Hello from the Heartland. My name is Jenna and this is Smarter News, news when it matters and why it matters.

Our Smarter series features unique people who help us think and live smarter.

So I want to start off, I have a funny story for you. So this morning I was talking to my kiddos about what we were doing in the afternoon. And I said, well, Mommy actually has an interview with someone that I'm really excited to talk to. Her name is Erin Oprea. And she helps keep people healthy. And she's a Marine.

And my four-year-old Liberty looks up and goes, she's a submarine.

I'm like, no, but Jess is impressive.

Now, that's funny.

My kids never said that one. That's funny. My kids never said that one.

That's funny.

So we see things very simply, very simply, but it was a cute moment.

So I was like, I have to tell Erin about that.

I probably first found out about you just scrolling through social media.

And, you know, just looking at your social media account, you can get a few things really quickly, you know, that you're a great athlete, that you're a mom, that you're an entrepreneur, that you train some of the most famous people in the world.

But then I learned that you're actually a veteran. And I said, I have to talk to Aaron about how this story came together because that just is so fascinating that you can go from a life as a

Marine and deploying to Iraq and then training Carrie Underwoods. I want to know,

I want to know the back story. It's so crazy, right? Like sometimes I'm like, wait, that was my life.

It's like I almost feel like I've lived two different worlds that is now one but it's two different worlds

it's so where I went from like living okay so a little bit about my backstory so I got married when I

I was super young I was 18 and my ex-husband was a Marine and then about age 19 I wow, that was, I'd never thought about the military a day in my life, never even crossed my line. I was like, tomboy, hey, let's try out for football in high school. You know, I was athletic, but military, never. And then I was like, wow, that looks like fun. You get to go camping all the time?

I think I'm going to join.

He's like, no, you're not.

I was like, oh, I think I'm going to. He's like, well, if you join, I'm going to divorce you. Okay. So at age 19, I went and said, I'm signing the papers. Goodbye. Well, we stayed married. He didn't divorce me, unfortunately.

But so we stayed married and I joined the Marine Corps.

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