Trying to navigate a career as a military spouse is tough! But having your own thing is possible! In today’s episode, we chat with Mary Elaine Baker, a military spouse veteran who chose to leave her teaching career for a better work-life balance. She became a virtual assistant and eventually created VAUSA, a company that connects military spouses with virtual job opportunities.
We talk about her journey from brand new military wife and mom to now living a life that allows her time freedom and flexibility, while pursuing a mission that she is passionate about. Mary Elaine shares about the joys and challenges of starting your own business as a military spouse and what it looks like to pursue a dream, while still navigating military life and dealing with frequent deployments. We talk about work-life balance as a military spouse, finding your own identity, communicating with your active duty military member, the importance of knowing your why, work from home jobs for military spouses, and the skills you need to become the person you want to be.
You’ll walk away from this episode feeling both encouraged and inspired to chase your own dreams and find something that you can take with you wherever you go!
– The MilSpouse Mastermind
TRANSCRIPTION
Mary Elaine:
I was starting to feel very burnt out, and this is what led me to change my career was both of my children were in daycare, my teacher’s paycheck was pretty much going to pay for daycare, Brett was in Afghanistan. And I also had a side hustle to supplement my income. And I was just exhausted, beyond exhausted. I really felt like I was failing in a lot of areas of my life.
Mary Elaine:
You need something to call your own, you need something that’s going to challenge you and that’s going to bring you joy. And if you can find something that you can take with you wherever you go, that’s powerful.
Christine:
You, my friend, were made for more. More than the managing of schedules, keeping up with kiddos and holding down the home front. Hi, I’m Christine, a military spouse of over 10 years, mom of little and self professed coffee conessuer. I believe you have something valuable to offer. And when you pursue the things that light your heart on fire, you trade frustration for fulfillment and isolation for a life of impact. Welcome to the Mil Spouse Mastermind Show. We’ll help you navigate life as a military spouse, prioritize what matters most, and show you that you don’t have to wait for tomorrow to chase your dreams. It’s time to discover who you are meant to be, because together, we can change the world.
Christine:
Okay guys, you are going to love this episode. Today I’m sharing my conversation with Mary Elaine Baker. Mary Elaine is a former military spouse who traded in her teaching career for life as a virtual assistant. And now she runs VAUSA, a company that connects military spouses with virtual work from anywhere opportunities. If you’re at home, I highly recommend you grab a pen and a paper and take some notes. Because Mary Elaine drops some great nuggets of wisdom. We talk about work life balance as a military spouse, how to start something new, and what it takes to leave the comfort of a 9:00 to 5:00 job and step out into working for yourself, and the flexibility and freedom that comes along with it. If you have been searching for a way to work from home or find a job that you can take with you when you move, you’ll definitely want to listen in to this conversation. Without further ado, let’s dive into my conversation with Mary Elaine Baker.
Christine:
I am so excited to welcome Mary Elaine Baker to the show today. Mary Elaine, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started and how you got to where you are today?
Mary Elaine:
Yes, thank you so much for having me on. I am the president and co-founder of VA USA. I grew up in a military family and I married an Army Ranger. Right now, we live in Savannah, Georgia. My husband actually got out of the military just over two years ago. We have two small children and for the first five year of our marriage, I was an educator. I left education to become a virtual assistant and eventually my husband and I created a business around the success of my experience of being a virtual assistant. That is how VA USA came to be.
Christine:
Awesome. Well, I am so excited for you to share more about your story with our audience, just because I know that there are so many spouses out there that have gone through these career transitions and trying to figure out how do I build a career? How do I find a way to contribute, while we’re living this crazy military lifestyle? You said you grew up as part of a military family. So, were you aware when you got married, that this was going to be a crazy ride and that it might be difficult to really pursue your own thing?
Mary Elaine:
Yes, I would say I was aware that it would greatly alter any future plans that I had. However, when I met my husband, we had a very up and down relationship, especially while we dated. And we had our daughter a couple of years before we actually got married or even lived together. So, that was a huge curve ball for both of us. And we really had to grow up and learn how to be parents before we could learn how to be husband and wife and make that big commitment to each other. So, yes, I knew … I mean, no matter what, I knew that my future would be changed forever because I had now a small child. A lot of my plans had to change, no matter what. Because at that point I was getting my undergrad in theater, had plans to travel around the country and just explore what this great world has to offer. And then that’s when I decided I would explore education because I knew my child would need some more stability in her life, because her father would be gone quite often. That’s why I chose the career path of education.
