Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mignon Francois. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Mignon, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
I never thought I was pretty. In fact, my whole life is categorized by never having the right outfit, hair never laid quite right and always a little awkward, sometimes a lot of goofy. You can aptly describe me as the shy quiet type.
Actually, I know the day that I found out I was ugly. It was on the playground in about the 2nd grade during a game of tag. Standing in the open parking lot I taunted the little boy that every girl liked saying nah-na nah-na you cant catch me. The disgust on his face when he paused, looked at me, and blurted out, no one is trying to catch you, I dont even like you still holds space in my mind. I remember hanging my hand and retreating for the remainder of recess on the few little steps outside the basement of the church where our small elementary school met for class. He never said it, but I felt it. I perceived that I was ugly.
My head remained hung down for almost 30 more years as I struggled to find my own beauty.
Couple that, over the years, with the feeling that I didn’t have anything valuable to add to the conversation for fear it would sound stupid or be invalid, and that feeling of humiliation reminded me again and again that it was ever present and nearby to show up if ever I spoke up. Those feelings made me crippled, and invalid.
What I learned is that we don’t become invalids necessarily because of accident or injury, but rather, we become invalids for lack of movement. The longer I continued to tell myself the story that I was not good enough, or unwanted, I was unwilling to move toward the ideas I had in my mind. I vividly remember sitting in class rooms wanting to raise my hand and offer my insights but never did because I was afraid that I would be ridiculed. Sitting down in the pews while I watched mediocre performances from others that I knew in my heart I could do better, but better isnt an option if youre unwilling to even try. I wanted so badly to let the little girl that I locked up on the inside out.
But just like I know the day that I found out I was ugly, I also remember the day I found out that I was beautiful. It was a photoshoot with a friend, long before instagram and filters. She wanted me to see what she saw, and what I at the same time never could see. She plucked at my eyebrows and prodded at my self-esteem as she painted a face upon mine with her magic little fuzzy wands called makeup brushes. A few pieces from her closet added to my simple, worn offerings that I called clothes and the flashes began to fire for hours.
We sent the film to the one-hour photo at Walmart just up the street from her house. When the pictures came back, we excitedly ripped into the package, right there at the counter, to see what all of our efforts of prepping and primming had created. I looked at the photos long and considered what I could say to pick that girl on the photo apart. I looked for any small flaw that I could come up with. but there was nothing. It happened, I saw her for the first time in ever. She was beautiful. I knew her. She was staring back at me from the photograph.
This is me, I remembered saying.
I was 32 years old when we shot those photos and 33 when my life changed. I knew that the girl on the picture could turn heads, not because she was awkward, but because she was unusual, and that made her interesting. The dismissive looks became intrigued stares, at least in my head. Nothing about me had changed except my perspective. Funny how awkward and unusual are synonyms that when chosen carefully can cause the scenery to change. Up until now I always had been a quiet shy girl with a playful personality to those who knew me. I wanted to unleash that girl that I knew I could be to the world, but the familiarity of humiliation gripped me.
I began to walk into rooms and own them, speaking intelligently and boldly about the things other people wished to say. Inspired, they would later walk up to me and thank me for my courage in speaking the things they only hoped they could say, had said, but didn’t say.
Those conversations were the affirmation I needed to keep listening to that inner voice that said, you’re good enough, even smart, kind and important. That awkward silent girl found ways to be bold even with no words. My huge, 4c coily hair enters the room with more volume than my voice sometimes, and finding clothes that speak the language of creativity has been a part time hobby. The more distinct I can be the more welcomed and emboldened people feel to share their experiences with me. That has opened the door for greater opportunities, collaborations and conversations. You could say my flair flavored the atmosphere,
I wasted so much time being shy that I missed out on a whole lot of living and promising opportunies hat could have changed our families trajectory years earlier. But God is a redeemer of time, meaning. That means He can buy back all the time you lost and make it more out of what you have left if you’ll let him use it. I knew I had a voice I wanted to use to tell others what they could also do, if only they believed. I mean, If someone gets to do XYZ, I began to believe it might as well be me. And as I accomplish new things, i leave the door cracked for others to walk in the room right behind me.
