The military spouse unemployment rate has been at 24% for nearly a decade – but Monica Fullerton is on a mission to change all that. On this episode of Veteran Voices, host Scott Luton chats with Monica about Spouse-ly, a marketplace of goods and services she founded to create more flexible career opportunities for military spouses. A cross between Etsy and Angie’s List, Spouse-ly gives its shoppers the opportunity to purchase with purpose. Tune in to hear about the journey that led to Forbes Next 1000 status and the amazing sellers making Spouse-ly an enormous success. As an added bonus, Monica shares her advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs – so don’t miss out on this informative and inspirational episode!

Intro/Outro (00:02):

Welcome to veteran voices, a podcast dedicated to giving a voice to those that have served in the United States. Armed forces on this series, jointly presented by supply chain. Now in bits to industry, we sit down with a wide variety of veterans and veteran advocates to gain their insights, perspective, and stories from serving. We talked with many individuals about their challenging transition from active duty to the private sector, and we discuss some of the most vital issues facing veterans today. Join us for this episode of veteran voices.

Intro/Outro (00:47):

[inaudible].

Scott Luton (00:48):

Hey, good afternoon. Good morning. Good evening. Wherever you are. Scott Luton, Monica Fullerton with you here on supply chain. Now, Hey, it’s veteran voices takeover day. Monica, how are you doing?

Monica Fullerton (01:00):

Hey Scott. I’m doing good. How are you?

Scott Luton (01:02):

Doing wonderful. Wonderful. And we sh, as we shared pre-show with you, Monica, your ears have been burning because we are team Monica here, team spouse Lee here at supply chain now, and veteran voices. A great to see you again. Yes,

Monica Fullerton (01:15):

You too. I love that. That’s what I always say. Me and the twins always say that team spouse li

Scott Luton (01:21):

Awesome. I’m going to get some t-shirts. Yeah, but so today, so in lieu of our traditional supply chain now lobstering that we typically do at 12 noon on Thursdays, we wanted to back things up a little bit and focus on a Monica story of entrepreneurship. The spouse’s story, we’re going to offer up some easy and valuable ways that you can support special entrepreneurial communities this holiday season. So stay tuned for that. And Monica has got an inspiring story. So you’re going to want to hear a lot of her key takeaways, experiences and Eureka moments. So Monica, I should give you a formal introduction. So Monica Fullerton, founder, and CEO of spouse lead special co-host of our veteran voices podcast series, and also a very proud and hardworking military spouse, right? Yes. Air force go air force. All right. So we’re going to dive into her journey here momentarily, but thanks for joining us here. Really appreciate folks tuning in and we want to hear from you. So you know, the comments or the sky boxes as we call them around here, drop in your questions, drop in your comments, drop in your experiences, your POV. That’s what we’re after here on all of our labs streams. So Monica, I’m looking forward to sharing your POV with us, our community here, but are you ready to dive in? Try another live stream here at supply chain. Now

Monica Fullerton (02:37):

I’m ready. I’m always ready. I can’t know the question. So I don’t know.

Scott Luton (02:42):

Well, you know, and that’s where we found that pre-show folks, we found out that Monica and I are, are a bit different when it comes to prep. Monica likes to go into conversations kind of blind so that she doesn’t know the questions ahead of time. Goodness gracious, Monica. I planned breakfast a week prior. We’re geared

Monica Fullerton (03:00):

To my house, please. We could use some of that because I’m not like a last minute person. It’s so weird. I’m very structured and organized. But I feel like when I know the questions or I do any prepping, I get like in my head, cause it’s only natural. I feel like with anything that you do, you get in your head about things, so, right,

Scott Luton (03:17):

Right. I’m going to, I’m going to try to take a page out of your book, but in the meantime, Hey, let’s do a couple of quick before we say a load of folks. Let’s share a couple of quick announcements here. Folks. These are great professional development market, Intel gathering, learning opportunities. Next week, we’re partnering up with a ups, Crocs and sun joy on the 26th of October. We’re all talking about getting through this supply chain, squeeze, not just in fourth quarter of 2021, but in the next year. So join us, support some wonderful best practices and expertise and some ideas I imagine for how you and your organization can get through it. So that link to join and sign up for free is in the show notes. And I’ve got one other I want to share with y’all on November 9th, similar topics. We’re talking about supply chain, resiliency and agility. And how can you build more of that into your global supply chains next year and beyond? And we’ve got the one and only Larissa Sarah joining me and Madoff as we partner with Kupa and supply chain insights there on November 9th. So join us for that. And link to sign up is in the show notes. Okay. So Monica, we also on the front end here. I see Bruce. Thompson’s where this Bruce. Great to see you. We want to give a big old hug, high five, lots of love to our friends at vets to industry, right?

Monica Fullerton (04:33):

Yep. That’s how we met.

Scott Luton (04:34):

That is how we met now. Monica, I’ve shared with our community countless times about vets to industry, but in a nutshell, what do they do?