Christine:
Do you think there was elements of your desire to pursue theater that you were able to bring into your teaching career?
Mary Elaine:
That’s a very good question. Theater taught me a lot about how to speak publicly, how to really get out of my comfort zone and be in front of a group of people, whether it be a group of children or a group of adults. And it also helped me tap into some creativity. And absolutely, I would like to think I was a very fun teacher because of that background. So, yeah, I would say so.
Christine:
I’m sure that you were definitely a fun teacher. Can you talk a little bit about how you navigated the going to school with a spouse and a young child and how life balance was navigating that season of life?
Mary Elaine:
For the first two years of my daughter’s life I was pursuing my master’s in education full time. I also had part time jobs periodically throughout those two years. And my now husband, then on again off again boyfriend, was deploying frequently through that time. So, I was very, very fortunate that my parents actually helped me a lot to navigate those very tumultuous waters, and also adjust to parenthood and be able to get my master’s as quick as I could. How was I able to navigate work life balance during those first couple of years? It really was by the grace of God, by my amazing parents, and really just my determination and grit to get that degree under my belt and obtain a career that would offer stability for us.
Mary Elaine:
Then when we got married, that was … I had just become a teacher at that point and during the first year of our marriage, I got pregnant with my son. Again, my husband’s deploying frequently throughout this timeframe. And just for reference, they deploy for about four months and then they’re home for about six months. And when they’re home, they’re often gone training somewhere. So, that’s the kind of cycle we lived for many years. I knew the importance, because I grew up in that military lifestyle, of having a very strong support system. I had very close family friends and other military spouses that I would lean on to help me when times were really tough.
Mary Elaine:
At one point I was starting to feel very burnt out, and this is what led me to change my career, was both of my children were in daycare. My teacher’s paycheck was pretty much going to pay for daycare. Brett was in Afghanistan and I also had a side hustle to supplement my income. And I was just exhausted, beyond exhausted. I really felt like I was failing in a lot of areas of my life. We like to throw around that phrase work life balance, I think a lot. And I mean, I even have that on our website because that’s one of the things that we try to help our clients and our virtual assistants have, by offering a remote work opportunity. But the reality is, every season of your life is going to require different give and takes in different areas of your life. For that season of my life, I was ready for a career change. I just knew that that was where my heart was pulling me towards because I felt it. Mentally and physically I felt it. That is why I made that change. I knew I needed to balance things out a little better for myself at that time.
Christine:
I feel like so many of our listeners can relate to your story, just about feeling overwhelmed by trying to manage it all, especially with a spouse or a significant other who’s gone a lot. And when we bring kids into the picture, wanting to make sure that they are taken care of and that we’re able to manage everything at home. And sometimes it just feels a little overwhelming. Talk about your path to a virtual assistant. How did you hear about it? What path led you there?
Mary Elaine:
Yeah. My last year of teaching was really kind of the year that I knew that it was going to be my last year. I was just thinking of okay, what else out there could allow me to still contribute financially to my family and not have me working nights and weekends? That was the biggest thing for me. The side hustle that I had was involved in the wedding industry, so that took up a lot of my weekends and evenings. So, I really knew I wanted to have something that I could still work when my kids were in school or they weren’t school age yet, that I could still be home with them or have maybe part time care, but not full time. At that point, my kids were in daycare from sun up to pretty much sun down for many periods of my career.
Mary Elaine:
I became really good friends with my room mom, my last year of teaching. She was working from home as a virtual assistant with another company. And the more I learned about it, the more I thought, “Oh, I think I can do that.” And what really appealed to me was the flexibility, was the ability to make your own hours, and the fact that I could take my job with me wherever I went, as long as I had wifi and my phone I could still take my job anywhere and be able to really cherish those random four day weekends that were thrown at us as a military family. Or for my husband, he couldn’t really pick when he had leave, and it was never during convenient holiday time really. It was either right-
Christine:
It never is.
