045: “People took remote work seriously before COVID-19. But now, it's a staple.” Connecting military spouses to remote work with Kimber Hill

Jen Amos 0:00

Welcome to holding down the fort, a podcast show dedicated to curating knowledge, resources and relevant stories. So military spouses can continue to make confident and informed decisions for their families. Because let's face it, we know who's really holding down the fort. I'm Jen amis, a Goldstar, daughter of veterans spouse, and your host for today's show. Let's get started.

Hey, everyone, welcome back to another episode of holding down the fort. I hope that you had a wonderful weekend. So guess what this next episode is actually the second to the last episode for season two. Just a little teaser for the next episode. After this, my husband will be joining us. My husband Scott are Tucker from us bet wealth, which is the main sponsor for holding down the fort. But he will be joining me for the last episode after this one to wrap up Season Two with me. I've had a lot of fun this last season. And I am especially excited for season three. Because I now have a co host joining me I want to thank you to our listeners who have reached out and expressed interest. And now I am super stoked because we already have done some recordings together. And you all are in for a treat for season three. So for today's interview, I'm really excited because this is actually a good friend of ours here at US Fed wealth. Of course, as always, before I dive in, I have a couple of announcements for you. If you've really enjoyed the show, and you are interested in getting more content, more knowledge, resources, or relevant stories from our military, spouses and military families, consider signing up for our newsletter at holding down the fort podcast.com. So in this newsletter, it'd be very similar to the podcast show but we dive a little bit deeper and actually share content from the past guests we've had on the show. So if you are looking for more information, you're looking for more resources, as I mentioned, please check out the show notes of this episode to subscribe, or visit holding down the for podcast.com. Next announcement I have is of course, as I had alluded to earlier, this show wouldn't be possible without the company that I'm very proud to represent us but wealth at US bet wealth we educate and empower veterans and their families on how to have personal autonomy in their lives based off of our three pillars of financial control, self development and identity. We now have a section on our website at US vet wealth.com, where we provide what we're calling the ultimate guide to military life insurance for veterans and military families. So this is not your average life insurance that maybe your traditional financial advisor would talk to you about we really hyper focus on our military families specifically. And so if you are looking to learn more about what life insurance means for you and your family, what you already have available, and possibly some other options that could be better than what you already have. consider checking out our website us bet wealth.com. And to get the direct link to our ultimate guide, please check out the show notes of this episode, or visit holding down the fort podcast.com A couple of the things we educate on in this ultimate guide is an alternative to the Survivor Benefit Plan term insurance and understanding fgli Or VG li how to use the military retirement and pay calculators that are available online in our government websites. And ultimately, wealth planning specifically for our veterans and military families. All of these are educational resources are free. And once again, you can check out the direct link to this resource in the show notes of this episode or visit us@wealth.com. Another thing I want to mention is that this ultimate guide is a work in progress. We're constantly adding to it. So if you have any questions related to your military benefits and life insurance that you do not see on this website, please email me at my company email, Jen, that's je n at US bet wealth.com and we'll be happy to talk with the team about it and accommodate it and include it on the website. What that said I want to thank you for listening to my announcements. Now for this next interview. I am really excited to be interviewing Kimbra Hill, who is the founder and CEO of Vert force a little bit about Kimber Hill. She was recently featured on the Huffington Post talking about how in a normal economy 24% of military spouses face unemployment. However, Kimber, who is a navy wife has decided to do something about it. You can read more about her story in the Huffington Post, which will be provided in the show notes of this episode. Or you could just Google Kimbra Hill, Huffington Post, but she shares her story about how she almost lost her job because of her husband joining the military. But even though she was able to retain her position, she quickly found out that a lot of military spouses were unable to do the same. So she had I decided to help active duty military spouses get back into the workforce. On a personal note, we just want to thank the workforce brand ambassadors for finding our company us vet wealth to connect us with Kimber and vert force and actually be able to have helped us over a year ago, build our internship program, and eventually employ military spouses that work with us. And even though we have only connected less than a handful of times in person, Kimber is a good friend here at us but wealth and I personally admire and appreciate the good work that she's doing for military spouses and community. So with no further ado, I hope that you enjoy this wonderful episode that I have with Kimber Hill, founder and CEO of workforce.

Everyone, welcome back to another episode of holding down the fort. And I'm really excited because every time I get to do another show, it means that I get to interview another incredible person in our community. So today I have with me, the founder of workforce, Kimber Hill, Kimber, welcome to the show.

Kimber Hill 6:05

Hey, Jen, thank you so much for having me on holding down the fort. I'm very excited to be here and talk to your listeners.

