was working with. But it went from being full time working and to now full time mom mode 100% of the day, and then fitting in my clients in those like nooks and crannies of the day. So like before they woke up, and then at night, maybe during a nap time if I was lucky that our three year old went down, but that was not that not the norm. So now that they're back in daycare and the sack program, I have several clients who are reengaging. So I feel hopeful that it will continue to increase as businesses open. And as companies have gone through that massive shift over the past few months, and I'm even interfacing with new clients. So it's almost as if I've shifted a variety of things. So now I'm back into the full time work. My kids are taken care of with the new processes in place at the centers and my husband is still mission essential. In fact, he's flying across the country now. out of Fort Campbell to deliver an aircraft and I was like, Alright, here we I mean, it's just doesn't stop. So I'm like shifting. So now I'm going back and I'm trying to recalibrate and find that balance. Because when March happened, I felt like self care went out the window out, like all my processes inside the home went out, like we lost help and assistance that I was used to having inside our home. And so now I'm like starting to regain that and find that, you know, balance back inside of our home. So,

Jen Amos: 10:31

I know, I think it's important to talk about that, because, you know, it's not business as normal. I know, not, it's not like I can't do this show, and deny the fact that COVID has happened, that social distancing has happened that parents have to now be stay at home, like teach their kids at home. And so that's why I asked the question like, What is your new normal, because I can only imagine just just that process, like mentally, emotionally, physically, you know, from from the moment people said, Okay, your kids got to stay at home. It's like, Alright, what about my business, and then your clienteles are like, oh, you know, what we're going to take a step back for now. And it's like, all these things that are going on. And so I appreciate you painting that picture, because it's almost a completely different conversation than what we had with Stephanie Brown

: 11:15

100%, because I was at the beginning of COVID. And she's like, well, what's happening with everything. But I will also say, I went through a period. And as Jenny was talking about a grief, and I felt like I was mourning, the change in our schedule, I felt like we I was on such a positive trajectory in so many different ways. And then I just hit a wall. And a lot of people feel that way. And so some days, I would feel like a failure, because I'm like, I built this business. And I was doing all this, but it was, it's out of my control. And I've also learned, like you can't worry about things that are out of your control. And I also realized that I'm lucky because my husband, even though his mission essential, like his income is still part of our financial stability. We're in a house on an installation that we're not in jeopardy of losing, he has a stable paycheck, I've hopefully practice smart business practices and saving income within my bank account. So that way, I can continue to execute my salary through that. And so I've taken steps, maybe not for this pandemic, but just in, you know, best business practices to support us. But I mean, gosh, it's so many things have happened. And now I'm feeling like, Okay, I'm hopeful. I'm seeing the light, I'm seeing a shift, I'm feeling more positive. And yeah, and just grateful for many things. I'm trying to focus on like the positives and being grateful, as best as I can.

Jen Amos: 12:39

Yeah, for sure. Just waking up and counting your blessings before the anxiety kicks in. And you're just like, what's going on today, I don't want to get out of bed.

: 12:51

Yeah, that was the story of our life. Like, the current professional position that I hold, I got two weeks into COVID, I was hired two weeks into COVID, the day that the California governor, like officially shut down all the things like we'd already been on the school, but like, literally, I got the call an hour before the announcement came out that everything was closed. So I'm an outreach coordinator for mental health clinic. And I've done all of my outreach from this very chair in this very room for the last four months, which is not how I envision being an outreach coordinator. And while there's been great strides and a lot of fun, and a lot of like, doing something I really love, there's been some grief associated with that too, because I thought I would be out there, like shaking hands and kissing babies and like really meeting people. And instead, I'm sending a lot of email, and talking to people on Zoom. And so it's been a very, very strange time. And you know, I try to wake up every day and go, yeah, and you're still doing something you love. Eventually, it'll go back to something more like what you thought it was, hopefully? Yeah,

Jen Amos: 14:00

awesome. Well, you know, on that note, I know that I sort of had like an agenda at the beginning of this, but I feel like I want to pivot a little bit or not pivot, but like, kind of continue on this. There's a word for that continue on this track. And so you mentioned CeCe that you are super mindful, or you kind of establish new best business practices in this time. And I think this is important to share, especially for military spouses that are in business for themselves, because I'm sure a lot of them have had to pivot as well and change the rules to their own game. So I would love for you to share what are those best business practices that you have come up with and are implementing nowadays?

