Michelle Penczak

Share your military spouse story:
I met my husband, Sean, in 2012 and after a whirlwind romance we were married in 2013. Prior to our marriage, I lived in Washington DC and Sean was in flight school in Corpus Christi, Texas. I got my first glimpse of military life when I joined him just prior to his winging. We moved to Jacksonville, North Carolina in February 2013. I immediately faced challenges ranging from locating employment and finding my niche in a new city to accepting myself in a new lifestyle. I leaned on one of my favorite quotes, which is "bloom where you are planted," and it inspired me to volunteer with the Semper Fi Fund, Hope for the Warriors, and the New River OSC.

Share an example of your leadership experience within the military community:
After participating as a volunteer with the Semper Fi Fund at Camp Lejeune and the New River OSC, I founded Squared Away in 2017, and thus began my leadership journey. My company was founded in response to the fact that I couldn't find a job as a military spouse. It's ironic because so many companies claim to be military spouse friendly, but almost all of the spouses that I met were having the same issue. They were highly educated and ready to work, but struggling to find a job because of their status as military spouses. The mission of Squared Away is to empower military spouses to build meaningful careers and to work from anywhere. Squared Away has grown, in only two years, from two assistants (myself included) to over seventy! Today we work with some of the best companies and venture capital firms in the world in addition to top executives and freelancers. We are the most trusted team members and our clients' right hand.

Describe your involvement in the military community:
Military spouses and access to employment have always been near and dear to my heart. In 2015, I founded Savvy Spouses, which is a website dedicated to sharing real-time remote work opportunities that are "PCS proof". These positions are ideal for military spouses because remote work easily transfers when they move to a new duty station. From there, I founded Squared Away. Squared Away is a remote executive assistant company that employs military spouses from Japan to Germany and everywhere in between. We support a wide-range of businesses and consultants from venture capital funds to published authors and consultants. Everyone can use more time to focus on their business and military spouses can tackle anything - it's the perfect pair.

Describe how you support your community:
I support the military community through Squared Away and my commitment to end military spouse unemployment. I believe that all military spouses are worthy, that they deserve jobs, and also that they are often the best people to fill jobs due to their versatility and adaptability. I work closely with each of my assistants and I invest in their lives and their stories. This helps me connect them with the clients for whom they'll be the best fit, and I am known for my "matchmaking" abilities among Squared Away assistants and clients. My penchant for assistant-client fit has helped my company grow beyond my initial vision and I am proud to help so many military spouses and their families enjoy dual-incomes and the self-worth that comes from having a career with integrity and value.

What do you advocate for? Why?
My platform is, and will always be, military spouse employment. Military spouses are, at times, underserviced and undervalued. There is this terrible stigma that we "knew what we were getting ourselves into" and I will never stop fighting the unfairness of this attitude. We are people, just like anyone else, who happened to fall in love with servicemembers and I don't feel that anyone should be punished for following their own path. It is my goal to showcase the value that military spouses provide across all career-space, and to bring more understanding not only to the employment struggles that military spouses face but also to the military lifestyle in general.

How have you spread the message of your platform/advocacy?
I spread my message through press opportunities and, most importantly, my people! I have been fortunate enough to have media interest not only for me individually but also for Squared Away. I am always thankful and glad to spread the word about my company and my assistants, but my best advocates are my team themselves. Squared Away assistants are encouraged to speak and write about their experiences within the company and also, more broadly, as military spouses. Our clients are wonderfully positive about us, as well, and I have proudly built Squared Away all without spending a dime on marketing.

What do you hope to accomplish with the AFI Military Spouse of the Year^® title?
If I am chosen as AFI Military Spouse of the Year, I hope to use this platform to employ even more military spouses. Though Squared Away was created from my own employment-related challenges, my vision for our future has evolved and now includes all military spouses and families. I am so invested in our lifestyle and our community that I refuse to divert from this path until all military spouses who want to work have found worthy employment. I think that by showing the world the quality that military spouses bring to any workplace, we can strengthen the perception of and support for servicemembers and military families as a whole.