Welcome to the very first episode of the military spouse careers and business podcast!
I’m so excited to be launching this new podcast to bring you inspiring stories from military spouses, caregivers, and veterans all over the country and world about how they’ve pivoted and either gone into business for themselves or navigated professional development and having a career with all of the unique challenges of being a military spouse. In this podcast, you’ll hear practical, actionable tips, but you’ll also hear stories and interviews with military spouses and advocates who have done the thing. You’ll hear tips on writing resumes, how to find a remote job convincing your employer to let you go remote, and how to be successful even with careers like those working in medicine, or in education where it can be difficult to move often. I started this podcast and got into work as a military spouse employment advocate from firsthand experience.
Join me for this journey and work together towards eradicating military spouse unemployment and underemployment.
Things we discussed in this episode:
- How freelancing opened hundreds of different doors for Laura, including working with clients all over the world
- Why it’s important for us to figure out how we can best advocate for ourselves
- How Laura found a way to navigate having a career and having a professional life that she could be proud of, and something that was unique to her, that would follow her from one duty station to another
- Unemployment rates of 24% affect military spouses, and that doesn’t include the even bigger number of between 30 and 51% of military spouses who are estimated to be under-employed
- The goal here is to help military spouses learn the options that are available to you and to help you build a career and find a dream job or a dream business that you want to do
- Laura is the executive director and founder of Operation Freelance and has been working for well over a year with military spouses to build remote freelance flexible careers, offered through a 90-day certification program that is completely free to program participants
Meet Laura:
Laura Briggs is empowering the freelance generation. Through her public speaking, coaching, and writing, she helps freelancers build the business of their dreams without sacrificing all their time, family, or sanity. Laura burned out as an inner-city middle school teacher before becoming an accidental freelancer with a Google search for “how to become a freelance writer.” Since then, she’s become a contributor to Entrepreneur, Business Insider, and Writer’s Weekly. She worked for more than 300 clients around the world including Microsoft, Truecar, and the Mobile Marketing Association. She’s delivered two TEDx talks on the power of the freelance economy for enabling freedom and flexibility and how it’s being used to address the technical skills gap in the U.S. Laura is the host of the Advanced Freelancing podcast, a sought-after public speaker on the gig and digital freelance economy, and a freelance coach focused on aspiring six-figure freelancers. Laura’s books, courses, and coaching have reached over 11,000 people.
As a military spouse, Laura is passionate about serving her community and founded Operation Freelance, a nonprofit organization that teaches veterans and military spouses how to become freelancers and start their own business.