Jen Amos 6:12

e probably had, I think, like: 5000

Kimber Hill 6:40

Yeah, that's right. And an interesting thing that we found is not everyone is on Facebook. I mean, can you believe it? Now, not everyone is on Facebook. So we've also built communications via our job board via our podcast via LinkedIn and via our email list. So right now, I think we total over 30,000.

Jen Amos 7:02

Wow, that is just incredible. And I believe someone had found us and reached out to us about inquiring like to inquire about your stances. I don't remember who that was. I wish I can give them credit. But that was well over a year ago now. And I feel like we've had a number of collaborative opportunities since then, with you in brute force.

Kimber Hill 7:24

Yes, that was probably one of our amazing brand ambassadors, we have a volunteer program that helps military spouses develop remote work skills. And one of their projects that they get assigned is looking for employers who might want to hire from the military spouse community. And that's when we found you. So one of our brand ambassadors found you and said, hey, this person might be a really great fit to bring their resources to virt force. And ever since then, we've been great friends, I have to say you are one of my first, I haven't been a military spouse very long, just about three years. And you are one of my first friendships that was made early on that I've been able to sustain virtually over time, even though we've never lived in the same place. We've only seen each other in person twice.

Jen Amos 8:12

I think so honestly, I think the first one was at military influencer conference. Yeah. And the second one I had Coincidentally, I saw you at military Women's Conference. MWC, Florida, and I didn't realize you were gonna be there. And you had a speaking engagement.

Kimber Hill 8:28

Yeah. And then we were also pod fest together, too. So we've seen each other three times three times in person. Yeah. And it's always a joy to see you and Scott, and I love to see us that wealth growing and seeing your podcast growing to it's awesome.

Jen Amos 8:41

Yeah, thank you. You know, definitely you and vert verse have been like such a great asset to us. I know that when we initially reached out, we were looking to, for like a sales position. Because in financial services, it's kind of normal to be taken on a sales position. And I think what you did for us was you, you guys helped us look at how do we market our positions differently. And you showed us how to do it in a form of an internship, which I actually really appreciated, because a lot of what we do nowadays is more focused on educating than it is about saying, Hey, this is available, and this is how much money you could make if you work with us. So I really appreciated your take on that. And I'm kind of curious if that's something that you tend to recommend to, let's say people that are looking for strictly sales positions, or was that a unique sort of advice for us?

Kimber Hill 9:38

That was unique for you guys, and there are other organizations who would benefit from a program like that, but I remember where you were in trying to bring on a team. And I believe if I remember correctly, one of the hinging factors there was there was a lot of training involved in your role. And as I talk to you, the more I talk to you, the more I realized that the program you were building was educational. It was, you know, four to eight weeks of teaching people how to network online and how to build online communities. And I just remember hearing from that this sounds like an apprenticeship or an internship that could lead to a job offer. And I know too, that you guys, were in your first couple of years of business at that point. And sometimes for a startup, that's a great way to get some traction underneath you. I mean, that's how vert force accidentally became a business. Right, we created our internship program to teach military spouses how to work remotely. And the next thing, you know, we've got some major traction, and we were able to start providing services. So that was neat. And it can work it does.

Jen Amos: 10:51

Absolutely. Well, I really do want to dive into vert force, but for people that are getting to know you for the first time, Kimber, given current events, why don't you share a snapshot of your life today? And how you've adapted to changes, if at all, if at all, because you work remotely?

Kimber Hill: 11:09

Uh huh. Okay, so I will tell all of you that because our business provides virtual and remote services during COVID, my workload probably tripled. And how did I adapt? My husband and I had a serious conversation about weekends off, I mean, seriously, weekends off, we don't even open the computer on Saturday or Sunday. And also over communicating with my team over communication. This time, last year through December, we had one foot in Slack, one foot and Facebook Messenger, we were on all of these free internal team platforms. But we were forced in 2020. to regroup. We migrated everything to SharePoint and migrated, everything is SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams, we sat firm business hours, and we set some firm team availability policies to keep everybody in the loop and on the same page. And that helps so much have helped us all stay sane and keep things afloat. During that crazy time. I'll also share that one of the goals for us this year is to shift sort of away from recruitment and towards recruitment marketing, because we know that that's something that would decrease the workload for our team members. And our culture is to be a part time team with weekends off and for half a day Friday, right? That's a part of our culture. That's what we're aiming for. So we're starting to kind of mold our business model around what's going to provide the team that kind of freedom. Personally, I have never leave the house, and I'm about to go insane. So in the beginning of my remote work career, I've been working remotely now for three years. In the beginning of my remote work career, I would hear people say, oh, you know, it's so important to get out of the house, and go do things outside of the home. And at that point in my life, I was thinking, No, not for me. I mean, I could literally stay in this house all day, every day. And I could my stamina was at a different level. At that point, I was fresh, I was green. And now I beg my husband. I'm like, Please take me to Walmart or something I gotta get out of these walls. I don't care where we go, just take me somewhere. And that's even funnier because my car broke down this year. And so we're like a one family vehicle sort of, I could probably drive the car from, you know, here to within a five mile radius. But I'll tell you what happened. The heat and Florida have cracked the engine, the heat of Florida cracked that puppy. So it's good for short distance. But that's why and then I'll text my friends. I have a girlfriend Haley who lives here and I'll text her and just say come pick me up. I have to get out of the house. Yeah, so yeah, COVID and COVID made that so much worse because I started to feel the burn of that late last year. And in January, but the last time I left the house was to go to pod fest, you know, or I left Jacksonville was to go to pod Fest and as soon as we got back COVID hit and it just felt like we were on lockdown. And for the first six weeks, I'm thinking this is fine. I'm okay, I'm used to this and then the next thing you know I'm spiraling and about to burn this place down. So I get it now I get why people tell you to get out of the house go work from a coffee shop. I understand it.