Monica Fullerton (04:42):

Yeah, I am a huge fan of EDS to industry. I feel like I plugged them in whenever I can. I talk about them all the time, um, because it’s just such a great community filled with amazing people. I went to my first vets to industry networking event. Gosh, it’s been months and months ago now, but I just remember leaving that event. And I remember messaging, um, Leslie who invited me. I was in tears because I left that event with so many meaningful connections, just, you know, learning about other people, finding ways to help one another. And it was just a very powerful event. And there’s so many events out there. But what I will say is it’s a room full of great people looking to connect each other, bridging the gap, trying to find employment, diving into entrepreneurship. And it’s just run by the most amazing people to

Scott Luton (05:31):

I’m with ya. Monica echo, everything. You just shared folks, vets to industry, and you can learn more@vetstoindustry.org. They got your back. You know, if you’re a transitioning veteran, if you’re a military family, they vet hundreds of resources. So not only do you not have to do as much homework, perhaps, but it’s easier to find resources to fit your needs, especially if you’re transitioning because we all know who you know, and that networking factor is so important. So check out vets to industry.org and Hey, make sure you connect with Bruce Thompson who is owned there. I think in our senior leadership team also

Monica Fullerton (06:06):

Known as Batman.

Scott Luton (06:07):

Oh, I didn’t know that.

Monica Fullerton (06:09):

Yeah, he’s gotten, he’s just a super connector and a superhero. So very grateful for Bruce and his wife. They’re amazing.

Scott Luton (06:16):

Awesome. Well, Hey, connect with Bruce connect with vets to industry.org, a slew events coming up again. If you’re a transitioning veteran in particular, make sure you connect with vents to industry.org. All right. So speaking of we got Batman, we have, we have super heroes in, in our, uh, sky boxes here. Let’s say low Crisanta. I’ll say that right. Monica. Perhaps.

Monica Fullerton (06:37):

I always mess it up when I say it, Chris, Anthony. Right? Krisann see. Cause

Scott Luton (06:42):

Regardless

Monica Fullerton (06:44):

We’d just chat. She’s amazing. She’s doing so many wonderful things. Have you had a chance to talk to her yet? Not yet. You have to. She’s awesome.

Scott Luton (06:53):

I we’ll add that to our to-do list. Great to have you here, Chris, Anthony we’ll look forward to your perspective. Of course Bruce’s also team Monica team. Spousely I agree with you there. Larry Klein is with us. He is a, I believe he’s an army veteran. He’s also in supply chain. Uh, he just took on a new role. So Larry, great to see you. I hope this finds you well and folks, Monica folks may not know here. I know that, uh, you’ve been on several shows with us, but folks may not know or remember that you’ve got a bit of a supply chain background, right?

Monica Fullerton (07:21):

No, I was just thinking that when I saw ups on there, yeah, I was in logistics for a long time prior to this. And it’s just has what allowed me to get where I’m at today. Just kind of learning the industry that ends and outs, love supply chain logistics, always talking about 53 foot dry vans. Oop,

Scott Luton (07:40):

We love it. We’ll have to set up another episode. Talk about that in particular. Hey Peter bow lay all night and all day is with us a huge, um, maybe not a military veteran, but a 25 year veteran, especially of air cargo and that portion and procurement and that portion of supply chain. So Peter hope this finds you well, Hey, let us know, drop in if you can. And hopefully I’m not getting in trouble here, but Peter’s got a new venture. He’s gonna be helping lots of organizations, a drop that news in the chats. We want to share that with folks there as well. All right. And one more call out here. Bruce mentioned the next big event that vets to industry.org has got come up, uh, coming up and he’s he’s on top of it. He’s already added a link to the comments. So you’re one click away. So yes.

Monica Fullerton (08:23):

Make sure you attend at least one of those because you’ll be coming back for more

Scott Luton (08:28):

Wonderful. And by the way, don’t don’t you like validation, Monica, you nailed it. So Chris Santhi,

Monica Fullerton (08:34):

I mean, my husband makes fun of me because I’m so bad at names. It’s like, I could be like best friends with someone forever. And I still like second guess myself with names. That’s like the one thing for some reason that I have a hard time with so good. I’m glad I did that because I’m a huge fan. So

Scott Luton (08:49):

It is important. Yeah. Okay. So with no further ado and welcome everybody and we couldn’t hit everybody looking forward to hearing your comments and sharing your perspectives and questions with the conversation today, we have a wonderful conversation teed up with Monica Fullerton, who I’ve been pleased and honored to collaborate with on a variety of things around here, but Monica, for a handful of folks that may not know, or to get to know you better. And I’m going to start with some fun, warm up questions that you have no idea what I’m going to ask you about. Right? Let’s do it as life is very interestingly enough, it really kind of relates to our pre-show conversation that we were having with Amanda and Jada who were behind the scenes. Thank you, Amanda and Jayda for all that. Your production good work. All right. So yesterday, uh, Monica, we’re talking about wonderful, incredible people that man and Chris Santhi and others, I was talking with Minda Harts yesterday. Now Minda should have had our books handy. She is author of the memo, a bestseller award-winning book called the memo. And then her next release is right within. Now at the beginning of our conversation with men and will be published in that a couple of weeks, we were talking about a couple of fun things that she’s been known to be obsessed about. And for her it was grits and rap lyrics. Now, first question for you, Monica, is, are you a grits fan? And more importantly, you don’t put sugar in your grits, do you?

Monica Fullerton (10:10):

So I will say, I don’t think I’ve had grits since I was like at cracker barrel last time. And that’s like my Grammy’s favorite place to go. So I can’t really say I’m a fan. It’s good. I like to do what I love food. So I’ll pretty much eat anything.