: 14:39

Oh, goodness, I feel like I'm more mindful of my finances. I'm a really bad math person, finance person. And so it takes me like 10 times longer than I would take anyone else to like look through profit and loss statements and my balance sheets each month or every other week. And so I felt like when everything happened in March, I had to get very laser focused on finances within my business and start to prioritize, okay, what's the necessity? What can I live without? How am I going to decrease my costs and the business in order to stay profitable, right, even though what we are experiencing. So that was a big effort for me is to like really dive into the financial, you know, aspects of it, because again, it takes me a lot longer in that area. Whereas I'm much better with, you know, marketing or working on other aspects of the internal business side. Other business practices, other things I love to do is communicate with other business owners, you know, and like, try to be in, like masterminds. And maybe that's not the right term, but ask about other people's best practices, like, what are you doing? And how are you pivoting. But I think the other piece of this is back to that redefining what success look like. Because I feel as if, as we were going through this, it's like, I had to redefine it with our kids being home. So I had to be mindful to not always be working or trying to gain that new client or trying to do outreach or service the businesses. So I feel like there was a lot more mindfulness when it came inside of our house that yeah, finances, family tried to recalibrate.

Jen Amos: 16:11

Know what it sounds to me just recap what you said, just so I understood. The first thing is finances. The second thing is to confide in other like minded business owners and see how they're doing. And then redefining success, knowing that you're not the only one at home anymore. Yeah, that's exactly what it sounds like. And so I'm also curious to know, oh, actually, in addition to your kids, like how you're redefining success with your kids in mind, I'm curious to know how this also affects your relationship with your spouse with your husband, because obviously, this is not just a mom and Kid decision, this is a family decision. So if you don't mind airing out the dirty laundry. How does that look like lately

: 16:54

for you, my husband and I, we're the best friends I love, love, love. Cameron is my husband, husband's name. I feel like we have also gone through a period of more clarity and communication. I feel like we've also had to redefine our conversations and terms of how we can help each other. And you know, like in our life, we moved from place to place, you know, like, we're just go go go all the time. And when COVID hit, I felt like we had to step back and again, reevaluate a lot of how our family was operating, or how we were communicating with each other with our kids. And so, I mean, we went as far as to taking what is it like The Five Love Languages test and start figuring out like, Okay, what is it that I can do for you? Am I fulfilling your need when it comes to he's acts of service, and I'm words of affirmation. So it's like, we'll send each other, you know, different ideas and examples, but we're more vocal about us helping each other as a team and as a front parental friend. So we had a lot of conversations over this and what it looks like for our family, and then for us how we are operating as parents to and of the married couple. Because sometimes I also feel like I don't need to go on a tangent, but with the busyness of our life, I feel like it just sometimes we can be ships passing in the night. And so it gave us time to kind of come together to again redefine what we look like and then start supporting each other in a different way.

Jen Amos: 18:23

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I think the beauty of living the military life is that you are conditioned to adapt. And it sounds like that is what you did as a family. In addition to everything that you have already shared a lot of really the blessings that came out of this, is there one major blessing or one big benefit that came out of this pandemic that you're noticing so far, you can always tell yourself everyday like, wow, this would not have happened if the pandemic did not happen.

: 18:52

I'm more mindful of my self care. I don't know. So that's one piece of this. And I hate I dislike sounding so selfish. But I feel like I have to. And I feel like as military spouses, we don't focus on ourself enough because we're so worried about taking care of everyone else and making sure that they are good to go. And so over the past couple of months, again, everything shut down. And so now I'm like, okay, what can I do to feel fulfilled. So whether that's dedicating time to working out or going to get your nails done, of course, wearing masks and you know, doing the best that you can, whether it's drinking a cup of coffee before the kids wake up in the morning, and just having that quiet time watching a Netflix show and not feeling guilty about it, or diving into a book that you've been wanting to read. So it's just for me, it's redefining the self care and realizing that I can't serve others if I'm not, like, relaxed and rested and feel like I can show up for everyone else around me. Yeah, no, I