Mary Elaine:
No. It was always right before and after a deployment. And I would very … I can’t even really remember a time, maybe if it happened to fall around Christmastime or something, where I could enjoy the full leave with him. As time went on, that hurt worse and worse for me. And as our children were getting a little bit older, I became more and more painfully aware of how precious our time was together. I started asking more questions and then I made the decision that summer to try it out. Originally I was with another company and I quickly left that company after a few months. I was offered another position with another company or another business, where I would take on a full time marketing role. And I actually didn’t even end up taking that role, and I just started working independently.
Mary Elaine:
I soon found myself leaving a steady paycheck, no matter how measly it was, it was steady, I was getting the benefits, I was checking all the boxes that my parents wanted me to check after getting that piece of paper and that degree. But I left all that security and stability to be completely independent, on my own, having to create everything from the ground up. And that kind of all happened within a few short months, it really did. By six to nine months later, I created a new norm for myself. And once I got adjusted, there was no turning back for me. I loved it, with every fiber of my being I loved it. If my daughter ran a fever in the middle of the night, there was no calling my boss at 6:00 AM telling them, “Hey, I need a substitute to take care of my class.” Or me frantically trying to find someone to come stay with my child. I had the freedom to take care of my family any minute that they needed me.
Mary Elaine:
I had complete time freedom. I did not realize how precious that time freedom was. I knew I was yearning for that. But I didn’t even realize how much I needed it and how incredibly liberating it was to have complete control of my time. There’s so much irony when you become part of a military family or you marry someone in the military, that my spouse was sacrificing his own freedoms to be able to have freedom for other people. And when I married my husband, I pretty much married the Army. I gave up a lot of my own personal freedom for the man that I love and for the country that I love too. I have no regrets, absolutely no regrets for that. But when I didn’t realize that I needed so desperately was just a little bit more control. And I finally had control of my time. And that meant everything for me. And that means everything to me, to this day.
Christine:
I think that time freedom is so important. And it’s something that so many of us are seeking and we’re just not sure how to go about getting that. I know that the jobs that I’ve had where they gave me more freedom and flexibility in how I structured my schedule, it meant the world to me. And the more that I looked into this, the more that I saw that this idea of starting your own thing, of building your own business, of working for yourself could give you that flexibility that so many jobs can’t. And yet, there’s that element of being scared to make the leap into doing something that doesn’t feel safe. What was the scariest part of making that leap into working for yourself? What were some of those things that you were hesitant about and how did you make yourself say, “Hey, I’m going to try this, even though I don’t know what the outcome’s going to be.”?
Mary Elaine:
The scariest part … There were a lot of scary moments for me. I mean, I just think of that phrase do it scared. Do it anyway. Because that’s exactly what I did. I just executed. And I would say the scariest thing was just the unknown and not knowing if I was going to succeed or fail. I’m very much a high achiever, I like being exceptionally well at anything that I do. The scariest thing for me was that I pretty much had to self teach all these skills, all of these tools, all of these processes. I learned a lot of it from scratch and doing my own personal research. It was, navigating entrepreneurship was sometimes very lonely, a lot of times very lonely. Because there was no one for me to kind of look up to and say, “What now?” It was just me looking in the mirror. And I had always had a strong community, a strong support system in all of my other jobs that I’d ever had, I’d been working since I was a teenager.
Mary Elaine:
Not having that, was … I would say that was very scary for me. But my husband and I were doing it together. And it’s not like he knew a lot about the world of virtual assisting, he didn’t. But we learned how to entrepreneurs together. He was learning with me, I just couldn’t look to him. And he didn’t have all the answers. It was just, “Hey, we don’t know, so we’re going to go figure it out together.” But we did have some great mentors that helped. And those were actually some of my first clients that I’ve ever had, and they’ve become very good friends of mine over the years.
Christine:
I think so often we feel like we have to figure this all out on our own. And there’s so many resources out there to help us take that next step and mentors who are willing to help us. Sometimes the hardest part is trying to figure out how we connect with these mentors and those people that can help take us to the next level. How did you go about building that support system for yourself and finding those mentors that would help you grow?
