We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Pasquale and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My business didn’t begin as a business at all. It began as a passion project, designed to create space and conversation for those in my community struggling to find their own voice. Pride & Grit was first a storytelling mission, sharing the written and visual stories of military spouses. We saw that seasoned (aka experienced/older) military spouses struggled to give a voice to their experience. They’d shouldered decades of war, years of career pivots, months of solo parenting, and ultimately a disconnection with their own identity and dreams. In some small part, Pride & Grit wanted to give those stories the oxygen they deserved so that other spouses could see themselves in the stories and find support, community, and inspiration. Over time, Pride & Grit became more than stories. It became action. We introduced personal development retreats and strengths coaching as cornerstones in our programming, and from those changes grew a business model for the organization. So, my initial thought was to help people, to do good. Over time I realized it was possible to both do good and make an income. And it was clear that I could help more people if I had a profitable business with a mission of giving back.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I adore my military spouse community. As a 16-year active duty spouse, I’ve grown up in a military-connected community. It brings me an immense amount of joy to hear that an article, interview, or event resonated with our audience and helped them feel more connected to a community that understood them.

When Pride & Grit began supporting seasoned military spouses and their families’ journey from service to civilian life, no other organizations were operating exclusively for the benefit of this unique audience. But as with any new venture, when you are the first in a business space, setting the foundation for both the needs of your audience and your solutions to their needs can take precision, patience, and tenacity. We had to keep listening to them, understanding their needs along with our misses, and our home runs. But, it wasn’t always easy.

As a military-connected business owner, I moved my business across the United States twice in two years, eventually moving three times in four years. Each summer, we lost momentum, and every fall, we had to white-knuckle our way to momentum again. While I often wonder where we’d be without those “lost” months, I know that each summer provided an opportunity to reevaluate our mission, double down on my commitment, and create systems to make the next transition a little easier. What I continue to be proud of is that we kept coming back. We continued to learn and adjust to meet the needs of our audience.

Our work at Pride & Grit is rooted in helping military spouses reconnect with themselves. They’ve held the reins as the supporters and enablers of the mission for their Service Members. Though a choice made willingly, it comes with a cost. Lost identity, shelved dreams, abandoned career trajectories, pivoted professions, and significant underemployment are all costs our military spouse community pays in support of our mission to preserve the freedom of our nation. As Pride 7 Grit supports military spouses and their reconnection with their lost identity, we see wish our civilian neighbors knew how hard it could be to uproot your life, friends, support network, and safety net every 2-3 years, for two decades. Military spouses want to transition to civilian life into a community that wants to understand their journey and support their future.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I am most grateful to my steadfast supporter, my partner in life and parenting, Dave.

And, every business owner should have a marketing partner that believes in their mission, captures their voice, and pushes them beyond their comfort zone. Akers & Co is that firm, and Lyndsey is that partner for Pride & Grit.

Website: www.prideandgrit.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/prideandgrit

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/pride-grit

Facebook: www.facebook.com/prideandgrit

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.