Tonya Marie Towles

Share your military spouse story:
My husband and I met at a very chaotic time in my life back in 2017 in Colorado, he was active duty in the army and I was working 3 jobs (coming from a childhood of homelessness; I was obsessed with working hard to create a better life for myself). Our first date was during a 30 minute break in between two of my jobs that day, eating sonic milkshakes and laughing—while my jobs have changed over the years to where I am now, his understanding of my work ethic since that first date has remained, something I love dearly about him. He has always supported me on my entrepreneurial journey, as I've always supported him in his dedication to the military and his passion for his career. We got married later that year; several homes, deployments, PCS, companies, and a daughter later — our lives have truly changed together, and I wouldn't change a thing.

Share an example of your leadership experience within the military community:
I am the owner and founder of The PCS Pro Team with Keller Williams, VirtPros, and Seasons Mortgage, to name a few. All of which are primarily comprised of military spouses, veterans, and reservists! It has been a huge driving force and passion of mine to help provide jobs to military spouses across the nation, and not only to just provide jobs... but have those jobs be ones that they can take with them wherever they PCS to. To create CAREERS that spouses can be proud of, and they don't have to worry about quitting every few years when they have to move.

Describe your involvement in the military community:
All three of my companies are heavily involved with the military community! All year round, we host our own events for our communities! We do Thanksgiving food drives, Christmas Toys for Tots events and collect warm winter wear for shelters, we do the 'adopt' a family per team we have per location a year at Christmas time to donate toys and grocery's to, etc. We also participate in local military events; we donate to many different military derived charities! Our military communities are our literal heart and soul-- the whole reasoning behind our mission.

Describe how you support your community:
We have created a Facebook group that has over 20,000 people in it! It has become an incredible community of spouses that can really go in there and get support, or advice, or anything really and be met with almost ALWAYS someone else who knows exactly what you're talking about/going through/ can help you. We also provide FREE webinars to anyone interested in real estate and answer any questions they have on how to kind of get started and where to do so!

What do you advocate for? Why?
I advocate for moms, women, spouses, independence, confidence, self-worth. I want to show my daughter, my friends, my fellow military spouses that we CAN do it all. We CAN be moms; we CAN have meaningful and impactful careers AND support our spouses. We CAN be bosses. Entrepreneurs. Big dreamers. We can do it all.

How have you spread the message of your platform/advocacy?
I spread my message every chance I get, that you matter, you can have it all, and you are worthy of a big life. I spread this everywhere from social media, to one on one conversations, to standing on a stage in front of thousands. I've engrained this message in every member of our organizations, and so they have gone out into their communities with the same belief and spread the same message of empowerment. They are living proof that you can have big careers while supporting your spouses careers, and having a family life, wherever the military moves you.

What do you hope to accomplish with the AFI Military Spouse of the Year^® title?
I hope to keep changing lives. I hope to keep inspiring people, to keep showing people that this life and this world is what you make it. I hope to show people that being a military spouse, although yes can be limiting sometimes... it is such a special thing. With an incredibly special community. And if I can be any part in bettering this community, in bettering someone's life, then I'm doing my job right.