Mary Elaine:
I first had to ask myself what kind of business owner do I want to be? What kind of leader do I want to show up as? When people think of me, when people work for me, how do I want to make them feel when they’re working for me? So, I started thinking about all the great leaders that I’ve had in my past jobs and who were the people that I looked up to? Who were the people that said, “Jump,” I would jump. I would ask, “How high?” The people I would be willing to sacrifice for. I just reflected on what made them that way? What did they do and how did they act for me to be so loyal to them? And I started to think of okay, who are the people in my world right now that are business owners that I can look to and that I want to show up as? Who are respected and that I can learn from? Very fortunately, I had even my own clients that emulated those leadership skills that I so desired to have and mold into. And they helped me tremendously.
Christine:
That right there is gold. I think when we talk about launching something new or building a business starting out on our own, it’s so easy to focus on the what do we do and how do we do it? Rather than starting from the point of who do we want to be and how do we want to show up? So, thank you for sharing that. I guess my next question is at what point were you like, “I want to take entrepreneurship to the next level and really build a team and a business out of this.”?
Mary Elaine:
Well, I started to get a lot of questions as time went on about, “What are you doing? How is that working? Is this real?” And the more I talked to my friends and other military spouses, I realized they are experiencing a lot of what my husband and I went through. They were going through a lot of the stress and exhaustion and what do I do? We’re going to move in six months. I’m going to have to start my career over. And I realized the need in the military community for military spouses in particular was so huge. And it wasn’t until I had that time freedom I’m talking about, that it just kind of clicked for my husband and I. Of, “Oh my goodness, we found something that works so beautifully for our lifestyle, we found a career path that actually works with our lifestyle and we don’t have to try to squeeze our lifestyle into this career.” It just fit so beautifully together.
Mary Elaine:
My husband and I just said, “Hey, why don’t we create a business model around educating and teaching and sourcing this incredible talent from this incredibly talent pool and matching them with clients who so desperately need help in their business as well?” So, we got to work. I got to work documenting and really thinking about how is it that this works so beautifully for me and my clients? And once I started that outline of how this works, I called my best friend, who also married an Army Ranger. I actually graduated high school with her. And I said, “Hey, I need help. I want to …” I shared my vision with her. I said, “I want to take this across the country. I want to share this with other people like us. I want to share this with other moms who are incredibly talented and have so much to give and who also have small children at home and they don’t want to put their career on hold for the first three, four years of their life.”
Mary Elaine:
She said, “Yes, let’s do it.” And it all started from there. That was in late 2017, early 2018 we opened the doors virtually of what was then called Patriot Advantage. And then we went through a rebrand, we’re now VA USA. Since then, we’ve just been growing very organically.
Christine:
I love hearing you share your story and just your passion for this. Because it aligns so much with this podcast and really the desire to help military spouses understand that you don’t have to wait for tomorrow to chase your dreams. There’s a way to do it that doesn’t require you to sacrifice what matters most. So often, we just get stuck in this rut of these are my only options. And a lot of it’s just helping people become aware that there are so many more options available, especially as we move into a society that is more digitally based that allows us to find jobs and opportunities that aren’t based on where we’re living. I love hearing your story. I would love to know, at what point … I know you were kind of building this with your husband’s help and with your best friend. At what point did your husband decide, “Okay, this is time for us to move past military life and start growing this together.”?
Mary Elaine:
My husband was kind of … He was getting burnt out in his military career. And he just knew it was time for him. And it really had nothing to do with what I was doing with the business. It was just time for him. When you know, you know. And he just knew. And I supported that decision. I said, “Hey, we’ve made it this far, I’m willing to keep sacrificing and keep showing up as this military spouse. But if you say you’re finished, you’re finished.” He started that transition out of the military. And at the same time I was scaling and growing VA USA. But he didn’t go directly from the military to working for the business. He went from the military to getting a job in the corporate world and was there for a little over a year I think. Then we grew our company big enough to where he was actually able to quit his corporate job. Now he’s working for the company full time from home.
Mary Elaine:
So, we’re both home all the time together running this business. But I’m definitely the one who is virtually more boots on the ground working on the business. He’s essentially our CFO. All the numbers, he’s just in them every day and he loves it. That is the first thing I wanted to give up. I love people. Give me all the people, I love interacting with people and helping navigate those working relationships and leading my team and developing more leaders. That’s definitely my happy place. And he’s on the more analytical numbers side. So, it’s a great yin and yang for us.