Jen Amos: 14:44

Yeah, definitely. I hear you. You know, as someone I've worked from home for the last decade, and I don't know what it is but something about this time I think because everyone is told to be at home. I feel like I'm becoming a little stir crazy. So you know we'll go to fast food right Just want to just to get out of the house, you know, even if we don't leave the car, just that feeling of like, okay, we're out of the house even for a little bit. And we'll drive a little further to, you know, pick up food that we've ordered at restaurants, even though it's like, well out of our way, it's like 2030 minutes out of the way, but it's good. We got out of the house. We did that. Today thing. I love it. Well, thank you for sharing that Kimber. And, you know, it's interesting, because this is an issue that's really happening today, a lot of us, you know, really struggling with feeling store crazing wanting to get out the house. But I do feel like it's something that military spouses and the community is fairly familiar with, especially if you are someone that is forced to work remotely and you know, has kids at home, and so you have to build a business at home. So I want to dive more into workforce. I know, we've already alluded to it a little bit. But I want to really share the heart of it. Like why did you start it because obviously, you're very passionate about it, and you've helped military spouses with it. And not just military spouses, I know that you assist veterans as well. And you've been featured in a number of things. I know Huffington Post being one of them recently. And so for people that want to know the heart of it all, because you're at the center of it all, you're the founder of brute force. Why did you start it? And I think the follow up question I have for that is is it fulfilling for you, even till this day being a couple years into it now?

Kimber Hill: 16:23

Absolutely. It was fulfilling. And I started vert force because I lived the new military spouse journey, and I felt it very deeply. I had spent the past, you know, six to eight years building an education and building a career that I love. And suddenly, my spouse was selected to go to Officer Candidate School, which was a dream of his right. Well, we were engaged at the time. And I was just like, Yeah, go for it, we can do this. Absolutely. And I don't think it ever really set in for me mentally, that what that was going to do to my career, what that was going to do to my career trajectory, and where I was going, not everyone is as career minded as I am. Not everyone wants to work. Some people just want to bring in income for the house. But for me, it's important to have meaningful work in my life that separates me from what my husband's career is and why he does. But honestly, I've been very, you know, career oriented my whole life and had some really big goals. So as soon as he commissioned, we were supposed to have several months before we moved, and we didn't, we got orders within two weeks, and very quickly, I almost lost my job. And we were stationed 500 miles away from the nearest facility that performed the type of work that I performed, which was government contracting, very specialized healthcare IT government contracting, and it was pretty shocking. At first, I was able to stay on with that company remotely, by the good grace of the CEO, who I sat down and had a private meeting with and they were able to find a way for me to stay on remotely. And when I transitioned into the military spouse life, I realized that not every military spouse gets that luxury. And most military spouses when I talked to them said remote work, that's a thing you can do that there are companies who will let you work from home. So because I lived that mission, I lived that experience, and I know what they were feeling. And I heard what felt like hundreds of military spouses tell me how unfulfilled they were having lost their job and not having any career prospects. And being faced with almost a 25% unemployment rate and prejudice in the workplace for being married to the military. I just decided to do something about it. And my mission initially was to educate military spouses about the availability of remote jobs and about the availability of companies who value remote team members and their whole models are based on distributed workforce. Once we started doing that workforce just blossomed, we developed an employment partner program. And since then, that was two years ago last week. And we've helped over 500 military spouses find remote employment. And we've made a $15 million economic impact on the military community, and it's very fulfilling. I live for those hashtag hired posts that hit our page weekly. It makes us so happy. It makes me so happy.

