Resilience in Action: The Inspiring Life Story of Jennifer Ballou

Onward Podcast Logo and guest Jennifer Ballou

Jennifer Ballou is a retired Army First Sergeant and Founder of A Joyful Life With Jennifer LLC.  Furthermore, her life coaching business focuses on helping women Veterans and military family members navigate life transitions. Also, Jennifer is a speaker about, and true practitioner of, resilience and joy. In this episode Jennifer and I talk about how she overcame the death of her husband who was KIA while they were both deployed in Afghanistan. Finally, Jennifer shares how she allowed herself to be open to love again and turned the many transitions in her life into an opportunity to help others.

 

Episode Highlights:

  • Jennifer served in the Army for nearly 21 years as a Dental Specialist and retired in 2015.
  • Jennifer met her husband, Eddie, when they were stationed in Italy.
  • At one point, their deployments to Afghanistan overlapped.
  • On his last patrol, her husband Eddie stepped on an IED and lost his left leg.
  • Jennifer flew to the hospital but did not make it before Eddie passed away from loss of blood.
  • Consequently, in that moment everything she thought was important no longer was.
  • Jennifer escorted her husband’s body back to the United States.
  • Another loss Jennifer had to navigate was not being able to finish the deployment with her unit.
  • Next Jennifer talks about how Eddie’s death impacted her children.
  • Jennifer is remarried to an amazing man and they have a 2 year old daughter.
  • Next, Emily asks Jennifer how she moved onward after Eddie’s untimely death.
  • Brene Brown’s work influenced Jennifer to feel the pain that she had been putting to the side.
  • Ultimately, Jennifer found herself in a place where she started to feel good again.
  • Emily and Jennifer talk about the challenge of slowing down. The magic starts to happen when we slow down and stop living a go, go, go life.
  • Also, in the military there’s a lot of push energy.
  • Finally, you’ll know when you’re ready to move onward. No one else can do it for you.
  • Jennifer’s target clients are military veteran women and spouses.
  • Finally, the military community has a special bond.

Resources Mentioned: