 in Erlinger, Kentucky for the Winter 2024 DAV Patriot Boot Camp. DAV Patriot Boot Camp is a program for entrepreneurs in the veteran and military community, and I'm joined by one very special participant. This is Kim Hubers. Kim is a Army National Guard veteran. She was the 2023 Disabled American Veteran of the Year. She's also a chapter commander in South Dakota for DAV. Kim, welcome. Thank you. So tell us a little bit about yourself as an entrepreneur and about your business. I have been working. I grew up on a farm in Iowa, and so ever since I was a little girl, farming was in my genes, I guess, in my environment. And as I've gotten older and I've gone through a lot of health issues because of my military service, I've found how important it is to have animals, to have outdoor, to have healthy foods, to have all of those things in your life. So I am creating a farm that brings people joy, brings people healing, and brings healthy things to people's lives. And it's called Willow Meadows Farm. Yes. Tell us a little bit about the farm parties that you've posted. So we invite the whole community out to our farm, and we have a Ninja Obstacle course. We have ziplines, little kid play areas, corn pits, train rides, petting zoo, a little farm shop, and basically we invite the entire community out to come out and play and have fun and enjoy our farm with us. And I think you said was it in your first, like, eight farm parties, you had over 2,200 visitors, is that right? Yes, we did a whole season of farm parties this year, and it was eight days that we were open. We had over 2,200 people, and of course half of those days were bad South Dakota weather, but we still had a lot of people show up more than we expected, to be honest. So tell me why you decided to come to DAV Patriot Bootcamp and what are you hoping to get out of this experience? I came to be with a group of entrepreneurs. When you are an entrepreneur, you are on your own and you're not only championing yourself and trying to motivate yourself all the time, but you're trying to motivate everybody else to get on board and maybe give you funding or believe in you or give you the time you need away from your family to work on it, and you don't really get to be around the community of entrepreneurs that understand it. So being here gives me the opportunity to not only learn from a lot of great mentors and industry experts, but a chance to run my ideas and my thoughts and what I'm doing across a whole bunch of other entrepreneurs and feel like I'm with a bunch of people that understand and they get what I'm going through and it's incredibly motivating. And not only are they entrepreneurs, but they're also veterans and in some cases military spouses. How big of a deal is that to be in a room with fellow veterans? It's huge. I mean you can go to any other training you want, and I've been to several, but when it comes to being veterans and also being entrepreneurs, we mesh and we already have so many things in common. We walk in the door and even though all of our differences are all of our businesses are so vastly different, we have a commonality between all of us and we all get each other and we understand what's going on. So we're a little more than halfway through day one of the three-day boot camp. How's it been so far? Has there been one highlight that jumps out to you? Oh wow, lots of great information, tons of great questions. We had one speaker that had us all just rolling on the floor laughing. He was so hilarious, but honestly the quality of the mentors that are here teaching us is amazing. They're so knowledgeable, there's not a question they can't answer. They're even feeding off of each other. I mean it's incredible. So you mentioned some of your service connected health issues. Can you tell me how this path of entrepreneurship has just kind of helped you personally work through some of those things? My whole business is created out of my necessity to create an environment where I can work. And because I have so many restrictions, so many different things that I have to consider in order for me to work, I have to work for myself. I mean that's kind of the position that I'm in. Mainstream employment's not going to work for me, but I want to give back. That's why I joined the military. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. I want to spend my days here on earth giving back and adding to my community. We spoke earlier and I know it's been a long journey to get here and it's required a lot of resilience. For any veterans or military spouses out there who are watching and who maybe they have a great idea, but they're daunted by the idea of starting their own business, what kind of advice would you give to them? If you know it's your passion, if you know that it's your place that you're supposed to be, no matter how many times you try to give it up, it's going to come back. That'll be an indication that it's meant to be, but find your community. Find DAB Patriot Boot Camp. Find other veterans that are entrepreneurs. Find that support system that's going to believe in you and keep you going because keeping yourself going when you're the one that firmly believes in it on your own can be really challenging and that's probably the hardest part besides funding. Funding's hard, but keep going and find your community. So like I mentioned at the top, I'm a Moray chapter commander in South Dakota for DAV. You've been very involved in the DAV community. Can you talk a little bit about just what DAV has given you in terms of community and purpose? I always like to tell people that when you leave the military it's like losing your entire family overnight and it's really hard because it leaves a great big hole in your heart and a hole in your life and I was lost and I was stumbling around and when I got brought into the DAV it was through my my comp and pen claim and when I got brought in and I became a part of the DAV family that hole was filled and not only was I able to be with other veterans and have that family back, but I'm able to reach out and bring other veterans in to all the services and all the programs that we do and help people on so many different levels. There's so many things that DAV does and can do that veterans are aren't even aware of and so yeah it's I mean there's no way to quantify it, no way to quantify it, there's a lot. Well Kim, we are certainly grateful to have you in the DAV family and to have you here at Patriot Boot Camp. So thank you for being with us and good luck the rest of your week. Thank you for tuning in to learn more about DAV Patriot Boot Camp. Visit www.patriotbootcamp.org and follow us on social.