Ep 136: Building a Business One Cupcake and Determination at a Time with Mignon Francois
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The power of a podcast extends well beyond plugging in the mic. So if you're ready to learn how it can help you build a big business, then I'm your best friend. Hi, I'm Joanne Bull and I am obsessed with all things podcasting and creating an unapologetically big revenue business with it. From podcast guesting to podcast hosting and everything in between, we're going to dive into it all and show you step by awesome step

how using a podcast can and will grow your business. So grab a glass of wine and pop your headphones on because Girlfriend Happy Hour has begun here on The Beat Word. Welcome to the show, Mignon. I am so, so, so thrilled to be interviewing you today because let me tell you, Girlfriend,

Any time I get to dive into the world of an entrepreneur who bases her success on cupcakes, I'm in. Like, I'm all in. Love that. I love the name of your podcast, Marissa. Thank you. My friends say I'm a little bit snarky, and my last name starts with a B, so we decided to name it The B Word. I don't know, in retrospect, if that was the smartest decision or not, but, you know, I'm just going to stick with it. Mm-hmm.

All right, so let's jump right into like the meat of everything. You have built a $5 million empire on cupcakes and girlfriend openly...

You say when you first began, you didn't even know how to bake. So walk me through some of that. We were drowning in debt. We were losing everything that we had. Even the house that the bakery exists in today was up for foreclosure sale. We didn't have electricity on a regular basis and we didn't have water.

running out of the faucets just because we willed them to. I was listening to a man on the radio who was telling people that they could get out of debt by having a bake sale. Problem is, I didn't know how to bake. But I had these little girls who were awesome bakers and I thought,

well, I will use whatever they make at night after school and I will sell that during the day out of a window on our porch. And that was my whole plan to open an entire business. When my neighbor knocked on the door, I was sitting in the back of the house with no electricity, counting the last bits of money that we had paid.

And I only have $5. I haven't fed our children yet. And she asked me, she offers me this opportunity to make cupcakes for all of her clients for the season. That will be 600 cupcakes. And

And so I had to have this come to Jesus moment with God. Like, why do you give me this opportunity when I don't have any money to take it? I heard God say that I feed birds and they don't toil for anything or store up in barns. How much more will I take care of you? So I leveraged that five dollars.

and walk to the grocery store because my car was already repossessed. And I bought everything that I could buy with that five and turned it into 60 that day. And I turned that 60 into 500 by the end of the week. And that's the same money I've been flipping for the last 17 years. Because when you're starting a business, first of all, food businesses are known for failings.

Right. So I had all of the things that you need to fail. And, you know, so some of your best chefs, you know, might fail at a business. I had the tools that meant it was going to fail. But I think that, you know, people shouldn't count the grit of a person out.

Right. That and the grit of a person that's following God into a thing because faith was driving me throughout the whole entire process. So I promised God that if he would make me successful, I would tell anybody who would listen about what they could do if only they believe. So what was that first year of making cupcakes like? I mean, you went from.

Like you said, drowning in debt, $5 in your pocket. You had to walk to the store. You didn't even know how to bank. I would imagine in your brain, you weren't really seeing yourself as like a super successful entrepreneur. It was more like, can we just get the electricity turned back on in a house, right? Yeah, that's exactly what it is. So how did you know what steps to take next? Or did you just completely like...

follow the path of God and hope for the best? Yes. I did not know what the steps were, but I had developed business before. This wasn't my first time that I had started something, but in everything that I'd start, when it got a little bit hard, I'd quit.

Or when I didn't see people coming forward, I'd stop. And I think what happens with us is that we're not afraid to fail. We're afraid to succeed. What happens if I've got to keep showing up for this every single day? And so I had started business before. And so I had some understanding of what would have been required.

required of me. But I think in the beginning, it was just about staying focused and determined to actually, you know, follow that path that was being set before me. I can buy a little bit. I can save a little bit. That's what my life looked like. At the beginning, it was just for future money.

That's what I was trying to get, filter money. I didn't know that it was going to turn into something that I could leave a legacy on. I didn't know that it was going to be something that my children could be proud of that would, you know, bring scholarship money to students who were trying to finish degrees in college up the street.

You know, I just, I literally was following the benefits of speak what you think until you see what you said. I believed that the things that I saw other people having also were an indicator that I was supposed to have them too. What is so different about everybody around me that says that they get to, they get to win and I don't. And it's,

It was about getting up every day and, you know, asking myself, what is it that you want? What is it that you really want? Do you want to always say you never made it? You didn't have what everybody else had. Your children didn't have what everybody else had. And that was a game changer for me, was getting to not being a quitter on me. Because I'm a quitter.