Scott Luton (10:24):

All right. So

Monica Fullerton (10:25):

Just to put the, what did you say? Butter,

Scott Luton (10:28):

Sugar. Some folks put sugar in grits. Why

Monica Fullerton (10:31):

Is it supposed to be like,

Scott Luton (10:34):

Okay. Yes. She’s grits of course, reign Supreme around around this part, this part of the world. Our kids love it. And of course Amanda’s mother not take anything away from man is cooking. She’s a, she’s a chef, but Bammy as it were, she makes the best cheese grits. Monica, the only problem is she small portions or managing our portions around here, I could eat a whole crock pot of this. Absolutely what we’re going to arrange for that. All right. So the compelling, hard hitting questions on the front end of our time with Monica Fulton here today. All right. So beyond grits, there’s a couple things you, you shed some light on that. You’re obsessed about what else in a fun way. What’s a one or two things that you’re obsessed about that maybe some folks may not know Monica.

Monica Fullerton (11:18):

Let’s see, what am I obsessed about? I love decorating like interior design and decorating that’s honestly. So I, I’m not a big workout person. I really don’t have like an outlet where I can unwind and distress. So for me, it’s decorating, which is kind of interesting. I don’t like sitting down on the couch very often. So if I’m doing something and trying to unwind, I’m moving around the house, like rearranging things or decorating and putting things in places that my husband can never find again. And he always yells at me. So, yeah.

Scott Luton (11:51):

Alright. So obsessed getting stuff done in a particular way and decoration around the house. Okay. Fair enough. One final question for you. We’ve got a for some folks, the, one of the biggest holidays of the year is Halloween. Okay. I’m not one of those folks. It’s one of my least favorite holiday. If we’re being honest and keeping it real, it’s one of my least favorite holidays, but Hey, my kids love it. And that makes it very important to us. Any big Halloween traditions there at the Fullerton household,

Monica Fullerton (12:20):

Not really any traditions, I’m trying to get better into like dressing up with the twins because now they’re at the age where they’re like, why are you not dressing up to? So I think this year we probably should start that tradition for as long as they’ll allow us to dress up and go with them. But I would say we’re kind of at that peak age. Oh, we do. Like we actually, I have one, it’s not really Halloween. It’s more kind of like Thanksgiving, but we make sauerkraut balls in our family and nobody really has heard of those, but it’s a whole day event and you just make this year, we want to make 5,000 of them. Wow. Yeah. Everybody has like a different part of the job, like dipping in the egg, breading it, rolling it. And if you roll a bit, the balls too big, you get in trouble. So that, that is a tradition that we’ve had.

Scott Luton (13:05):

I can feel my heartburn coming on with just you, you sharing, uh,

Monica Fullerton (13:08):

Good watching football, eating sauerkraut balls, the fall pumpkin candle going. It’s amazing.

Scott Luton (13:14):

Well, we’re going to have to drop the recipe in the comments. Okay. Okay. Really quick. I want to share this from an as I think this is Amanda or Jadah. Never heard of sauerkraut balls, but I’m intrigued. We’ll we’ll track down that, uh, recipe definitely put butter and grits, but no sugar. We agree with that. All right. So Peter bullae says, thanks Scotland for the call-out. After 25 years of working at air Canada, just having come off a 10 month consulting contract. And he’s just decided to hang his own shingle on the door as H PB strategic solutions. And he also in a, in a subsequent comment, kind of lays out loud things he’ll be doing there. So y’all check that out at a very, at a minimum, make sure you connect with Peter he’s one heck of a great guy and an incredible supply chain guru. So, all right. So Monica, speaking of gurus, let’s get to know you a little better here. So tell us, tell us a little about yourself, where you grew up or a little about your professional background or just what you love to do. Tell us

Monica Fullerton (14:10):

So born and raised in a small town in Ohio, it’s called Medina, Ohio. There’s always Ohio fans out there somewhere. So I always, it depends on who you’re talking to you to say the town or to say, you know, the nearest biggest city. So we’re from Medina, Ohio. My husband’s actually from there as well. So all of our family’s in the same place. We are high school sweethearts. He moved away to go to college in Colorado and I moved to south Florida. We broke up. We never thought in a million years, we’d get back together. Just stayed friends. And here we are today. We are back together and live in this military life. And just amazing to see how small town, two folks can turn everything around. So

Scott Luton (14:52):

Would that make y’all Ohio state Buckeye fans?

Monica Fullerton (14:55):

Yes, we are. We are. We love making Buckeyes too. That’s another great recipe.

Scott Luton (15:00):

Okay. We’re going to have to, so we do a supply chain, chow channel Facebook, and we have a lot of fun with that. So Monica, we’re gonna have to have you join so you can drop some of those recipes in there. Okay. And really quick, Monica, we, we missed a shout out and she’s not with us here today, but Kelly Barner and buyer’s meeting point are tremendous supporters of the veteran, really the veteran community, the military community. And of course they’ve sponsored several of our episodes of veteran voices. So a huge shout out to Kelly Barner and buyers, meaning point and Amanda or Jaida or Allie, if we can drop a link to buyer’s meeting point in the comments, that’d be great. All right. So Monica, now that we’ve got a little note clearly you’re you got some culinary leanings, and we’ve also speaking of, we’ve also established pre-show that especially black licorice, thumbs down, not fans, not going to be in Halloween trick or treat bags this year, right. Danny corn might according to you and Amanda with peanuts with peanuts. Okay. All right. So I want to dive into, you know, the main, the main topic we’re gonna talk about here today is the business that you’ve built, right? The, the platform, the community you’ve built called spousely. So for starters, just to level set folks, I may not have heard some of your earlier appearances with us. Tell us about spousal.

Monica Fullerton (16:17):

Yeah. Spousely is an online marketplace where you can shop a wide variety of handmade products and services all created by military and first responder families. I like to call it at sea meets Angie’s list, but with a focus on shopping for social good and supporting our nation’s heroes.