The ultimate lesson for me? Shy don’t feed you. Girl the devil was trying to keep you hungry..
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am the founder and Director Joy at The Cupcake Collection, and award-winning destination bakery in Nashville, TN. I started in my living room on the last $5 I had for dinner one week.
I had been an avid Dave Ramsey listener. He was telling people they could get out of debt by having a bake sale or a garage sale. The problem with the garage sale was that we had recently moved to Nashville and sold just about everything we had to get here in hopes of starting over and giving our children a better life. The problem with the bake sale was that I didnt know how to bake not even out of a box.
I began practicing every single day. in the late midnight hours I would wake my wasband (former husband) to try things I was making. Figuring he was just being nice, I started sharing them with my neighborhood who encouraged me that I was on to something big.
One afternoon, while writing out envelops by the light of a small window, I was attempting to begin the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps plan. Discouraged, I realized that I didnt have enough money to put towards anything and with only $5 left I hadn’t allotted anything for dinner. On this particular day, I was sitting in darkness, trying to save up the gas in the generator we were using to run the lights for our household when my neighbor knocked on the door. She wanted to buy cupcakes as gifts for all of her clients.
This was going to be 600 cupcakes. My immediate thought was no, but she said, “If you make some, Ill pay you some.”
I closed the door and had a come to Jesus moment with God. Why would you send me an order when I can t afford to take it? I heard God say, but I feed birds and they dont toil or store up in barns. How much more will I take care of you who looks like me? I put on my shoes and walked to the Kroger a few blocks from my house on the corner of Rosa Parks and Monroe. i bought everything I could buy with that $5 to supplement what I had inventoried in my cabinets at home. I turned that $5 into $60 that day and that $60 into $600 by the end of the week. I flipped that same money from 2007, turning it into over 5 million cupcakes sold.
That was almost 18 years ago. Since then, we have been voted as the best cake in Nashville, in Tennessee and as one of the Top Ten in the Nation all from a girl that didnt know how to bake, not even out of a box, with no knowledge of the business, no credit, no money and under the threat of losing the house that we started the bakery in.
Listening to the story in just a few moments, it sounds like a magical feat that happened over night, but every seed sewn takes time to grow. It may sound like an overnight success as you collide with the message in just a few moments, maybe on an afternoon, but overnight success takes 10 years. I worked 2 years every day like it was a job before my bakery ever opened/ It was fifteen before I ever got a proper vacation, but my story is a testament to the promise that all you have is all you need to get from where you are to where you want to be. It wont be easy, but it will be worth it.
That day, standing behind that closed door, I promised God that if He would make me successful, I would tell anyone that would listen about what they could do if they believed. Last year I put pen to paper to share my story with the world so that I could keep that promise on a larger platform no matter the time of day or the many miles that might stand between me and another person that needed to be encouraged by what I’ve conquered. It landed in #1 in its category on Amazon and became a best seller.
Now in my spare time I enjoy traveling as a speaker in efforts to keep that promise. I’ve even launched a coaching community where other entrepreneurs can learn from my experiences and get useful insight for their endeavors. On Instagram I do weekly Live sessions to bolster faith in the midst of what can cause us to be fearful and spreading the message that we don’t have to move in fear, that instead we can move in faith. For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love, power and a disciplined mind.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Three pieces of advice that I would offer are all categorized by one theme I’ve carried all these years: “All you have is all you need to get from where you are to where you want to be,”
I didnt have any money. I was losing everything, including the house where the bakery exists today, I didn’t have any experience in the business, I couldn’t bake, not even out of a box when I started. I didn’t have any credit or credibility. We were unknown in a new town and had scraped together what we could use to get here in the first place. Yet here I am almost 20 years later, an award-winning leader in my niche, having run the slow and steady race that was laid out for me, not the one intended for someone else.
Here are my three pieces of advice:
1) Build your business at the speed of cash & Don’t compare.
A lot of times we get caught up in the ideas of what our businesses will need one day to be successful, and we often let that keep us stuck and invalid. Remember that inability to move I talked about before? What you will need one day is not what you will need day one. That means going slow, and let the business justify and pay for itself as you go.