And, you know, I decided in writing this book that I've written that people need to understand, don't worry about the fact that you're a quitter. Actually, go ahead and put that in your pocket as an asset. I am a quitter. So quitting, you understand that, right? Like, it's like, I know how to quit. So I'm gonna quit on that. I'm gonna quit quitting on me. And that was...

What I realized I was doing was when I'm saying no to one thing, it's yes to another thing, you know, or yes to something over here is no to something over here. And what I was saying in quitting on those businesses was saying yes to my attitude to quit and no to my attitude for my children having what they needed.

And so that became my driving force to be regimented every day, even when I didn't feel like it.

And what a powerful now legacy that you are leaving your children, not only financially from the cupcake business, but that that interesting knowledge in them now that like they they can quit what they don't want to do. It doesn't make them a failure. They can keep going. Look what mom did. Like all that confidence you're building in them. Yeah.

My children have been my biggest cheerleaders, and that's what I hope that moms will hear. It's never too late to start. As long as you have breath in your lungs on this side of the grave, you have hope. And hope does not disappoint. For me, hope was always obvious. Hope was always obviously there.

That as long as I had something that I could see, there was hope to get there. Right. And so my children were always championing me. I can hardly say that word. They were my biggest cheerleaders in the thing that I wanted to make it. You know, I wanted to make it so that they could be proud of their mom. And I want other moms to hear that I was 31 when I started this business and it wasn't fast.

It was 31 and then working two years every day like it was a job before that store ever even opened. And many people are seeing my face now and seeing me, you know, on podcasts and, you know, interviews and national TV and things like that. Wow. She just popped on the scene and I didn't.

No, it's like that 15 year overnight success, right? Yes. This is 17 years every day of my life. I finally just got a vacation, a real vacation, I think last year where the stores were running and I was doing something else. You know, you have to be committed to a thing and love it enough to where you

You say, I'm going to put, I'm going to claim that this is going to be my thing. And whatever that is, I learned in the process that we don't talk about the way we feel. We feel whatever we talk about.

And so it's like somebody walks up to you and says, how do you feel about your business today? You know, that speak what you seek until you see what you said is, you know, causing things to fall into existence. What I love about words is the fact that we're sitting on this podcast and talking today is the result of words. Yeah. It's the result of words that you spoke. You told your friends said something. You should have a podcast. Yes.

You thought, oh, I should have a podcast or you told your family, I'm going to have a podcast.

You spoke it into existence. The room that you're in is, you know, the ideas, the imagination of someone who said, I wonder if I, you know, built four walls here and stuck a window right there. And you know what I mean? It's thoughts turned into words and these words turn into things that we sit and we live in. And our words have power to change our situations. If we would just put plans behind it.

So as your plan has evolved over the last 17 years, where do you see the next five years going? Yeah.

I see the next five years is me helping other people to do the same thing. I promise God that if he would make me successful, I would tell anybody who would listen. I am thrilled and blessed to be able to connect with women from around the globe who say, you know, you are me. I'm in that situation right now. What do I do first? What do I do next?

And being able to be that resource that they can come to that says, oh, you know what? I've seen that before. This is how you do that. And giving them an opportunity to walk in the freedom that I've had a chance to walk in. And that is the freedom to create what I wanted to be a part of. And so that's what I'm spending my time on now, helping others to understand that like Dorothy, you had it all. You had it.

I love so much about your story. And one of the reasons I reached out to you was you're so relatable.

You know, I think a lot of times, especially as women, we look at what we consider the goats, the greatest of all times, the women who are who we want to be. And we think, but I can't get there. And we may know that it took them 20 years, but, you know, it doesn't matter in our head. It's like, oh, but they had something different. They had something special that I don't have. And you sit there and you're like, uh-uh, I had nothing. I was nothing. Your book even starts out saying, I wasn't supposed to be where I am today.

And that makes you that mentor that I think so many entrepreneurial women need to lean into because of the relatability. You're so humble. It wasn't easy. Took a long time. That did it. Okay. Of all things. I mean, let's be honest.

Kind of a commodity, right? Like there's so many other bakeries that pop up every single day. And yet you built something that is sustainable and scalable and just beyond what most people would ever imagine. Yeah. Like something that was happening on every corner. And then here I am 17 years later and I'm still standing.