Scott Luton (16:35):

Wow. I love that. Shopping for social good shopping with a purpose. Uh, have you seen, um, Shaq, you know, is now a spokesperson and I think he’s also an investor perhaps in Papa John’s pizza, and we all love shack, right? They’ve baked in these commercials because I think a dollar per pizza goes to a nonprofit. And so they’re all talking about pizza with purpose and what a, what a beautiful tagline. And so there’s a lot of parallels with spousely right? Shopping, spinning those, those e-commerce dollars, those holiday gift dollars and putting them towards, you know, the special entrepreneur community veteran entrepreneurs are what’s

Monica Fullerton (17:15):

That purchase with purpose

Scott Luton (17:17):

Purchase with purpose veteran entrepreneurs, military spouse, entrepreneurs, first responders, military families, you know, folks that have a wide degree of responsibilities that go beyond, you know, maybe a traditional nine to five, right. And I’ve done good things for society and for the globe and supporting their businesses that at the core is what spouse’s all about, right?

Monica Fullerton (17:41):

Yes. And for us and for our community, it’s so much more than a marketplace it’s providing that flexibility and stability, living a life on the go, especially, you know, I’m a military spouse myself. So I know firsthand the different struggles that we face and we’re moving around about every two to three years, it makes it hard to hold a traditional career that kind of fits into our lifestyle.

Scott Luton (18:03):

All right. And, and a lot of folks may not know that that might be in the blind spot in terms of, of some of the challenges out there for, for military spouses of military families, right?

Monica Fullerton (18:12):

Yeah. The military spouse unemployment rate has actually been at 24% for nearly a decade. And it’s because of those challenges, you know, frequent cross-country moves spouses deploying. The spouse has to take on a lot of the responsibility at home trying to hold down the Fort, juggle everything that sometimes it’s just not possible to work in a traditional nine to five jobs. So many spouses are turning to entrepreneurship, which is what inspired me to create spousely.

Scott Luton (18:42):

And that’s where we’re going next really quick. Before we ask about your why 24%, holy cow, we’ve got, we’ve got to do something about that, but the put, you know, we’re really practical folks around here at supply chain. Now, at least I know I am. I want to show y’all one of the products I got from spousely, this was a five pound bag of delicious coffee, Nicaraguan citrus from, I don’t know, the person. Yeah.

Monica Fullerton (19:06):

And sassy. And she, the owner is Melissa. She is a veteran herself as well. And she has started this amazing coffee business. And she actually does so many fun things. She has a podcast where she’s bringing people together, enjoying a cup of coffee, making fun recipes. And we’re just excited to have her on spousal,

Scott Luton (19:28):

Love that. And you know what I loved even more than this coffee is how you knew. You knew the story behind this, this product that is a, and that it really illustrates the community that you’re building. Right. And your passion for doing it. I want to sh before we talk about your why yes. I want to bring in Christina. Kay. Rod is with us here today. Now we need to interview Christina. Cause I can get know her background a little better, but she loves the

Monica Fullerton (19:55):

Yeah. Mate, cammo your cause. Uh, we partnered with us vets, uh, for they’re doing make camel your cause right now in honor of veterans day, us vets is trying to do everything they can to help end veteran homelessness. So what we did is we partnered up with some of our vendors who created specific cammo products on spousely and then spousely is donating our proceeds to us vets. And then we also have a donate button on the site right now, too, as well. And it’s exciting because you know, I’ve wanted to do things like that, partner up with a nonprofit, find ways to just continue supporting our community. And it’s cool to see how the vendors on spousely came together and made these special products

Scott Luton (20:38):

That, uh, and by the way, Christine, let me know if you’re a veteran. I know that you’re leading the veterans associate group. I’ll call it. There’s another word for that at Colliers international, uh, Monica, Christina was just promoted to a big regional operations role. And I think she’s also, uh, leading that, that veterans, uh, affinity group within, you know, the really big organization that, that, that Colliers is. So, Hey, Christina, let us know if you’re a veteran and thanks for being here as part of live stream, we love the cammo our calls, tagline and initiative as well. ERG. Yes. Thank you. Amanda. Employee resource group. That’s right. All right. So again, circling back to a second ago, I love how you knew the story behind Southern sweet and sassy the brand. Let’s just coffee we have. And tell us, what was your wife for establishing spouse? I bet I can guess it, it like it exudes pay it just, it, you exude the passion and the purpose, but tell us what prompted you. What’s your why?

Monica Fullerton (21:36):

Yeah, so I was very lucky to have a full-time corporate career. Like we were talking about and logistics. Um, I was working remote. I was traveling, but then as I started to meet more people and other fellow military spouses, I started to learn that not everybody had as easy of a time finding something like I did where it can kind of piece into our lifestyle. Like we talked about. And these are just so many amazing spouses. They’re talented, they’re creative, they’re educated, they just have this, this just something about them in our community. It’s that super power to want to support one another. And I started looking into it more and just becoming familiar with the community that I was a part of and realize that there is just so much talent within our military community alone, that I wanted to bring everyone together in one easy place for people to shop small and make a big impact. And all of our vendors are, um, approved in the military and first responder community from our partnership with gov X and then anyone can come onto the platform to support our nation’s heroes.

Scott Luton (22:43):

It’s such a beautiful thing. And you all have seen tremendous growth this year, right? Monica.