Christine:
Was it a little bit challenging or was it an easy transition? I know he traveled a lot when he was in the military. To go from being apart for much of the time to working and being in the same location, can you talk to us about some of the adjustments to that change in lifestyle?
Mary Elaine:
It was crazy. I could talk a long time about that. It was a roller coaster ride I think for both of us. Because his job was just so high stress and fast paced, to go from that to where he is now, it was definitely a journey. For our marriage, it’s really bizarre to say this out loud, but I really think our business actually helped our marriage and helped this transition a lot. We work extremely well together. And if you had asked me over 10 years ago would we be working together from home? I would have said absolutely not, that would never work. It’s been kind of a long road for us to get to this point. But the biggest thing that has helped us navigate his transition and ours together, because I mean, it was an adjustment for me, for him to be present all the time. He went from being gone all the time to now he’s here every single day from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed, was sharpening our communication skills.
Mary Elaine:
And we are also huge advocates for therapy, for counseling. He has his own, I have my own, we’re big advocates for couples counseling as well. We have just allowed ourselves to become very, very vulnerable in opening up and working on our communication skills and recognizing our own weaknesses and heightening our self awareness. There are a lot of things I didn’t even realize about myself and he didn’t realize about himself until we were home together all the time. I think a lot of people in marriages all over the country, all over the world realized that last year when everyone was forced to be home together all the time for extended amounts of time.
Christine:
Definitely.
Mary Elaine:
So yeah, I hope that answers your question. It was not easy the first few months. For a lot of people, getting out of the military, it’s a huge struggle. And that’s something that we are so passionate about, is helping our friends and even strangers on how to navigate those waters. Because they can be terrifying.
Christine:
Well, it’s such a transition. I remember when I was a young spouse listening to someone that was about to retire. And he and his spouse had spent the majority of their career living in different locations, they were both active duty. And they were like, “Yeah, we just can’t live in the same place. We see each other on the weekends.” And I was like, “Oh my goodness, that’s not what I want my marriage to become.” But it is good to hear couples be able to navigate that transition and learn how to have a healthier relationship working together.
Mary Elaine:
Yeah. I just want to add to that, identity, you hear it a lot, especially in regards to getting out of the military. But I really think a lot of military spouses struggle with identity as well, while their husband is active duty. Because they’re having to leave, they’re being uprooted and they can’t find a stable career. It’s really hard to get grounded in that kind of lifestyle. I also know and recognize, that’s why it’s super important, to find something for you, for yourself as a military spouse. You hear all the time when a spouse is deployed, “Oh, just keep yourself busy, keep yourself busy.” Well, the why behind that is a lot deeper. It’s not just so you can pass the time, it’s because you need something for yourself. You need something to call your own. You need something that’s going to challenge you and that’s going to bring you joy. And if you can find something that you can take with you wherever you go, that’s powerful. That’s super powerful.
Christine:
Absolutely. It’s so easy to get lost in this role of military spouse and primary parent and making sure that everyone else’s needs are taken care of. And it’s so easy sometimes to lose sight of something for yourself, something that brings you joy. Having something to call your own is so, so powerful. What would you say are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned about yourself and how you’ve found yourself and your identity along this journey?
Mary Elaine:
I think I learned … Or maybe I was more surprised at myself, at what I was able to do while being scared, while not having things neatly laid out for me. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in this journey of entrepreneurship is really how all of my decision making, because that’s really what an entrepreneur does, is they’re making, oftentimes very life altering decisions on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, of where their company is going to go. And I realized that the best thing that I could do as a business owner was feel very confident in my decision making abilities. And to be a strong leader, I have to be able to confidently make decisions and execute on those decisions.
Mary Elaine:
One of the biggest tips we got from a mentor of ours when we were kind of formulating our business plan was, “Hey, all of this sounds great, but it means nothing if you don’t execute.” And that always stuck with me. It’s great to have all these ideas, you can plan all day long. But it means nothing without action behind it. There are people who have these great goals or go to school for a long time. But they don’t have a plan or an action backing after spending all that time in school. Or, “Hey, I have this goal of mine.” Well, what have you done to get closer to that goal? Have you actually pressed play on that beautiful plan you’ve created? So, yeah, that was one of the first lessons I had.