: 19:55

mean, I think that's a common struggle, especially among military spouses. doesn't feel selfish to say we need some time. And also, we need some time. You know, having started working during this, I've been working part time, most of the time we were in California, this my first full time gig and a really long time because I'm losing kids and licensing issues and things. You know, I realized so part of my self care routine looks like getting up in the morning and journaling and doing a little reading and some writing. And I used to do that really regularly. Well, now the desk that used to be like my safe haven, my place where I did all that is where my work computer sets. And so I've noticed, like, over the last couple of months, like Saturday and Sunday, I don't even walk in or home office, because that is the place that I work now. And it is no longer that like, safe, quiet space. Yeah. And so I've really had to start looking at what does that mean for me to get back into the things that I know help keep me healthy, because my quiet place is now my workplace. And I just don't really want to go in there on the weekend. Even though I love my job. It's just like I'm here eight hours a day. So Right. You know, I think that's been one of the things to come out of this is like, again, redefining what it looks like to be a healthy person.

: 21:13

Yes. And I love how you pointed out redefining spaces in your home, right. So even with your kids like their toys, or in one area, their schoolwork or practice, whatever that looks like isn't a different one for us. It's kind of redefining what that looks like. And my home office, which you can see behind me because we're looking at each other on video. But I shut the door just like you when I leave for the day I shut the door because I don't want to look at it or go in here because then my mind kind of sets off like I got to work work work. So redefining spaces in your home has been a big thing for us to treat it. Yeah.

Jen Amos: 21:52

Wow. Yeah, I feel it. Wow, we covered so many things in just like 10 minutes. This is amazing. I was like I'm here thinking like watching the clock is like, I don't really have to watch the clock right now. Like we've covered the current alive. So Cece, I want to go back to you know, just, I mean, genuine, thank you for sharing. I was gonna acknowledge that I can't just like jumped in next thing because my mind's going. But yeah, I was just thinking about, you know, your clientele. And you did mention how you're having new clients now. And I think this is important to address. But yeah, I'm curious to know, like, What are you teaching your clients today? What type of services are you providing? In a way I'm asking this to to give insight to our listeners that may be, you know, new in business, or may may even consider wanting to talk to you, and knowing what what they should talk to your approach to you about?

: 22:37

Yes. Okay. So let me back up a little bit when I launched this business, the military quality of life consulting, my goal was to and it has been to maintain a remote environment, right. For me, that was a non negotiable on defining what success look like inside the business because we move so often, right? And so for me, I service clients remotely unless I'm requested to travel to their headquarters or to an event where they're at. And obviously, in the past couple months, all the travel, non stop for the foreseeable future. So everything I'm doing is remotely. I do want to mention a really neat campaign with a client called the Alabama military stability Foundation, and it's hosted out of the Lieutenant Governor's Office of Alabama. And they the Foundation approached me about eight months ago. And the goal of this campaign is to create a welcoming environment for military families to enter into the state of Alabama. And it's been our home several times because Fort Rucker is home of Army aviation, and that's where my husband has been stationed. And so we just launched this campaign called the hero's welcome initiative. And it's put out in the in the public right now. But we were working with all defense leaders across the state, we are working with local national federal resources to place them on there. So military families could just go to one location when they move into Alabama, and find everything that they need. Instead of searching for Google of you know, where do I find childcare? How do I integrate my kids into sports and activities or Housing Offices, it's all right there for them across the state. And so that is one client who I was able to maintain work with, because we were all remote. And now we're just working on, you know, engagement and outreach and sharing the resource of people who will benefit and military families that will benefit for so that's a client but other work I'm doing has a lot to do with engagement communication. So a lot of emails, a lot of phone calls, Zoom calls, focusing on support the military community,

: 24:38

I'm fascinated listening to like getting everything all in one space. I think that as military spouse, probably one of the most frustrating things about this lifestyle is that there are 10s of 1000s of resources and unless you know somebody who knows somebody who knew about that resource, it was hard to figure out what's out there because there's you know, 10 1000 things come out of fleeting family, there's 10,000 things come out of military, one source, there's a lot of great places, but no one has all of it all in one place. And so you're still going to multiple

: 25:10

spots. And well I see is that families are so fatigued with resources, right? You said, there's 10,000 come out of this. And the thing is, we're appreciative, and we love getting the information, we love digesting it, and we love sharing it amongst our community. But there's been those bad apples, where it's not an a credible resource, or they're trying to take advantage of the military community, which is so sad. And so you have families who are just fatigued, and they're like, I can't move again, I don't feel like I can handle this or, and especially with COVID, a lot of families who are moving now are just so overwhelmed by it, because they have to move. But now they're trying to figure out their new location, this new world, we're living in an overall fatigue of, you know, almost 20 years of war. And so there's a lot that goes into, to the life. So yeah, so that the Foundation's work out in the state of Alabama was a really neat project to work on. And at least for those families moving into it, I think it'll be great. One Stop Shop for them.