And a lot of those places are gone. And I think about who started those things and what is it that they believe? What is it that they believed about themselves or what it is that they had to offer to the world? I didn't believe when I started this that it was going to become a cupcake empire like people are calling it. Right. I just I just wanted it.

something small and that was something that could benefit my children. I wanted something that I could give them. And that was that field trip experience. And God honored the desire of my heart and gave me so much more because he knew that I'd be willing to share it. Sometimes you need to run into somebody. I think what the relatability looks like is this. I'm willing to open up my head

is safety. You know, a lot of times as women, what happens in our house stays on the inside of our house. And what I'm saying is I'm going to open the door and I'm going to welcome you as a guest on the inside. I'm going to show you what it is that I'm dealing with or what I was going through because I know that your house looks the same.

I know that what you're going through on your house looks the same. And so many times we're looking at examples that we want to be and people are faking it until they make it. And you're like, I don't have what it takes to be fake. You know, I don't have what it takes to stand in your place, but you're telling me I can get there. So to show me the places that I need to go through, because right now I'm saying I can't do what you do because I don't have that kind of money.

And so what I'm trying to show people is you can do what I did.

So I'm going to show you my hand, you know, like poker hands, you know, are supposed to be kept hidden. You're going to show you my hand. This is what it looked like. And this is what my daily pressures were. And this is how I grinded it out to make it from where I was to where I want to be. And that's what I hope people hear me say that you can do it too. Whatever that dream is that you have, everybody dreams, but the difference between

Me and some dreamers who just dream. Some dreamers just want to dream and that's enough to be lost in an imagination and to escape reality for a few minutes and think about something else. But then there are dreamers who cannot sit still. They have to pursue their dreams. And I've been in pursuit of a dream.

for 17 years. And that is to show others what they can also do. And I believe that when I show others what they can do, they come back and they remember what happened. And then they say my name and they pass it along. And then that means that my life was well lived. It was worth it. And that when my grandchildren walk into a room and they say their grandmother's name was Mignon Francois, it'll mean something.

because it helped to build four walls for somebody else. It helped to put a roof on for somebody else because the places where we are sitting are just the combination of words that we spoke. Oh, that is so beautiful. I receive everything that you're saying. I mean, ever since I discovered you, I mean, I've just been following along on your journey. I was privileged enough from your team. They sent me an advanced copy of the book. So you guys...

She wrote a book called Made from Scratch, Finding Success Without a Recipe. And I am telling you, hearing you in person, it's like I'm reading the book again because she writes the book exactly how she speaks. And it's like she just invites you into her world through the book. And it's absolutely fantastic. It's out everywhere now, right? Like you can get it everywhere. Yeah. Is it on Audible yet?

So I'm getting ready to record the Audible at the end of July. Good, because I am that person who, and probably because I'm a podcaster, I get the book. I like to read the book, but I love to hear it in your own voice. Yes, I love to drive in my car and listen to stories and roll down the windows and just go with a book.

I love doing that. So I'm so excited to be reading my book myself too. And I would imagine now that I'm like getting to know you a little bit, like you're probably going to add in little things in the Audible book that aren't in the actual book. And so that's all the more reason to make sure you grab the Audible book when it comes out, you guys, because that is the beauty of Audible books. But if you haven't gotten a chance yet, we will put links to all of her socials and her book in the show notes because it's

it's more than just ordering a cupcake. It is you want someone like this in your corner, even if she isn't DMing you on a regular basis, because you just need to follow along on her journey to know what's possible and to see, especially if you're in that season of life where you're like, I'm not sure I'm good enough. I'm not sure I've got what it takes. Hell, I'm not even sure I have an idea of what to do. Like, this is the person that you want to be following while you're

quieting all the other people on social media that are giving you those limiting beliefs, she's going to open the door for your possibilities. So Mignon, holy cow, thanks for coming on today.

It was just such a little like bright spot in my day of interviewing here on the B-Word podcast. And I'm sure we'll have you on in the future. And I'm going to order some cupcakes just to check them out. And we ship them nationwide. So I'm excited for people to be able to get them wherever they are. Thank you so much for having me. You have done my heart, just made it so full of joy. So thank you. Same girl. Same. Thank you.

You just finished another episode of the B-Word Podcast. Cheers to you. If I were with you, I would literally pop a big old bottle of Prosecco and pour you a glass. Since I'm not, why don't you do the next best thing and share this episode with one of your besties? Because we all know you've got that one girlfriend that needs to hear it. Thanks, friend.

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