Monica Fullerton (22:48):

Yeah. We’ve seen a lot of growth. So we launched right before the pandemic. I was still working. My full-time corporate career was getting spousely off the ground. So the first year of spousely, I was juggling both working full-time and running a business and quickly learned that our mission is not only powerful, it’s viable, and it’s making such a big impact that I made the full leap into entrepreneurship. And since making that leap, we’ve just had a ton of great growth. Um, we just partnered up with USA, small business insurance, uh, we’re over 350 vendors now adding more on a daily basis and just continuing to spread the spouse. They love.

Scott Luton (23:29):

I love that. Okay. I want to circle back. Christina is a veteran of the U S army K rot as she’s affectionately known. She was military police and it is the call years veterans employee resource group that she leads now. So Christina, we’re gonna have to get you own veteran voices, and we’re going to dive into your story. Thanks for being here today. Okay. So Monica, if I heard you right, 350 or so vendors that make up the spousal, the community today, what’s your, can you share if you can, if you can’t, that’s fine. What’s your target say by the end of 2022, what, how big do you think that community is going to be?

Monica Fullerton (24:07):

Yeah, I will say, um, everything has been done up to this point in a bootstrapping. I’ve done everything myself. And so now it’s time to take spouse to the next level. So obviously with more funds, more help and support, we’re hoping to see those numbers continue to grow. I would, I would say that they should at least triple with the right funding and help a behind spouse lead because up until this point, you know, I’ve been kind of holding up everything as a solo manure and just, I feel like the wall right now. So it’s exciting to just knock that wall down, continue expanding and growing, improving our tech, our marketing, and just being there for one another.

Scott Luton (24:47):

Monica. I love it. And I’ve got full faith. I think you said triple. I think, I think through that, I think you’re going to triple. Yeah, you’re going to blow it up. A undoubtedly

Monica Fullerton (24:58):

The most amazing part is, and you know, that number might not seem very big right now going from 30 to over 350 vendors and pretty much a year is the fact that we haven’t done any marketing to get those vendors on the platform. It’s all been word of mouth. And to me, every time I talk about it, it really does give me full body chills because it just shows that something like spousely was needed for our community. And it’s so much more like I talked about than a marketplace. It’s just bridging that gap and bringing us all together.

Scott Luton (25:28):

We’re going to make a purchase today. And I don’t want to challenge the folks are listening to this. Hey, we all use a variety of sources for, uh, you know, end of year, the holiday gift buying. Of course, the big a goodness gracious. I wonder if we can really do some research what that percentage would be there, but there’s a number of coffees. Just one example of numerous products at spousely, as it’s grown and you’ve got different vendors, different products, you name it. Hey, check out. Spousely the URL Monica for spousely.

Monica Fullerton (25:58):

We just purchased spousely.com without the dash as well. So you can do spouse lee.com or spouse dash L y.com. And you will get there or just type it in Google and it will come up. Well, that was a big purchase. So I’m still kind of like unwinding from that, but it was very much needed because you know, people were having a hard time if they didn’t quite catch the dash and spousely so yes, redirecting now.

Scott Luton (26:23):

Okay. So spousal.com. It’s just that easy spouse. L y.com. Yep. All right. So Larry Klein was also an army military police and a supply NCO non-commissioned officer Larry. I love that. We need to circle back. Eric is with us here today. Clearly Eric is a star Trek fan Trekkie. Great to see you there, Eric and Bruce says, and I agree, word of mouth is an amazing thing. And our military and veteran community spot on Bruce. And it’s so important. Yeah. I think one of my favorite things about this community is we, collaboration comes, can come oftentimes natural, you know, we support each other, we lift each other up, you know, tough days. Uh, and then the days where you’re at the top of the mountain, right, you’re, you’re blowing up from, from 30 to three 50. And with, with plans to go even bigger, to take over the world in 2022.

Scott Luton (27:13):

And it’s important to celebrate that as a community. So, all right. So I’m checking my, my checklist here. We’ve reminded folks use spousely for the holiday season. And again, this is a veteran voices take over of supply chain now on our traditional Thursday live stream. So, all right. So Monica switched shifting gears from spousely and all the cool things going on there too, again, that military spouse, their journey, and some of the blind spots that we all may have. What else should folks know about, you know, the challenge and, and the journey that is being a military spouse?

Monica Fullerton (27:49):

Yeah, I think a lot of it boils down to identity and that’s something that I struggled with. I had my own hopes and dreams, you know, when I went to college and had, I’m a checklist kind of person, when it comes to goals and quickly learn that you have to pivot, we are really great at pivoting, but it’s so important as a military spouse that you also still do what you love while supporting your spouse and their journey in the military. So it’s an identity and really zoning in on how to make sure you’re always staying true to what you want to do and finding the ways to really make it happen.

Scott Luton (28:26):

That pivoting, if I’ll tell you, if all of us collectively have learned one thing at the last two years, it’s the importance of having a backup plan to your backup plan, to your backup plan, right?

Monica Fullerton (28:39):

Always a backup plan, always

Scott Luton (28:40):

A backup plan, and is also part of the challenge, Monica, that, you know, you mentioned the moving around a lot, right? Because you’re when I was in the military, you get the orders and you go where the orders take in it. And you might be there for, you know, a good chunk of your career. Kasia only rarely you see folks that have one permanent duty station, their entire careers, but for the most part, folks can move around a lot based on where the mission takes them in that Monica can make it challenging to grow roots that give you the support to do big things in life, right?

Monica Fullerton (29:13):

Yeah. And that’s where I, my passion truly lies is providing that extra income generating opportunity, no matter where the military life sends our families. And especially as a military spouse, finding ways to continue bridging that gap and doing what you love, keeping your identity, um, still being able to hold down the Fort, but also, you know, having what you like to do the most kind of up there at the top lines as well.

