Latest / Six-Figure Chicks / Episode 25: From Silence to Six Figures: Francine Allen-Humphrey on Finding Her Voice
Transcript
- Mel Carr: Hey there, it's Mel C, and this is the Six Figure Chicks Podcast. Quick, powerful conversations with women making six figures and beyond. It's a real talk, big wins, and no fluff. Just 15 minutes to get inspired and get you on the go. Together we rise, together we change lives. Hey there, welcome back to the Six Figure Chicks Podcast. I am ⁓ delighted to have Francine on with me. She is one of our newest six figure chicks in the Seven Cities Virginia area. Francine, welcome to the show and why don't you share a little bit about your awesomeness with the audience? Thank you so much, Mel. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited ⁓ to be here and be a part of the Six Figure Chicks team. So my name is Francine Allen Humphrey, and I am the proud mother of four. I am the oldest of seven in my family. And I come from a family that did not grow up with a lot of financial knowledge. And so early on I had to learn and educate myself about the power of financial freedom. And so that is where my journey began. I've got a first job at the age of twelve, ⁓ to help out my family. And I wanted to learn more so that we could have the knowledge that we needed to educate each other. And now I'm on a mission to educate women all across the country and their families, their loved ones, their significant others, and just teach them what I've learned. And what I've learned, it was not learned in a textbook. It is life learning lessons. And so I'm an advocate for women and children. I love what I do. Have the entrepreneur spirit since I was a child. And just just a little bit about who I am and where I am now in the financial services industry. I love that. And yes, money. You got me with money. As soon as I met you and we our time together, I was like, you must be in the books because you're all about financial education. And that that's something that is missing. Yes, absolutely. And learning what I've learned, we We learn that sometimes we don't get the education in school, you know, we go to college and we think we know what we know, but we don't know anything because it's things that they're not teaching us and so we have to figure it out for ourselves. And I am just here to make sure that what I learn I share with somebody else 'cause I'm people centered and I wanna make sure that we all can be on this journey together. Mm mm. Yes, together we rise for sure. We do. What's a fun fact that not a lot of people know about you? Spill the beans right right away. Hmm. Well, one thing about me is I'm learning to play the guitar. So I'm starting with the acoustic guitar and I find that I'm probably not gonna be a good player because I won't cut my nails. But I straw ⁓ alone, you know, and play around. My husband plays. So we, you know, we we have our little jam sessions together, but I'm not I'm never gonna be good at it. You know, but I love music, so that's one fun fact about me. All kinds of music. I played the violin as a child. I played the organ and keyboards in church when I was growing up. Lost all of those skills along the way 'cause if you don't use it, you lose it. And so now we're kinda taking it back up again. So that's been fun. Yes. You know, you're never too old to start something new. No, and it actually helps with your thinking, you know, the process. Music. So yeah, it calms you down and yeah. 'Cause the juice is flowing. Yeah. We all need help with that. Yes, absolutely. And as as you know and our listeners know, we talk a lot about like those roadblock moments. Same like in our books. We do that so that we can share our experiences to help others overcome them, bypass them completely. What's a defining challenge that you face in business, especially lately? Like you completely changed every ground. Yes, I completely changed my life. I was working ⁓ corporate America, nine to five. ⁓ they say forty hours a week, but you know it's sixty hours a week. Then running my businesses and still have my family and making time for church, the ministry, all of that. So I had to make a decision, a life changing decision, to leave the nine to five so that I could pursue some of the other things that I wanted to do. And be fully available to do them with no restrictions, with no nothing holding me back. A lot of times the biggest roadblock for me is knowing when to make the leak. Because you don't want to do it too quickly and you don't want to not do it, but you're not sure when to do it. And I think that's a challenge for a lot of women. Is this the right time for me? And I have learned over the years that right now is the right time. And so I decided and I I made the leap and here I am. So Yeah, that's the scariest part is to and so many of us hold ourselves back. Mm-hmm. With all these roadblocks we think, ⁓ I can't do that. Right. I'm gonna fall on my face. Yes. But falling sometimes is good for us 'cause then we get to get up, brush ourselves off and just keep moving. Because if you never fell at anything, then you're never gonna reach for anything higher because you just won't know. If you if you're good at everything and you're excellent in everything in every area, then you have nothing to reach for. But when you sometimes when you fall, then you can get up and move forward and reach higher and higher. Mm. I love that. Yeah. You're just like full of that great great insight. So thinking back to when you were younger, what is one thing that you would tell your younger Francine? Think thinking back and you and you probably won't believe this, Mel. But I wouldn't talk. I wouldn't say anything. My family would talk to me. I would just look at them like, okay. Because we grew I grew up in that era where you were children were seen and not heard. And you were always told, Adults are talking, be quiet. So I just was quiet. But I learned what I would tell my younger self is not to be afraid to use your voice. And I think Once I learned because my mother and my grandmother kept saying, you know, you have a voice, you have something to say, but my father would say, No, you're a girl, you cute, stay over there in the corner and and don't say anything and it and I just would not talk. I wouldn't say I would speak, of course, you know, I had manners, but I just wouldn't hold a long conversation. And then when I learned how to talk, I never stopped talking. My