Mary Elaine:
And looking back at the things that I’ve created back then compared to what it looks like now, I mean, it all started with a Google outline, a Google Doc outline. I mean, it was ugly. There was no beautiful aesthetics attached to it. I probably had typos. It’s so hilarious to look at what I had to launch a business then and where we are now. But the biggest difference between me and someone else who have this plan to start a business is that I actually did it. And I think that concept can be applied to almost anything in your life, not even starting a business, whatever it is that you want to do. Stop talking about it and do something.
Christine:
Just start taking those messy steps of action.
Mary Elaine:
Yes. It doesn’t have to be pretty.
Christine:
And that’s such a good reminder too. Because it’s easy to get overwhelmed and just stay stuck or stay comfortable or stay where we are. Sometimes it’s just about taking those messy steps of action. How did you navigate that with managing the home and trying to find work life balance and building something for yourself and still taking care of the family?
Mary Elaine:
That was also kind of another roller coaster, especially I would say the first year and a half of business. Because I was trying to balance working from home and also having young children and their busy schedules. It was not easy. I mean, I’m not going to try to say, “Oh, it was great.” I mean, it was not easy. And it took a while to find a groove, there were many late nights that I had and early mornings. I was just so passionate though, and I still am, about our mission, about our why, about creating these jobs. I mean, I could just see it. I knew where we were going. No one was there telling me I had to put in those hours, that I had to put in that time to dedicate to creating something from the ground up. It was just this burning desire in my heart.
Mary Elaine:
And I delegated a lot. Thank goodness for delivery services, thank goodness for babysitters, thank goodness for friends and family who pitch in and help. Because I had to lean on my people. I had to lean on conveniences and delegate that out. But I also had that mentality because I had to lean on that network of support and kind of those life hacks being a military spouse. It was just really intense I would say for about the first year and a half of putting in those long days and those long hours. But I also knew that it wouldn’t be that way forever. I invested my own time for a while and then once I grew my team, I delegated. I hired people to do very specific roles and started shedding those hats. And that’s what we do as a business. The irony is that’s what we do for our clients, is we find them a great person to help them run their business. I had to lead by example and start building my own virtual team.
Mary Elaine:
As soon as I defined what those roles and responsibilities were, I started letting go of them. There are plenty of business owners who hold onto all those hats for years. And I knew from the beginning that was not going to be me. Because I didn’t want to sacrifice all of that time with my family. I went into this for time freedom, but I knew if I was going to scale and grow this, I was going to have to sacrifice a little bit on the front end, to be able to get that again one day. And I’m happy to report, we’re into our fourth year, I again have that complete control of my time. It’s wonderful.
Christine:
I think it’s so good to hear stories like yours because if we haven’t started that journey yet or we’re in the middle of building something and we haven’t reached that place of finding the time freedom and the flexibility that we’re longing for yet, it can be a little bit discouraging. But to hear that when you are keeping your goal in mind and your why in mind and you’re taking steps towards where you want to be, then it is possible to build that life, to create that life of impact without sacrificing what matters most. Now you’ve reached this other side to where you do have the time freedom and the flexibility. Would you say that the same mission and the why that got you started is still there today? Or would you say that it evolved in some ways?
Mary Elaine:
It’s absolutely the same. The same, and it’s why I wake up every day and I’m excited to get to work. I’m excited to talk to the people I get to talk to. And my team is completely bought into that as well. I mean, we are creating jobs that really didn’t exist before. A lot of the clients that we get, this is the first hire that they’ve ever had. And it’s a pretty incredible feeling any time we make a match and we get a new person hired with a new client, it’s so rewarding. I’m so lucky, I have the best job in the world because I get to work with incredible people. I get to make just a little bit of difference in this world for the people that have my heart. And that is my military family.
Christine:
We have military spouses who are listening to this and they’re like, “This is what I’ve been craving, I want this time freedom, I want this flexibility.” What advice would you give to those spouses?