Jen Amos: 19:30

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing that. And I think that in your situation, or in many people's situation, when they feel like they don't have any career opportunities ahead of them. It's easy to just not do anything about it and maybe just kind of accept the reality and be like, Okay, I guess I'm just going to be the stay at home spouse. Not that there's anything wrong with that at all. But for people who are definitely career oriented, I want to commend you for filling in that void and really showing military spouses And our community that it is very possible to not just get remote work, but actually be contracted be an employee remotely and to get paid well and to have benefits and, you know, to really feel like an employee, but being able to do it from your home, the comfort of your home, or wherever your PCs paying off to.

Kimber Hill: 20:17

Yeah, absolutely. And the military spouse journey is so similar for many of us, which is I need a career that I can do part time if I want to have children that I can take time off from to have children and come back to, and I need a career that's going to understand when my spouse is on deployment, and I need a career that can accommodate me PCs thing, and it's not out of your reach, you know, it's possible, it's possible because really, what you're looking for is just a company who's going to be able to provide that. And as a distributed model, where all of their employees are remote. And the fact that you're a military spouse doesn't faze them at all, or the fact that you're a military spouse excites them, because they know how talented military spouses are and how interested they are in hiring more military spouses. So it's a journey for sure. And we're all on it. We're all in different capacities. I see military spouses who just want gig based work, you know, finish a service desk ticket, get paid $2.50 Move on with your day. And you know, doing as many of those a day as they can I see spouses who want six figure salaries. The biggest thing that I like to communicate is multiple streams of income, you know, setting up some kind of side hustle for yourself, which is why I love you guys and what you do, specifically teaching people how to maximize their benefits, because what are you doing with that income when it comes in? You know, if it's just spending money, are you putting anything back for yourself, right, setting up multiple streams of income. So you're not completely reliant on one activity? You're not completely reliant on one thing in particular? Yeah. But you'll learn it for us in our community, you'll learn specifically how to look for remote jobs, how to prepare yourself for the remote job market, what's out there gig based work freelance for project based work, hourly work, salary work, and with COVID happening? There's just so much more right people took remote work seriously before COVID. But now after COVID, it's a staple. Yeah. So that's great for military spouses in this demographic, if you want to work from home.

Jen Amos: 22:21

Yeah, absolutely. Kimber, these last, I think year and a half or so of knowing each other. It's been an absolute pleasure. And I continue to commend you and admire you for the work that you're doing in our community, and helping so many military spouses. We've said a lot about workforce. So I know at this point, people will definitely be interested in learning more. So how would they be able to learn more about brute force and how would they be able to get ahold of you if they're interested?

Kimber Hill: 22:45

Yeah. All right, we have a job board jobs dot vert force.us. The IRT F O RC, you can email me Kimber at vert for set us if you'd like to chat. We're also releasing a new program on Monday called the resume boot camp. If you want to get your resume in fighting shape for the virtual job market, you can check that out@bit.ly forward slash VF hyphen, BC. And of course, we have an enormous Facebook group. And we'd love to have another body in their cup, learn about remote work. My most favorite resource to point you towards though, is our podcast. And I love that because it's much more personal for you as an experience, or as someone who's coming to the remote workforce and the virtual workforce to learn about remote work and how to pursue it as a candidate. It's much more of a tailored journey for you. So you can check out our podcast just anywhere you listen to podcasts, search for the word for force, and you should be able to find it.

Jen Amos: 23:52

Yes. And if you want to hear my husband, Scott Tucker, he's also one of the people you interviewed on your show.

Kimber Hill: 23:56

Yeah, I wish I knew what episode number that was. And we can point to it. It's been second I'll look it up. That's number seven. Number seven, Scott Tucker on finding purpose and unlocking financial wellness. Go listen to it. It's actually a really good episode. I edited that one personally. And maybe because I'm such a finance dork. I was like, oh, yeah, keep talking.

Jen Amos: 24:21

Oh, and he will keep talking. He loves talking. And you know, as I mentioned, that was really the episode that inspired us to really pay more attention to military spouses. So just thank you for that opportunity. And I'm just so glad that we can continue to maintain a friendship and a professional relationship together, Kimber, it's been an absolute pleasure having you thank you

Kimber Hill: 24:45

so much, Jen. I love our chat slugged. Stay in touch Call me anytime.

Jen Amos: 24:50

Yes. And to our listeners, we want to thank you so much for listening. We hope that you gained another piece of knowledge, resource or relevant story so that you and your family can continue to make informed decisions. So, with that said, thank you for listening and we look forward to speaking with you in the next episode tune in next time