family probably wishes now that they had just let me be quiet because now, you know, I'm the mouthpiece, right? So I learn how to talk I learn how to express myself and I think it was more so being afraid that what I said was not important. So I would tell my younger self, speak up. Yeah, don't be afraid. Yeah, because that is like I said, we are our worst enemies because we fill ourselves with all these things. ⁓ no, you shouldn't do it. You can't do it. Right. You don't wanna upset or rock the boat, any of those things. What's one kind of Tip that helps you stand out from the crowd besides your wonderful voice that you use. I I have learned to be myself and not allow others to dictate who I'm going to be. And when you're at that place and you're tired of playing small, and full disclosure, that's what tops means in my business, tired of playing small. When you know that you can walk in the room, even if you're the only one like you in the room. that it's okay for you to be in the room. You don't have to wait for permission. It's okay. I can do this. And that's that was a long journey for me because again with the way that I grew up and being the oldest, I I was always challenged to make sure that everything was all right for everybody else, but never for me. And so that was hard a hard lesson to learn. That now it's all about me. And I'm not being selfish 'cause I still love every love everybody, people centered, love my family, love. my church family, but it's about me and who I am. And I'm not gonna shrink back because it makes you uncomfortable. I'm probably gonna stand up a little bit taller because I know that I can. And I didn't need permission from anybody to do it. Yes. And I love that when we met, you know, gosh, earlier this month, that it we we did talk about your your other passion, which is God and your church. Yes. Absolutely. I am so happy that you felt comfortable enough to talk about that to me because like didn't you said that you can't always have those conversations with other people. No. Because people have preconceived notions about religion or Christianity or Jesus or God or whoever their belief is in that if I believe in something that I may try to transfer that belief on to you. And that's surely not my mission. I am all about learning and loving and being kind and understanding and that's the God that I serve and I'm not ashamed to say that. And but I d don't mind if you don't believe the same thing that I believe in. See, that's not my job to convince you that you should be believing what I believe in. It's my job to be kind, to be understanding, to be compassionate. That's the only job that I have. And I've been in situations where people would treat me differently when they found out that I was a pastor. I even had one lady say, If I had known you were a pastor, I would not have come to your meeting. ⁓ So and so people, you know, they have their things that they believe in, but I and I was still nice to her and, you know, and I understood, but I've never tried to push my religion on anyone 'cause my religion is personal. It's very personal. And so and it should as it should be for everybody else. So yeah. And I think that's another reason why we connected so deeply is because, you know, with six figure chicks, we have a diverse array of women and female authors. Yes. And we leave judgment at the door. It's way down the street. Like we don't touch it at all. Yes. You know, and that's what we want for each other and expect in return. Absolutely. And I felt that like the first 'Cause I didn't know you, you know, we just we met and when I walked into the room I felt comfortable enough to come up and and we hugged, you know, we never met, you know, except online, you know, and and so you you know when it's okay and you know when it's not okay. You know, and I felt really comfortable with you. And then the other ladies were amazing that were ⁓ in the meeting with us and then when we had our meeting together, I just really felt comfortable. And that's use that as my Guideline, how am I feeling? Because you there's a saying that people will never forget the way that you made them feel. They you know, they may listen to what you say and what you're doing, but how did that person make you feel? And I kinda lean on that. You know, how am I feeling? Am I uncomfortable? Am I in a good space? Because you know when you're not. You know when you're not. And and oftentimes we may stay somewhere where we're w where we should not be, but eventually you're gonna move away from that. But I felt really comfortable and I felt like the love that you have for the ladies that you've encircled in so I'm excited just to be a part of it. Just so excited. I know, me too. And so with all of this excitement, what is your one song that you use to get pumped up for the day or to recover from a hard conversation? I my one song is Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now is Mac Fatton and Whitehead. And it you know, it's got a little beat to it, you know, and I get that and I play that and I get in the groove and I go on and do what I'm gonna do. I don't remember my papa thought she's gonna play a Christian song. No, that's not my song. I have plenty of those, you know, I use every single day. But that one song, it it again, it's like we're gonna go. We're gonna keep moving. We're not gonna stop no matter what the roadblock is, no matter what the obstacle is, we're gonna push it out the way. We're gonna go around it, we're gonna go over it, we're gonna even go through it if we have to. But we're gonna get to where we wanna go. It's not stopping us now. I hear it in my head and I hate after this. Absolutely, yes. It will go on the playlist for the six figure chicks. Other people can listen and be inspired as much like they will when they hear your read your story. Yes. Later this year. So we aren't getting started with Seven Cities, Six Figure Chicks. I'm super excited. One final thing. What is the best place people can find you? You can go to My website, which is www. dot blottops, just like it sounds, business dot org or LinkedIn and Facebook. So I'm on most of the platforms, I believe. Yeah. Wonderful. I love that. And hi I'm excited with this new relationship that you and I have and you will have with the world after you share your story because together we rise, together we do change lives and so much. Yes. Thank you. Ain't no stopping us now. Thank you, ma'am.