Transcript - The Money Drill: Stephanie Brown of The Rosie Network at DigitalMilEx
Introduction: J.J. Montanaro host of USAA's new podcast, "The Money Drill" was on site at
USAA's DigitalMilEx Conference speaking with bloggers, podcasters, authors, and speakers.
Whether you're active duty, reserve, veteran, or military spouse, you'll want to tune in to hear
their vital career and money advice.
JJ: All right, we're still here at the DigitalMilEx. I'm JJ Montanaro and with me, I have a military
spouse, entrepreneur, and a pretty darn cool lady, Miss Stephanie Brown. Stephanie, first off,
why don't you tell our listeners what...you're the co-founder. I know a little bit of your story but
why don't you tell the folks out there what it is that you've created because I think it's a
beautiful thing.
Stephanie: Well thank you very much for having me. It's wonderful to be here in San Antonio
with USAA. I as you said, I'm a military spouse. My husband served for over 30 years active
duty. I'm also a military brat so I grew up in the military, married into the military and...
JJ: Couldn't get away.
Stephanie: I'm raising children in the military. Actually, I founded The Rosie Network like a lot
of entrepreneurs trying to solve a problem and one that I had experienced myself. I was
looking for a plumber of all things if you can imagine. My husband was actually deployed at
the time. So I went on like a lot of Americans, Angie's List and Craigslist and I felt really
uncomfortable about having somebody come in my house that I didn't know. So when my
husband called, as husbands do, from where he was, he said, "Stephanie, have you fixed that
plumbing problem?" and I said, "Not yet," and I really told him I said, "I really wish I could find
a veteran or a military spouse- owned business plumber to come in," and he goes, "Well you
should build it. Build a way for people like me to locate these businesses because we know
they're out there," and that's what I did. Rosieslist.org after Rosie the Riveter launched in
2014 and it's a free online searchable database like an Angie's List, Craigslist if you will but it
features only verified veteran and military spouse home businesses in every state in the
country and overseas so it's bridging that gap between American consumers and our veteran
military family-owned businesses.
JJ: Let's just go back to Rosie the Riveter. So for those who don't know Rosie the Riveter,
paint the picture for us.
Transcript - The Money Drill: Stephanie Brown of The Rosie Network at DigitalMilEx
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Stephanie: Well, it's interesting. I've gotten a lot of questions why we chose Rosie the Riveter
because you can't trademark her. She's actually public domain but it was really what she
represented to me, not just as a military spouse but kind of how during World War II because
she's a World War II iconic image. She really represents how our country sacrificed and came
together to support military families and our veterans serving overseas and that's really what
she represents to me is how can our country come together to support today's veterans and
military families. And, of course, buying military family-owned is truly something that we
should all support.
JJ: So we talked about Rosie's List and really connecting people with folks who can help them
but the Rosie Network is really geared towards empowering those military spouses to start
that business that can ultimately end up on Rosie's List.
Stephanie: That's right. In fact when we did Rosie's List when we came up and started to
build this whole idea, a very wise Navy veteran turned to me and said, "You should really find
out what these businesses need." So that's what we did. We conducted hundreds of
interviews, hundreds of surveys and focus groups and what we learned out of that was that it
wasn't just marketing their business but that they had a lot of common challenges. So how
could we, as a nonprofit, organization meet those challenges and help?
And then, as it sort of evolved, we also realized that military spouses, in particular, have
incredibly high levels of unemployment. Underemployment is a big deal. So 90% of military
spouses that are employed are vastly overqualified for their jobs. They get paid less, all that
kind of stuff. So entrepreneurship really opens the door to an amazing set of opportunities
that a lot of us don't realize are out there and so our services are all at no cost.
So we provide mentorship, online training, access to resources, everything from participating
in our new entrepreneurial development center in San Diego which is a shared office
accelerator program. We have military spouses in there that are, you know, they get an office
space. They get a computer. They get training. They get free legal advice, HR, everything
they need to really launch and grow. And here's what we're finding, JJ, really the magic that's
happening is that successful military spouses...we've always known this about veteran-owned
businesses but successful military spouse entrepreneurs are hiring other military spouses. So
it's really solving that unemployment and underemployment challenge that spouses today are
experiencing.
JJ: So if somebody is thinking about, "Hey, this is a path that kind of turns my light on," how
do they engage The Rosie Network? What's their next step as far as really taking a look at
whether or not this makes sense and if it truly is something that can work for them?
Stephanie: The first step would be to go on our website therosienetwork.org and you can
contact us. If you're in San Diego, by all means, you can come into the center on Monday
through Friday. Just walk in, it's open. Meet us, sit down, figure out what we offer, everything
from business plan development to how to do social media. But you can reach out to us
online. We do webinars. We publish a magazine called "Military Entrepreneur Magazine." We
can share your story. If you're a blogger and you want to get your blog out there, let us know.
We can publish it in our magazine, up on our website.
So, it's not just the Rosie Network. We try to engage our partnering organizations to really sort
of bring together that and create that trusted online source for information, for resources and
develop a community of entrepreneurs.
Transcript - The Money Drill: Stephanie Brown of The Rosie Network at DigitalMilEx
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JJ: On that note, you really got some exciting news from the SBA recently.
Stephanie: Oh thank you. Yeah, I'm very proud and very excited to share that we did our
Military Entrepreneur Development Center in San Diego was awarded the SBA, Small
Business Administration's Accelerator of the Year award. So only two veteran- focused
organizations were selected for the year, and we're very excited to be one of them so thank
you for mentioning that.
JJ: Congratulations. Well, let's close with I think just a few tips, two or three tips that you think
that somebody is going to... who is considering the entrepreneurial path what should they
know? If you could just bestow upon them lessons that you've learned throughout this
process, what would you share?
Stephanie: Network and don't be afraid to ask. I meet military spouses across the country all
the time that might have a Master's degree in education, for example, and they're out there
trying to look for a job and teaching and that's very challenging as we know. But yet they are
thinking, "Well, maybe there's a way I can do this is an independent contractor, as an
entrepreneur, and how do I go about doing that?" Well, I guarantee you there are others that
have pursued that option. Reaching out and connecting with them. Don't be afraid to ask for
help. Find a mentor. They can really open the doors for you that you weren't even aware were
available.
JJ: Network and ask for help.
Stephanie: Absolutely.
JJ: I like it. Well, Stephanie, thanks so much for stopping by today here at the USAA
DigitalMilEx. We appreciate it and wish you all the best and again really love your mission,
what you're doing for military spouses everywhere.
Stephanie: I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.
Transcript - The Money Drill: Stephanie Brown of The Rosie Network at DigitalMilEx
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