Jen Amos: 26:13

Fantastic. That's one reason why I love doing the shows, because I got to hear what our community is doing today, you know, to make our lives easier. And yes, as you both have mentioned, there's an abundance of resources out there. But I like to believe that if you hear about resource through someone, you know, like and trust, you're more likely to, you know, take on that resource, then, you know, if you Google it, you know, for example, you know, obviously, CeCe you have a passion in what you do. And I know it comes from an experience you had some time ago, where you had to resign. And so I would love for you to really share the why behind military quality of life consulting, without crying, and I'm just kidding.

: 26:55

About that, yeah, you guys did not prep me for this part. Thanks. No. And so I'll tell you the story. So I launched this business in 2015. Okay, and at that time, I was working for a national organization, we were stationed in Washington, DC, and I have had the opportunity across my professional life to work across multiple industries, including Teaching in Higher Education working for two of the nation's leading military service organizations, as well as working as an agile IT project manager and defense contractor supporting Spouse Employment transition for the Defense Department. But we are in DC, my husband gets orders, right that you know, the story, and is like we are moving out of here, we're headed to Colorado, and my employer at the time, you know, I bring them I don't bring them the orders, I bring them the news. And I'm like, I'm devastated. I've been in this position for several years. I oversee this portfolio for Spouse employment, education, and currently serving programs with national organization. And we're leaving, and I said, Is there any way that I can redefine this in a remote capacity because I can't stay in DC if he's leaving, and we had a one and a half year old. And so they're like, sorry, we just can't keep you on remotely. And I think it was a perfect storm because their leadership was turning over. And they their HR systems just weren't set up for it, which was really, really upsetting. So I was like, let me be your first let me figure this out for you. You've known me for years, I'm reputable, credible, all the things. So it did not work out. So I go home that night, as I like writing my unfortunate resignation letter to turn in. We're PCs and a couple of weeks, and I'm just crying on my kitchen floor. And I'm like Cameron again, like this is my fifth job out of graduate school. I'm having to redefine myself again, what am I going to do when we go to Colorado, I'm just so exhausted. I'm so exhausted of it all. So he's just like, CeCe just just started a consulting business. You work with a lot of these national organizations and brands and they want to continue to work with you. It's just not in the capacity you're in for. So I log on to like Legal Zoom and to buy the you know, incorporate the business. I made up the name military quality of life consulting, and like we'll see where this goes. Oh, Daddy by the URL, and QL llc.com. And here we go. And I said okay, and so I had it like my first job, which was writing a blog for a chant, right communications channel organization. And I like hanging that first check of whatever it was on my off like my office while air quotes were We were but I was so proud. And like, yes, like, the ball at this point. Maybe it'll pay for, like the incorporation of the business but, but that's how it started. So I started out of distress. And for me, I was just like, I don't want other families to continue to feel this way to continue to feel like they have to move and they have to reinvent themselves because our unemployment rate for spouses is so high. It's over 2% And it's a topic I've been working at a variety at a different levels of federal level, national level, state level, and then of course locally, for years advocating for Spouse Employment, licensure, reciprocity, unemployment, compensation, all those topics. So, at the same time that I'm launching this business, my resume gets farmed out by my network. And I get hired by this IT company out of Crystal City, it was a great company. And I had the opportunity to work spouse, employment and spouse transition for the for four years with them while I was building this business, because it was like passion projects that I'd worked on the side. And then last year, when we PCs to Bliss. So we went from Carson, Colorado, to Fort Irwin, California. And here we are at Fort Bliss, Texas. And I was just starting to get burned out, you know, and I was working full time for the IT company. And my business just started to grow and take off. And then I started developing the stress less PCs kit. And I looked at camera and my husband like what do I do, like, I'm really conflicted. I love my clients on this side. And he's just like, make the leap. Just go straight into your business. Now you're out earning what you're making, and the private sector, you're having more impact, because you're working across multiple industries and helping multitude of people. So just do it. And so that's really what I did. And so here we are just about a year later. And I'm redefining success in my business, and in life, and then COVID. And then we are again, trying to build it back up. So

Jen Amos: 31:30

well, that's a very powerful story, Cece, and I appreciate you so much for elaborating on that and sharing that impactful time in your life. That was really the catalyst. And we have to give a shout out to your husband, Cameron for being so. So encouraging, you know, so shout out to him, and we appreciate him. Because otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation today and talking about the good work that you're doing for the military community.