Scott Luton (29:39):

Love that. Okay. One final question. Then I want to switch over to veteran voices. Some of the guests we’ve had on our collaborative shows. Yeah. You have twins, right?

Monica Fullerton (29:48):

Yes. Five, five years old.

Scott Luton (29:50):

Okay. Sons or daughters. Again, I forgot

Monica Fullerton (29:54):

That. Where the eminent family,

Scott Luton (29:57):

What have they, based on your time as entrepreneur and a founder and that journey, what have they noticed and, and what have they picked up on that you’re really proud of?

Monica Fullerton (30:07):

Yeah. I think just them seeing me following my dreams, cause it’s so easy to talk about and tell our kids, follow your dreams, you know, anything is possible. And that’s really what we talk about with our children. Right. But there’s nothing better than actually showing them firsthand. And so it’s funny because the twins will be at school and they’ll be talking to their teachers about spousely or something will come in the mail. And they’re like, is that from spousely? And I mean, they’re only five. So the fact that they just know what’s going on, they see me live in action. Following my dreams, um, has been the most rewarding piece from the home front, just showing them firsthand what it takes to actually follow your dreams.

Scott Luton (30:47):

I love it. Modeling, modeling that behavior for them. And I know their team spousely as we are here. Yeah. Okay. So we had a, I’ve had a blast thus far on just a handful of episodes with veteran voices. And I’m really, I love the guests that you’ve brought to the table, very frankly, and transparently. It really dawned on me that we haven’t put that spotlight on enough military spouses that we’ve really focused on the, on the veterans themselves and, and Monica as you and I have agreed. And we said it numerous times, really the whole family serves, you know, the veteran may be the one putting the uniform on, but the family serves. Right.

Monica Fullerton (31:23):

Yep. It just, sometimes you don’t see the uniform, but there’s still a lot going on behind the scenes. And I think anybody who, um, has a spouse that’s in the military will always say everything’s possible because of their spouse, because they’re the ones kind of helping make all the behind the scenes happen.

Scott Luton (31:40):

Yep. I completely agree. Okay. Which is one, which is just one of the thousands of reasons why we got that attack that 24% unemployment number and make sure we make it easier for spouses and families to succeed. All right. So I want to, so a couple shows we’ve had, uh, graphics are ready to go. So Katie, Katie is the prod of Butler, Wisconsin. I love some of her stories around that. That’s just outside of Milwaukee, her and her family, if you recall, and I’m sure you do Monica, because it sounds like, you know, these folks like, you know, family,

Monica Fullerton (32:13):

My biggest things is getting to know the vendors because it’s amazing learning about them and their stories. Cause they’re a true inspiration.

Scott Luton (32:20):

So her family extended family are ingrained in the community. They’re in Butler. And she tell us about what Katie does as part of her spousely. Uh,

Monica Fullerton (32:32):

So Katie owns a company called Levin lettering by Katie. And basically she is just so amazing at like calligraphy and designing, um, different like signs and mugs. This is one of her mugs. I use it all the time. Cause it’s my favorite mug. It says everyday I’m hustling. So she just has a wonderful shop with just great handmade products that are perfect for gifts. But the thing that I love about Katie is that she’s also a nurse and she is a mom and she’s a military spouse. And that’s a lot of times the emo for everybody that’s in the spouse community. We have a lot of different titles. We wear a lot of different hats, but what brings us together is that creative outlet and just having something that can take our mind off of the ups and downs of the military lifestyle. So her, her shop is, is incredible. She has so many great things. And I just love the fact that she is also a nurse and she’s has this amazing creative outlet. I agree.

Scott Luton (33:30):

I read and loved their interview there. And of course you can find that folks at veteran voices, or you can go to supply chain now.com. You can click on the library for any of our shows, elaborate a tab and you can search based on the keyword or guests or you name it. Okay. And by the way, Bruce says thout Nala, which I think is his wife, his wife. He says I would never have made the level. I did. Mil spouses are incredible people. I agree with you Bruce. And let us know what branch and what you did if you, if you, if you don’t mind, but I’d be interested to hear that. Alright. And then, so that was just the first episode. I think, where we collaborated the second go round was with Eric Gates who founded and leads a devil dog coffee company. He’s also a Marine and Eric had a remarkable story of coming back from some pretty, some tough places in life. Huh?

Monica Fullerton (34:26):

Yeah. He also is a pastor. He also is a police officer, a veteran. And like I said, that’s, that’s truly what the spouse like community is filled up of just such inspiring people. But yeah, Eric, um, went through a hard time after he transitioned from being a veteran at well, he is a veteran, but you know, from his time in service and then also going into, um, being a police officer, he went through some struggles and the power of coffee is what really kept him pushing forward. It was those meaningful connections that you have with others over a cup of coffee. And so he started his own coffee business and we’ve been a huge fan of Eric since day one. He’s actually been one of our first vendors on the platform. Uh, so he’s been a part of the spouse lead journey for, for a while now. And just so grateful for his transparency and sharing his story and being an inspiration to our community,

Scott Luton (35:20):

An absolute inspiration and only episode he talked about, um, they’ve got a new,

Monica Fullerton (35:26):

We have a van, a coffee, um, is it a bus or a van? I don’t really know what the right word is to call it, but it’s amazing. So he’s having so much fun doing that because before he was actually doing, you know, deliveries and stuff in the Austin area out of his car. And so he went and he purchased a van, it was one of his big wishlist items and totally painted, painted it, branded it, everything. And now he’s getting so much business from just, you know, driving around, stopping at places and having that great cup of coffee with people. Okay.

