69: How to own and love the F word with Genecia Alluora

Genecia Alluora is former Miss Singapore and Southeast Asia Woman of Excellence 2010. She is the Founder of Soul Rich Woman, the #1 female entrepreneur network in Southeast Asia that connects more than 200,000 women across the region, with presence in 7 countries including Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia.With a vision to empower 1 million women, Genecia is passionate about helping women to take their businesses from offline to attracting clients ONLINE, get recognition & build a brand as a leader/business owner and make a positive impact in the world. She wants every woman to be able to own the F-word – Being Fabulous, Having Freedom and Financial IndependenceFrom as young as 14 years of age, Genecia had to support herself through school. Through working in a 9-5 job and started many businesses, Genecia had gone through the highs and lows of being a business owner. Her epic journey from being in a six-figure debt to making her first million, fueled her passion to empower women to do the same. Genecia wants women around the world to know that it is possible to have it all – to OWN the F-word!Profiled in CNBC and China Daily, Genecia is a globally renowned speaker and leading women’s empowerment expert with over a decade of experience speaking on stages worldwide. She has spoken in recent major events, including the RISE Conference in Hong Kong, Success Conference and Expo Asia 2018 in Hanoi, and National Achievers’ Congress in Manila.In This Episode, You Will Learn:The four f-words that Genecia is so passionate about.Genecia’s greatest learnings from the pageant world How she built Soul Rich Woman – a network of 200,000 female entrepreneurs in South East Asia. How you can follow in the footsteps of Genecia.Credit https://insporising.com/102-how-to-own-and-love-the-f-word-genecia-alluora/-----TRANSCRIPT----INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTWell Genecia, thank you so much for taking some time to join me today. I appreciate it.Thank you for having me on your show, David.Today I want to talk to you about one of your favorite words, it’s the F-word. Now you talk about owning the F-word and breaking the code of the F-word. What F-word are we talking about here today?Well, we are talking about being fabulous, having freedom, and financial independence. Above all, family.Okay, obviously it’s a fun way to talk about these things that are really important to you, at what point did you recognize in your own life that these were really important? Being fabulous, having freedom, financial independence, family, how did these things come about for you?I started at a very early age. I started working when I was fourteen years old. My family, financially, we were not sound. My mom pawned gold to send me for instructive courses. I became certified in aerobics, yoga, and country line dancing certification. I was teaching that. I learned about the value of family when I was constantly bullied in school. I wasn’t able to buy new clothes, wasn’t able to buy new bags, and shoes. Constantly my things were hand-me-down. Whereas my friends and schoolmates were like, buy new stuff, the latest.They all bullied me in school. There was one incident, they threw my bag across the classroom floor and all my books were strewn all across the floor. I felt very humiliated. Then there was another time when I was cornered in the yard, we were having basketball practice and they pulled open my P.E. t-shirt and exposing my bra strap and my bra, really hard. The girl actually mocked me and said, “Oh. You’re wearing the same bra?” Literally, I just felt I wanted to die. I just wanted to commit suicide and things like that.When I went back home, I almost wanted to do that. My mom was awesome. She counseled me. She guided me. She showed me that the ‘why’ is bigger than the ‘how’. She taught me that if I value family, death will not solve the problem, right? Why do you bother what the cynics or the skeptics say about you? But really focusing on what’s in front of you. From then on, I learned that my mom, my family, my brother, my dad, were a bit wise of the things that I do.Even now, that I’m running Soul Rich Woman, the premier entrepreneur network here in South East Asia. My ‘why’ is also my mom, because I see her as a leader in a community, inspiring and helping other women. I’m like, “Well okay, I want to do something like a legacy business.” This is why I’ve done Soul Rich Woman since 2015. That’s five years already. It’s going on strong and we want to do more to build the financial independence, which I had at a very young age. I wanted to have freedoms, so that I could spend time with my family, travel with my family.Last but not least, being fabulous means you’re really confident about what you do, your soul, your purpose. Because to influence other people, you have to be aligned, right? That’s why it’s called Soul Rich Woman. The inner part of you and the outer parts of you, when it’s aligned, the money will come. Money is just a by-product of whatever that we are doing.You have had just an incredible journey through life. You talked about at a young age needing to begin working. My mind gets blown when you talk about that you made money teaching line dancing. When was the last time you went country line dancing?Just last year I was there. In fact, it was fun. These days, nobody really dresses up as cowboys any more. There’s more relaxed dressing like jeans and t-shirt, and stuff like that. Yeah, last year. I went back to have fun.That’s very fun. Very cool. Not only did you do that, but then you obviously became Miss Singapore in 2006. How did you get into beauty pageants? Was that the first pageant that you enrolled in or were there others before that? Take me back.I joined a modeling competition in 2004. Think of it as the Next Top Model. That was like the biggest thing in Singapore. I joined that first. I got into the top twenty out of one thousand candidates.Wow.I’ve never thought of becoming that because I was constantly bullied in school. My self-esteem definitely took a dump. Eventually I got some really good friends who encouraged me to join a beauty pageant and said, “You could just give it a go. Why not have some fun?” I said, “Okay, but I’m not rich.” I don’t have that much money to buy the clothes, get the dresses, and things like that. It was hard. Eventually I joined, and I was not trained. I don’t have money to attend a lot of courses. What I did was, I knocked on doors. I literally went around to knock on doors to look for someone to teach me in public speaking. I was literally knocking on every door and asking for sponsorship. “I could be the future Miss Singapore. I’m not there yet, but hey, maybe invest in me.”Yeah, sure. Of course.Eventually I met this lady, her name is Rebecca. I remember her very fondly. She’s really, very –how do I say this? Like a mom figure as well, but in the sense she’s very open, very gentle. She said, “Okay, I will sponsor you. So here are all my DVD’s, my notes, and everything you need to do public speaking. How to use your vocals and reach out and express yourself.” I said, “Okay, fine.” Then later on, she asked me for my bag. So I ...