: 31:55

I'll pass that on to him. I know he positive reinforcement goes a long way. And

Jen Amos: 32:00

I'll do like, I'll get like an audio clip in there. And just like that, just that compliment and play it on repeat as much as he wants to. Take a note. I mean, it's recorded. So I'll take a note to myself, you know, for funsies. But again, you didn't give it to your husband, right? Yes. I love it.

: 32:17

I think it's great. I think a lot of us share similar story on leaving things we loved and having to reinvent ourselves over and over and over again. I think it's wonderful that you found something that feels right and good for you and also impacts the community were a part of. Yeah.

: 32:35

Oh, thank you. Yes, that's exactly you articulated very well. Thank you.

Jen Amos: 32:40

Well, you know, on that note, Cece, I think a great way to wrap up is to talk about the stressless PCs kit. And I think it sounds pretty self explanatory. But why don't you tell people what that is and how they can learn more about it. Oh, okay. So

: 32:53

this is a product I recently launched. And it while I expanded the mission of military product, Stress Less PCs kid to serve military families directly. So it's an all in one labeling system to help ensure an organized move. And so the kit includes 240, color coded labels that identify eight different rooms in your house. It has 12 door hangers that you identify how you went the movers packers, where your family to label the rooms, and then it has an instruction sheet and a room chart to help you quantify the boxes and forecasts what level you know our level and your next time that those boxes are going to. So it's really a project management tool to help you with movement of your household goods.

Jen Amos: 33:37

Yeah, and I remember we were talking about this with Stephanie Brown, I was just like, oh my gosh, that sounds like I mean, everyone should have that actually, they move a lot. But I just, you know, in addition to your consulting, you are providing a resource, such as the stressless PCs kit, to really make our military families lives easier. So thank you so much for that. And we will provide that information in the show notes for anyone that wants to learn more about that. See, see. I mean, I've had another wonderful conversation you really this is our second conversation at this point. And I just love your compassion and passion, you know, for the military community and what you continue to do and how you continue to adapt. So we're honored to have you here today. So thank you, again, so much for your time, Jenny Lind, just want to see if you had any closing thoughts that you wanted to add before we wrap up,

: 34:22

I'm grateful to learn about another really good military resource perhaps having a PCs in our near future. I'm gonna throw that one away. I tried a similar tactic on our way out here, but between Connecticut and California, things got dismantled, you know, all the things so having a really organized system would make me feel a lot better.

Jen Amos: 34:47

Yeah, definitely sec. This will be provided in the show notes, but just so for our listeners who are maybe driving and they you know, they don't want to like look at the show notes. Why don't you share just a couple more resources or ways people can get a hold of you in case they want to contact you

: 34:59

goober okay, sure, military quality of life consulting our website is MQO llc.com. And we're on Facebook and LinkedIn. The stress less PCs kid is stress less PCs kit.com. And we're on Facebook and Instagram. But certainly feel free to visit us reach out my email addresses are on the websites if there's anything I can help with, whether it's a mentorship or giving you any tips or areas that I failed in but figured out a solution to you. Let me know I have Garrett ready to assist.

Jen Amos: 35:31

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it having you,

: 35:36

Jen, this has been such a pleasure. Next time. We won't make it months. We see each other and get to chat. And thank you for everything that you're doing for our community. You are such a shining light with everything going on. And it is such a pleasure to listen to your podcast radio is I love your newsletter. And I really appreciate you and Jenny. It is such a pleasure to virtually connect with you. And I hope we continue to stay in touch. Yeah, absolutely.

: 36:03

I've already got your LinkedIn page up. You'll hear from me. That was me there.

Unknown Speaker: 36:07

Yes.

Jen Amos: 36:09

Fantastic. Awesome. And also gentleman, I want to thank you for CO hosting with me as always in this new season together. No super fun. Glad to be here. Yeah. All right. And to our listeners. We hope that today's episode gave you one more piece of knowledge, resource or relevant story so you can continue to make confident and informed decisions for you and your family. We look forward to speaking with you in the next episode. Tune in next time

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