The first big purchase I made for my business was a KitchenAid mixer. I wasn’t operating out of a commercial kitchen with sophisticated tools at first. I used what I had to get what I wanted. I purchased needs and scaled accordingly as I earned more cash.
One main reason I think that strategy worked for me was I wasn’t watching the competition. I never even considered them in the scheme of what my business was tasked to do. Don’t look at your business and hold it up to others. People may be experiencing fast amounts of growth and have larger advertising budgets. You do what you can afford to naturally do based on what your revenue looks like – not someone else’s.
Comparing your business to others can lead to taking on debt.
2) Grassroots marketing is still valuable and viable
When I started my business, I went door to door asking people to try my cupcakes. That generated lots of word of mouth before I even started my business officially. I brought cupcakes to my children’s schools. I was working with restaurants to provide them cupcakes for their events, meetings, parties, etc.
Later as my business got more sophisticated and we had a storefront, I started utilizing The Cupcake Collection truck not only to sell more cupcakes, but it’s marketing in its own right. It also provides us with market insights and guides where we should open new storefronts.
Now, you can do grassroots marketing through social media. These are free tools that you can leverage to build a brand and a name for yourself without taking on debt. You can advertise on social media eventually when you have the budget.
3) Hire well (and at the right time).
Your time is your money. Your time is valuable and can either earn or cost you money. In the beginning, you may be a shop of one doing everything. You have to operate that way to start in order to conserve cash.
Once your business hits a certain threshold, it’s wise to evaluate the biggest needs in your business and areas where you may be holding yourself BACK because you’re not as skilled in that aspect of your business.
That’s when you look to hire. You have the cash flow, and there is a specific need. Don’t start hiring out of panic or ego.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
The most impactful thing I believe my parents did for me was giving me the gift of my name, Mignon.
Our names are words with meanings and synonyms used to describe who we are. But also, I’ve recently surmised that those words point to more than just identifiers for us in a crowd but also identifiers of our character, our purpose, and how we show up in the world. For a modern example of what I mean, take a peek at the urban dictionary and see how people’s names are categorized by their personalities.
My whole life I hated my name, I just wanted to be regular, average, like the norm. I remember pretending my name was Jody. Until a few years ago when I realized that having a unique name was part of the opportunity connected to my purpose. and my personality.
I talk about this extensively in my book, Made From Scratch, Finding Success Without A Recipe.
On the day I was born, my parents, gave me the gift of my name. It was their intention that when I walked into a room, people would unmistakenly know who I AM. When I was young it haunted me because it seemed that no one could ever get it right. MIG-non, really? Who would ever name their child that, I thought? Did they seriously think that someone would really name their child that? But inevitably that’s what the teacher would say during roll call on the first day of school. As I got older, I realized that something special would happen when I introduced myself. People would take a step back, ask questions about it, create small talk over it, tell me stories about other Mignon’s they knew and how wonderful those Mignon’s were.
Equally as important, though, on the day I was born, my parents also gave me their name so that people would know whose I was, what family I belonged to. So much pride was instilled in us concerning our family name and where we are from. As the daughter of a man born on a sugar can plantation, the value of my name holds such significance to me now more than ever. Knowing that I am leaving a legacy for my family and building wealth in an industry where only two generations ago my ancestors could not exercise free enterprise is a powerful lesson Im passing on to my children’s children.
Embracing my name was the first lesson I learned in legacy building. There is power in a name. I now know that God whispered this name to my mother as an indication of who I would become and that he wanted me to show up in the world unapologetically authentic. So that when I walked into a room or left one, people would assuredly know that it was me, Mignon, who had been there.
For some reason I just always knew that God didn’t waste this fabulous name on nobody knowing it. So then, I had to do my due diligence to make my name great.
Contact Info:
- Website: thecupcakecollection.com
- Instagram: mignon.francois
- Facebook: @IamMignonFrancois
- Linkedin: The Cupcake Collection, MignonFrancois
- Twitter: cupcaketweets
- Youtube: @TheCupcakeCollection
- Yelp: The Cupcake Collection
- Other: Mignonfrancois.com
Image Credits
Credit The Cupcake Collection
