PCSgrades Founder Featured at Honor 2 Lead
by Lizann Lightfoot - November 10th, 2021
Every entrepreneur has their own WHY, the reason they founded a company and started offering their particular services to the world. For Todd Ernst, USAF Ret., founder and CEO of PCSgrades, his Why Story began with the death of a fellow airman and Ernst’s participation in the “Missing Man” flight formation at his memorial.
What happened afterwards forged his belief that it is the military community that takes care of its own. This fueled his desire to help military families through PCS moves, offering the services of PCSgrades.
With a prior background in real estate, Ernst knew families needed more PCS resources. He said, “that’s where it made the most sense to focus on serving the community during their time of greatest need. Pulling in trusted reviews by military families means that I am not the expert. Other military families are all listening and trusting each other. It’s a big opportunity to give back to the community.”
While he doesn’t typically prefer to appear in the spotlight, Todd Ernst is making a special appearance on stage at the upcoming Honor2Lead virtual event. Honor2Lead, a new partner to the Military Influencer’s Conference, is “tailor-made for our military community of veterans, entrepreneurs, active duty, military-spouses, national guard and military supporters.”
This is the place where military entrepreneurs, influencers, and supporters gather together to share their skills and grow their businesses. Ernst will be sharing the stage with the likes of Shark Tank’s Daymond John, WWE Star Lacey Evans, Actor Alexander Ludwig, and many more at Honor2Lead on November 10th.
Honor2Lead is a partnership of the Military Influence Conference (MIC). While MIC is an annual conference typically held in person at a different location each year, Honor2Lead is a one-day global simulcast with a digital pass to live presentations and interviews with industry experts. Honor2Lead is “tailor-made for our military community of veterans, entrepreneurs, active duty, military-spouses, national guard and military supporters.”
Looking at the lineup is a humbling moment, one that forces the entire team to take a step back and celebrate how far we’ve come, but it also fuels the fire for how much work there is yet to do. For the PCSgrades team, which is composed entirely of veterans, spouses, and military family members, this is important work that we are excited about. With Todd Ernst at the helm, we continue to produce PCS content made “by and for military families.” Each step we take strengthens our entire community and helps each PCS get just a little bit smoother.
We recently featured Ernst in our weekly webinar called “Your PCS Problem-Solver!” There, he shared his perspective on the value of PCSgrades resources and how his passion for helping military families was cemented when he led the fight to change survivor benefit laws. That experience taught him that instead of relying on government resources for help, military families must lean on each other to provide solutions and answer questions.
Lizann Lightfoot, the "Seasoned Spouse" is a professional writer and speaker for the military community. After two decades with her service member, her family has been through 7 deployments and 6 PCS moves. Lizann has raised 5 children and published several books for military families. Her most recent book is "Open When: Letters of Encouragement for Military Spouses" published Sept 2021 by Elva Resa. You can find Lizann's articles and resources at SeasonedSpouse.com