Scott Luton (35:55):

I love it. I love it. And, and he is having the time of his life is alright. So I wanna, uh, kind of put you on the spot a little bit, if you wouldn’t really, it hadn’t dawned on me until now, and it should have given some of our past conversations of just how, how well, you know, the folks that make up a spousal community. So when you think about some of the folks maybe that have joined, uh, in recent months, right? Some of the newest members of the community, what are some of your favorite people or products or stories there?

Monica Fullerton (36:27):

Yeah, so we, um, you know, we have families of all different sizes, people with different backgrounds and things like that. We actually have a new vendor. Her name is Mel. She is a widow. Um, it, and just her strength has truly inspired me. She, her husband passed away about three years ago and she has found the strength encouraged to write a book. And her book is coming out on veterans day. It’s available on spouse leave, but just getting to know her as a person, as a friend, read it, I got the privilege of reading her book before it actually has come out. And it just really keeps me pushing forward, knowing the strengths that our community truly has. And so she’s a new vendor on spousely, I’m a gold star family. We’ve got, I was actually just on a call yesterday with an amazing new vendor.

Monica Fullerton (37:18):

She’s in Hawaii. We have a lot of vendors in Hawaii, which is awesome. And she has these beautiful scarfs that she’s designing herself. So it’s all hand drawn, scarfs her prints, and she’s getting them put on to, you know, products that you can wear and take with you. And she also is like me, she comes from a corporate background, was making the salary she always wanted, but that passion was missing. Right. And now she’s pursuing it. So there’s just a lot of great stories I could go on and on because I do know that that’s where my passion lies is getting to know the vendors. And I cannot wait for the day that I’m kind of out of the backend, the trenches of the tech side of it. And I can just focus on that.

Scott Luton (38:00):

Well, you read my mind, uh, you really all read my mind. I, I sat down with a couple of what I’ll call a FinTech gurus. You know, we live in the era of financial technology because of all these transactions that e-commerce in particular requires, uh, and secure transactions. Right. And, and it was, uh, so Theo was one, uh, fail. And I cannot remember, uh, so Amanda, if you can drop that episode in the comments they O and Bradley were the two, and they had just written a book tech for good and it in there, it was fascinating. I mean, they’re much smarter than they have prior forgotten things. I’ve never, we’ll never cracked the code on, but let’s talk for a second. You mentioned about your role and, and kind of, you know, in any startup, the founders are wearing all kinds of hats, right. And given the focus on FinTech, even by extension supply chain tech in this era, hot, hot space, any lessons learned other than your you’re looking forward to stepping out, but what might surprise folks or what were some things that you had to learn about that aspect of the business spousal? Yeah.

Monica Fullerton (39:07):

Well, I feel like with any entrepreneur you’re faced with quickly having to learn different areas that you just are not the expert in, because you don’t have enough funds or resources to be able to outsource it or bring people into your team. So just being able to know the basics of different areas, I will say is one of the biggest takeaways that I’ve learned, but then you quickly have to sit back and evaluate your time on, you know, if I bring somebody in that knows this better, we could get there a lot faster. So just knowing where to put your effort and where to put the funds that you do have into powering what you’re doing. I have quickly learned that I am not an expert in a lot of different areas, but it’s gotten us this far. So we have to always be grateful for the foundation that we pour. But now when it comes to building and building that company, you have to make sure that you’re letting others in, who are experts in those areas.

Scott Luton (40:08):

And those are some, some lessons are easier, more easily learn than others in this entrepreneurial journey in that right amount of,

Monica Fullerton (40:16):

Yes. So true. And I feel like, you know, any failure that we might see on our journey has been one of the best ways to learn, to keep you pushing forward. Because if you read about anybody’s startup journey, you kind of can see that it’s just up, down, up, down, but where we learn the most is actually in those down moments that you never thought you’d be able to get something out of

Scott Luton (40:38):

Love that. All right. I want to say, Bruce came back with us Marine Corps, 23 years with the Marine Corps, communications, electronics, maintenance manager, and senior enlisted advisor. And that’s a really important role. I mean, this in, in a, in a positive way, it’s kinda almost like a staff psychologist, cheerleader, helping our enlisted folks get through challenges, whether it’s them or their family, uh, you know, they’re protectors of a spree decor in many ways. So Bruce man, but we could, we could learn a lot from your experience over those 23 years. So thanks for sharing. And then Amanda or the team it dropped in this. Um, I talked about the FinTech gurus pros with a purpose and tech for good. You’ll check that out with Theo and Bradley there. All right. So you don’t like to brag on yourself. I know, but I’m going to do it for you because you were recognized with a big award from Forbes, right? The big global behemoth. Tell us about that.

Monica Fullerton (41:37):

Yeah. So recently named on the Forbes next 1000 list, um, which was just such a huge, um, I don’t even know it was an accomplishment, but it was, I can’t even explain it. It honestly chokes me up every time because when you’re in the trenches and you’re doing so much, it’s hard to kind of come up and see the work that’s being done. So that just really was able to seal the deal on spousely is, uh, impactful. It’s making a difference and that it’s truly providing our community with something new. So yes, the Forbes next 1000 list, we also did just win the startup Nevada pitch competition as well. So that was fun.

Scott Luton (42:16):

Wow. You’re on a roll. So own that note and, and, and just a heads up to the production team. We may finish up a smidge earlier here today, but Monica, there’s already some tips and some advice and learnings just in this interview thus far for other founders or potential entrepreneurs. But if you had to think for a second, you know, some things that you wish you really knew, you know, back way back before the pandemic way before you started spousely what would be some of those things, or maybe even some advice for potential founders.

