Business
Maria Reed has been a military spouse for 17 years. Prior to that she was in the television industry. She was a director and a producer before meeting her husband. Military families have to move a lot, and there is a lot of work involved and a lot of uncertainty. Deployment is another big issue for military families when one spouse is left at home to take care of everything by themselves. One Christmas, Maria was watching home improvement shows on TV. She thought that something seemed a little off and that she had the production experience and the military experience to create an amazing home improvement show to honor military families. That’s when Moving With The Military first began. Once she had the idea she didn’t let budget constraints or network rejections stop her. She now works to bridge the civilian/military divide by giving military families incredible spaces to make their houses into homes. Highlights from This Episode: [00:43] Maria Reed has been an Army spouse for 17 years. She's the mother of two awesome teenagers, and the Armed Forces Insurance Army spouse of the year. [01:05] She's also a serial volunteer and serial entrepreneur. [01:14] She does everything she can to help military families. She feels like it's a whole new career. She used to be in television. She was a director and producer before meeting her husband. [01:43] Maria created a TV show called Moving With the Military about three years ago. On the show, they honor families for their service and commitment with surprise home makeovers. [02:35] Maria is busy, and she uses apps and pen and paper to manage her life. [03:49] Her husband is deployed. They have been through multiple deployments. She taught her kids how to cook and how to do laundry. Everyone does their part. [05:43] Maria's first military experience was in 2003. She had her family for help, but she felt alone until she went to her first FRG meeting. [07:50] She has had really great experiences on post and off post. [08:40] The show does DIY events that people can watch or attend. It's about making a connection and bringing people together. [09:24] Maria's advice for a family's first deployment is to thrive. [10:38] Go out and live and do and have fun and share those experiences with your spouse. [11:34] Maria had been watching a lot of home improvement shows on television. She had the production background and the military background and wanted to do things right. [12:54] She spent hours creating a strategic plan and a website. She told her husband about it, and he approved and he was deploying in 30 days. [13:18] Two months after he deployed, they did their first episode. She was turned down by networks, and they funded the show themselves. [14:53] They do one room makeovers and the furniture is a gift. They also purchase the goods and pay the tax on it. [16:56] Maria's favorite part is her military families surprised faces and how grateful they are. She also loves traveling. All of it fuels her with happy surprises. [19:04] The show is very personal for Maria. She leaves a part of herself there every time. [19:30] Last year they filmed a makeover for a coast guard family. The military spouse was in hospice. She wanted to leave her girls with a beautiful home. They filmed for five days and ended up doing the entire house. [21:05] The Coast Guard community came together and no one complained. [22:19] Maria's has always dreamed big. Getting on home improvement channels and a bigger audience could be in the future. [24:06] A PCS is a move for a military family. [24:27] Marie developed an app called My ultimate PCS. Moving is like starting over with a lot of paper. The app is cloud based. Everything is there. [27:01] Staying at the hotels during the PCS can be a funny challenge. Once they made a whole Thanksgiving meal in a hotel room. [29:03] Get the app for My Ultimate PCS. There are also quick guides. Get the orders. You can learn to live anywhere for a short amount of time. Look at it as an adventure and enjoy the journey. Links and Resources Moving With The Military My Ultimate PCS Maria Reed on LinkedIn Moving With The Military on YouTube Moving With The Military on Instagram Moving With The Military on Facebook Moving With The Military on Twitter Moving With The Military on Pinterest