Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Wendy Baird – Packard. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Wendy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

Speaking up With Wendy Baird Packard came from many places in my heart.

First, let’s start with the “up” in Speaking up. I believe God has given me gifts to assist people in the areas my company covers. So when I work, I always seek guidance and direction to find the right solutions for my clients. I believe we all have gifts. We have to look up to find them. I always want to be sure my clients keep looking up, not back on past failures. I want them to continue to hold their head up and move forward toward their goals and dreams, and I want them to hold their head up, against the people who say you can’t do something. LOOK UP,

Next, let’s add the “Speaking” to the up; I never felt heard as a child, the youngest of three to a single mom who worked 2 and 3 jobs at a time. I remember so many times my thoughts or feelings never being validated. I am of an age in the era of children should be seen, not heard. I never felt I had a voice, which made me believe no one liked me. Growing up, I spent a lot of time alone, never feeling heard or seen. Now, I work to be sure everyone can have a voice, having a voice does not mean being the loudest in the room, it means knowing what to say to make the most impact and be heard.

Lastly, The Wendy Baird Packard is of course my name, but I chose to use my maiden name with my married name to honor my family, Every bit of who I am good and bad comes from my up bringing with my Mom and two sisters. I want to honor that family as well as the Packard (married ) name. My core family, my husband and son are the Packard family, these are the people who support and encourage me in this business and have helped me become an entrepreneur .

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Wendy Baird Packard, a military spouse who has moved 6 times in the last 12 years. Each move has pushed me into what is now my own consulting company. I had been married to my husband for almost a decade when we decided he would return to active duty. I had no reference point of what military life would look like. When we finally arrived at our first actual duty station, my husband brought home a handful of brochures and flyers. Every flyer gave me an opportunity to become involved in the military base and community. As is my nature, I dove in; I volunteered in every organisation I could find.

I found my drive within the Army Community Services offices. These offices provided family assistance to military families, from childcare to financial planning. One of the first classes I became involved with was the Army Family Team Building program. This was a three-day intensive class to teach military spouses about protocol, lifestyle, employment and volunteer opportunities within the Army community. These classes were taught by seasoned military spouses. I was hooked. I knew the information was transformational for incoming new spouses such as myself. I took the classes, went on to become a certified trainer and taught the classes.

As a part of that team, I also began to work with the redeployment team. The redeployment team planned mandatory briefings for returning service members who had been deployed for 9 – 12 months. The service members were required, usually within the first 48 hours of returning from a war zone, to attend these briefings. I was the volunteer coordinator. I made sure the room was set, briefers were given times to arrive, and the material was copied. In every session would be several hundred exhausted service members. We reintegrated over 5000 soldiers in one year, and every time I watch the same briefers come in and give information, I notice how they didn’t ever change how they presented. I also noticed although the information was important about how to handle PTSD, reintegration with small children, and alcohol consumption, We still had high child abuse cases, DUI’s and suicides. The information was critical, but the way it was being delivered was not right for the audience. They just wanted to go home and rest. During this time, I also watched high-ranking military members deliver speeches or talks that were terrible, either above the knowledge of the audience or the person was not good public speakers. I saw a need that I wanted to fill, I wanted to teach people to be able to speak in public and be good at it.

After several years as a volunteer with the Army Community Services, I went to a manager and said I would like to apply for a job. He simply stated that would never happen if I didn’t have a college degree, no matter how much I volunteered, and they knew my work ethic, no degree, no job!

I was angry and hurt. It had been over 30 years since I attempted college and failed at it. I never believed I could do it. As I mentioned, I believe in a higher power, and as it was, I came across a $4000.00 scholarship to the college of my choice just because I was a military spouse. I took that as a sign, marched myself to the local Community College and took the next two years to get an associate’s degree. When I started, all I knew was I wanted a degree so I could get paid for the work I was doing as a volunteer. I chose communication as my degree path. I took sociology, anthropology, communication skills, and public speaking classes. I had found what I was meant to learn, maintained straight A’s (ok, except for math, let’s not talk about that ), Graduated, and we moved. I thought that after the two-year degree was finished, I was done with college, but I wanted more, so I went to Colorado Christian University online for the degree in Communications and Mass Media.

We had moved to Hawaii. I began to volunteer again for the local Army Community Services office, teaching classes and assisting in promoting our programs to the service members of the base. I applied for a facilitator position with the Transition Assistance Program (TAP), created by the Department of Labor. This is a mandatory class service members must take when leaving the service. It is designed to assist the service member in selecting a path once they are done with active service. Iwas hired to facilitated a 3-day employment readiness class, which most service members hated. Again, great information was presented in the wrong way.

Over the course of two years, I worked with approximately 4,000 service members guiding them to the next step in civilian life. I helped them understand requirements as a civilian, employment options, resumes, networking, speaking in civilian, not military, and all the agencies that were available to help them with this transition. I developed a better personal way of delivering the information and was often told I was the best facilitator they had had during this long process of classes they had to take to get out of the military.