Monica Fullerton (42:47):

Yeah. I actually just posted about this on LinkedIn before we hopped on. Um, I will say my biggest lesson that I’ve learned is perfection is not the key to success. I think a lot of us spend so much time, um, thinking everything has to be perfect right out of the gates. It has to look good. It has to function good, but you quickly learn that it’s, it’s not reality when you are building something from the ground up. It’s only natural for it to go through different changes in pivots and growth and change and everything. Um, and that was my biggest takeaway that I learned because when I launched Owsley, I wanted it to be so perfect looking. I wanted it to feel like it had already been around for years. And then I had to dial that back in. Cause we were still needing vendors. We were still eating customers. And once I kind of opened up that door a little bit to showing people the behind the scenes and what really is going on and, and where we are at that’s when I feel like we had the most growth was because people want to be a part of the ride and the journey

Scott Luton (43:50):

Love that. All right. So kind of one of my final questions before we make sure folks are, want to connect with Monica Fullerton, you’ve kind of given us a couple of, uh, appetizer for what lies ahead for spousely and Monica Fullerton. Anything else you’d like to add when you think about that future state, whether it’s 20, 22 or whether it’s, you know, 20, 30, or any point in between what else coming attractions, what else comes to mind?

Monica Fullerton (44:16):

Yeah, so we’re going to be launching spousal university very soon, probably at some point next month. Um, and spousal university will allow us to provide more tools and resources to our community on small businesses getting started, everything that they, there are so many great organizations already out there that provide tools and resources. So we don’t want to recreate the wheel. We want to simply highlight and share those companies in spousal university. So that way we can all continue to grow and thrive together. And then I’m bringing on the help and support getting over the hump of do bootstrapping and doing everything on my own. So remarketing is going to be ramping up. We’ll be improving tech and app down the road. Just a lot of, a lot of great things in the works.

Scott Luton (45:03):

That is wonderful. And I bet you must have several clones because of everything that is on your plate right now, and you’re making progress and growing and growing well. So it’s so great to hear. All right. So Monica, I imagine you get a lot of requests for public speaking, you know, beyond the core business, you know, keynotes, public speaking, you name it that, and anything else, how can folks connect with Monica, Florida?

Monica Fullerton (45:26):

Yeah. Connect with me on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is great. Um, you can email me. My email, I believe is on LinkedIn as well, or we can share it here, reaching out on spousely finding us on social media and just being a part of the ride, because we were talking about this earlier, Scott, you know, the support is what truly keeps entrepreneurs pushing forward. Um, people always see the shiny and the highlights and all of the features, but we don’t really share much of what’s going on behind the scenes, the tears, the heartache, everything that’s going into it. So just simple support would, would be amazing. And I’m so grateful for how much we’ve received, um, on our journey.

Scott Luton (46:04):

Love that, make sure you connect with Monica, Florida and across social, Hey folks, make sure at least venture over to spousely take a PR peruse through all the different products and the stories behind them. And see if you can factor that into your holiday gift buying. There’s, there’s something for everybody spousal and gosh, if when you blink it, uh, it’s gonna be a lot more. So Monica, I love, um, I love the story. I love how you are empowering all these, these folks from the special segment of our entrepreneurial global community. And of course the passion that you do it with is truly inspiring. So thanks so much for your time here today.

Monica Fullerton (46:44):

Thanks for having me again, Scott, I love being able to sit down and chat with you. It always gives me that energy to keep pushing forward. So

Scott Luton (46:52):

Well, you know, we’re going to knock out some more veteran voices podcast episodes, where we need to grab a few folks that were here, Batman and K rod, and, and maybe even LK Larry Klein. Our job is not done. We will try to publish a new episode every other Friday. We may have to step that cadence up in a new year. We’ll see, but Monica we’ll have to collaborate on that quick heads up to everybody before we sign off here today, join us tomorrow at 12 Eastern time, as we’re going to be reconnecting with our friends at us bank that produces the freight payment index. So Monica, you’re talking about drive ans uh, it sounds like there’s some logistics and transportation in your background or this truck will love it, man. Monica, we’re going to have to dive in deep in the supply chain, but you know, there’s this freight payment index they put out that helps folks and business leaders get it, get it, put their finger on the pulse of what’s going on.

Scott Luton (47:46):

Especially when it comes to the U S freight market, you know, volume and pricing is chock full of learnings. We’ve got a supply chain leader from Mondelez international. We try to pair up Bobby Holland who’s with us bank. He’s the, he’s the, um, the lead analyst that puts the freight payment index together. We try to pair up him with a senior voice from industry on the practitioner side, and, uh, we get a lot of feedback around those. So join us tomorrow. Folks on a traditional live stream of supply chain now at 12 noon Eastern time. And we’ll look forward to that. Okay. So folks, thanks so much for tuning in today. Monica Fullerton, the spouse Lee’s story. What a home run story. Thanks so much, Monica. Thank you. Thanks again for having me. You bet. And folks, we be sure to reach out and find veteran voices wherever you get your podcasts from. Uh, if you’re interested, if you’re a veteran that have, haven’t been able to share your story yet, reach out. We’ll see if we can get you into the recording and production schedule and own that note folks on behalf of our entire team here at supply chain. Now Scott Luton signing off for now. Hey, challenging you to do good. Give forward. Be the change that’s needed. Be like Monica Fullerton, or to be a much better place. And we’ll see you next time, own veteran voices or supply chain now. Thanks for budding.