Mary Elaine:
Who want the time freedom and flexibility, I would say one, work on your mindset as the military spouse. Because it doesn’t matter where you look, where you apply, or if you decide to go the entrepreneurial route. If you don’t start recognizing the value that you bring to the table in your own self, no one else is going to believe you. Harness that value and the skills that you have, don’t be discouraged if you have gaps in your employment, don’t be discouraged if your resume looks spotty. You have to recognize your soft skills and own value that you bring into the table. No matter where that table is or what it looks like. And then I mean, 2020 was the year of virtual everything. That has opened the doors, I believe, for a whole lot more opportunity for military spouses. They are out there. So many companies have now realized they can save a lot more money by going virtual. They have shut down plenty of brick and mortars to go 100% virtual. And now they’re creating more jobs. Or they’re just more open to the idea of it. Of well, actually, that could work.
Mary Elaine:
I would say one, don’t try to pigeonhole yourself into a specialized skill. I would explore lots of different industries. I would start putting applications in anything you may be interested in. And ask questions. You may be surprised at what’s out there that you can do virtually, to get that time freedom.
Christine:
Absolutely. It really does start when we realize that we have something valuable to offer and really take that time to figure out what is unique to us and how we can use it to serve others. Is there anything else that you would like to share with our audience?
Mary Elaine:
I would say just understand that no matter what you want to do, even if you’re not sure what you want to do, there are things, little things that you can be doing every day to inch you closer to finding your purpose. If you’re feeling lost right now in what your purpose is, start doing some self work. And start finding communities, virtual communities that you can connect with. And start exploring. I don’t … Honestly, I don’t even know how many jobs I’ve had. I know we’ve talked about my career in education, but before that, I mean, I’ve worked since I was 13 years old. I do not have a background in business. I do not have a background in marketing. I do not have … Everything that I’m doing today has been self taught.
Mary Elaine:
But I do know that I’m here today because I had a high level of self awareness, I was paying attention to where I was kind of being pushed and led. But I also was extremely curious and I was willing to explore other options. That has opened the door to a possibility that I had no idea existed before. And now I lead a team of over 60 people spread out all over the country with no formal education in anything that I do.
Christine:
I think two keys that you mentioned there were just that awareness and that curiosity. When we choose that path of curiosity, when we choose to really take the time to stop and reflect on how we want to grow and how we want to use our skills and our story to serve others, we can positively impact the world for good. And ultimately become who we were created to be. I think your story is so inspiring for so many of our listeners. Can you tell us how our listeners can connect with you online and learn more about VA USA?
Mary Elaine:
Yes. Our website is hirevausa.com. And we are all over social media, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn as @HireVAUSA. And I’m more than happy and willing, I love connecting with people and discussing more in-depth about my journey, and also where are you wanting to go with your life? You can find me personally on LinkedIn, Mary Elaine Baker. And my email is maryelaine@hirevausa.com.
Christine:
Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today. I really enjoyed hearing your story and I know that so many of our community members are really going to get some valuable nuggets in this conversation. So, thank you again.
Mary Elaine:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Christine:
Guys, I hope you got so much value out of this interview. There were so many great nuggets of wisdom, so I highly recommend that you go back and listen to this one again and again. Stories like Mary Elaine’s are so powerful because they remind us that no matter what our circumstances, if we really understand what we want and the why behind it and the impact we want, then we can make and build a life of purpose, of joy, and of impact, no matter what our current circumstances are. Even as a military spouse, you can create something for yourself, something that matters and that impacts the world for good. If you are interested in connecting with Mary Elaine or you want more information about VA USA and how they provide work from anywhere job opportunities for military spouses so that you can find flexibility and time freedom, I will have all of that those links on the show notes or available on our website. Until next time, may you live filled, fueled and full of joy.
Christine:
Hey friend, before you go, the Mil Spouse Mastermind community is here to help you thrive as a military spouse, figure out what lights your heart on fire and equip you to create a life of impact. You can have an incredible impact simply by heading over to iTunes to subscribe and leave a review. And if today’s episode was meaningful to you, I know it will be for others too. Spread the word by taking a screenshot of this episode and share it to your stories so we can continue to reach more people, change more lives, and shift the way that military spouses look at life. Because we are better together, and together we can change the world. Let’s do it.
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