As I began to become more noticed in my community for my employment readiness knowledge, I was asked to speak at conferences, volunteer to review resumes at job fairs and assist military spouses in career guidance. After two years in this job and completing my Bachelor’s degree, we moved to Texas. I was a government contractor, and when I arrived in Texas, the local bases’ TAP classes were contracted to another contractor, and I was unable to do my job in Texas. For three months after arrival in Texas, I flew to Colorado and Nebraska every other week to facilitate classes. I knew this was not sustainable for me. First, I don’t like to fly; next, I had a son who was entering his last two years in high school and needed me to be home more.

I excepted a job with the local Workforce Development Office assisting military spouses with employment, connecting them with business in the community, writing resumes, and networking skills. I also facilitated classes on employment readiness. After three months in this position, I was promoted to Business Services Manager. I worked closely with small businesses assisting with employee placements. Covid hit, and I saw the struggles of small businesses, staffing, customer acquisition, and safety issues. You name it, I saw it. I saw how some businesses thrived, and some did not survive. I saw how once again, communication could make or break the success of a small family-owned business.

As a military spouse who has to start over with a new job every three years, I also saw how onboarding and training affected the opinion of new employees, which predicted how long they would stay with the business. After nine months in this job, I was again promoted to Business Development and Military Liasion for the Workforce Development Board. Here I worked with small businesses, government grants, local government, and the military base. I worked to promote internships with businesses for military service members and extended teaching opportunities for local schools. But, as time went on, I realized I did not like the job I was doing. I was working at a high level and missed working one-on-one with individuals looking for work and facilitating classes. After just under a year, I resigned from my position, vowing never to return to a 9 – 5 office job again.

I took a part-time job with my local church as a government contractor and also began to substitute teach, I was able to reconnect one-on-one with people at my church and with students. It was through that year I created Speaking Up With Wendy Baird Packard. It was a concept I had had for many years but never felt ready to promote myself. I knew I wanted to help people communicate better.

I now work to show my clients how to speak in a way they are listened to and remembered. Communication is the core of my company, and I want to show people how to Speak up to be heard, to maximize their communication potential. Over the last decade I have studied the art of communication.

My company teaches people how to Speak Up in three niche areas. Career Development/Change, Small Business Culture, and Public Speaking and Presentations. I work one-on-one, facilitate classes, or speak to groups in these areas focusing on communication as a core to success. I help my clients see the barriers that are standing in their way to the next goal they want. Finding a new career path, improving employee retention and profits ,or helping someone speak with confidence at the next meeting are a few of the goals I want my clients to achieve. I want to create a world of better communicators.

In a world of coaches and consultants, what makes me different, I work with my clients. I do not refer them to videos or prerecorded lessons. I truly want to see someone reach a goal. I am in it for my clients. I become their biggest cheerleader, I will do the extra work behind the scenes to help them succeed. I have created classes in all areas to deliver to teams, or groups. We will have a session, but many times I will work for my clients after the session is over, either networking, looking for a perfect job, rewriting a speech, or referring them to someone who can help move them forward. this is not just a job. It is a calling!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Wow, a lesson I have had to unlearn! It has to be that I am invisible. Over the last 5 years, I had to unlearn the childhood lesson that my voice, feelings and opinions don’t matter. As I mentioned before, as the youngest of three to a single mom with several jobs and little time or patience, emotions and opinions were not an option for me.

If I am honest, I still battle that feeling of not being good enough. I have to quiet the voice that says, “Why would people want your advice”? I have to remember I have a decade of knowledge in the areas I work in. Being in the coaching business, you are confronted with many amazing entrepreneurs who are very accomplished and established. It is hard to get past the imposter syndrome as a newer business.

I have to remind myself of all the letters of thank you I have received for helping people communicate better. I have to remember I have a gift that I need to use. I have to remind myself what I have to say is worth someone paying for my services. I am more resilient now than ever before in my life.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients is me being bold and referalls. Now, this is not in a pushy sales way, but knowing my worth and that I am good at what I do and not afraid to tell people.

Right after I applied and received my business licence, someone asked me what I did for a living. I was stunned when I heard myself say I have my own company. I then attended a Chamber of Commerce meeting and as it is customary in that environment, for everyone to introduce themself and the company they worked for. It came to me again. I was shocked to rattle off my elevator speech about my own company out of my mouth. It was crazy to think I was actually doing this!

Since then, I have become very confident in talking about my business. I don’t force it on anyone, but if it comes up, I will promote myself. A great example, We have just completed another move, and I am new in the area. At our new location, we have a great dog park I have been taking my dogs to for a few weeks. I have a dog that is not so dog friendly, so we often stay in a fenced area to ourselves. Last week, a gentleman I had seen several times in the park said he would let my dog try to play with his dog, His dog was very neutral, and he thought that would help my dog. Long story short, it worked, We began talking while the dogs played, and he asked what I did for a living. I told him and explained my services. The next day he asked for my card and asked my fees; he wanted to hire me for himself and his daughter to help them find new career paths.

The best source of new clients for me is me! Being comfortable and confident in what I do, and knowing I bring value to my clients, is the best source in finding my next client. I use my social media to connect with relevant content which has also gained me clients, but that still goes back to me, I do the video’s and post, I am the best source of new clients.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Speakingupwithwendybairdpackard/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendybairdpackard/