‘Hello you lovely lot, and welcome to the Independent Spouse. I’m Jess Sands, founder of the independent spouse and current military wife running my own business, design Jessica, through postings, deployments and the other challenges that my military life brings.

I know how you are all eagerly awaiting the start of series 3 so I just wanted to give you a little update on the podcast. It’s my great pleasure to let you know Series 3 will be launching on the 9th September – and it’s going to be an amazing series!

I have spent the last few months interviewing some remarkable business owners, incredible project leaders, and inspirational friends and I cannot wait to share their stories with you.

As a few of you might know my husband was posted and in less than a month we’ll be moving into our 4th house since we were married. In fact it will be our 5th wedding anniversary when we get the keys to our new married quarter – don’t worry, I am still talking to my husband though. I have toughened up to this military life and you’d be surprised at how well I can work my way through a packing box – this does however mean that although the episodes of the podcast are ready to be published I want to wait until I am certain that I can deliver them to you properly – but don’t worry, they’re absolutely worth the wait. So make sure you’ve hit subscribe so you can be the first to know listen to the episodes.

But while you’re waiting I thought I should tell you all about a very exciting online event that you can sign up to straight away.

I have been business networking since the very first week that I started my business seven years ago and, in that time, I have met some fab business owners and have had some brilliant work commissioned because of it. But what I have realised is that no matter how many people I connect with I find it difficult to keep up that network once I leave that posting and move to another base. After a while they sort of forget about me and my business. But what I have also learnt is that we, as military spouses, are a community of amazing business leaders all over the world, and it seems such a shame that we miss out on the ability to network with each other.

So, this Autumn I’ll be hosting some very special virtual networking meetings exclusively for military spouses – where you’ll meet other business owners and spend focused time in mastermind groups getting to know them in person, all without leaving your computer – it’s all done online through you computers camera and audio.  I call It Virtual Networking.

Its super easy, business focused and completely free. The first Virtual Networking event is happening on Wednesday the 11th of September and you can sign up by visiting the community pages on the InDependent Spouse website.

I am so excited to start connecting you to the brilliant business people I have met so far and would love to see you there. I promise it’ll be a safe space where you will not be judged and can practice your business pitch. I had great feedback from the test events so please come along and join in.

You can also kick start your networking straight away in the InDependent Spouses in Business Network online community over on Facebook where you’ll find almost 200 other spouses in business ready to help you. There are no criteria to meet, your relationship status is not under review, nor is your partner’s rank, service or if they’re a reservist or full-time serving. You don’t need to be female a mum or even married – there’s no exclusion here. It’s very simple. If you believe that you need to connect to a network of other spouses in business then sign-up. I think that once you have lived this military life, in whatever shape or form, you have an insight like no other. Whatever stage you are at in your ‘military journey’ you can help others who might not be there yet.

Building a business as a military spouse doesn’t have to be lonely – so head over and say ‘hello’ and let’s build an amazing network together.

So that’s the update, stick around for series 3 heading your way on the 9th of September. In the meantime don’t forget to sign up to the mailing list for all these updates and more straight to your inbox, along with access to free business support workbooks, vlogs, and business tips to help you build that posting proof business you deserve.

Thanks for listening and I’ll be back soon with the inspirational stories from Series 3 of The InDependent Spouse. See you then.’