In this episode, host Lorie Jones sits down with Tina Huggins, a high-conflict divorce specialist and lifelong advocate for women’s empowerment. From her beginnings as a martial artist and emergency responder in a small town to her work in law enforcement supporting battered women, Tina’s journey is replete with grit, growth, and truly fearless moments.
You’ll hear how Tina converted adversity—including personal losses and navigating male-dominated fields like firefighting and martial arts—into wisdom and actionable advice. She shares the importance of investing in yourself, finding the right mentors, and not letting anyone else define your limits. If you’re a woman forging your path, or seeking inspiration to take that first bold step, Tina’s story will remind you: don’t let anyone tell you what you can or can’t do.
Get ready for honest insights, stories of triumph, and practical guidance for building a confident, empowered future. Let’s get fearless together!
Show Highlights:
- Think and Grow Rich for forward-thinking mindset coaching. [03:55]
- Shaping a life of impact and helping others as a DV survivor. [05:47]
- How can divorce coaching shave off legal fees for clients? [08:15]
- Mind-body medicine and processing emotional health. [10:49]
- Learning to ask for help and finding the right coach. [12:10]
- Why human connection is crucial to journey through grief. [19:35]
- Facing TikTok’s scary spotlight with viral video marketing. [26:55]
- Can women adapt strengths in fields needing muscular endurance? [28:49]
- Guidance for taking charge of life and finances as women. [31:45]
- Key advice for young women to surpass mentors’ success. [35:58]
Find Tina Huggins’ work at https://divorcecoachspecialist.com/.
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review!
For more information about Lorie Jones, go to https://fearlessfinancialadvisors.com/fearless-females.
00:01.51
Lorie Jones
Good morning, fearless females. I’m so excited today. We are joined by Tina Huggins. She is a high conflict divorce professional um with your divorce coach specialist.
00:13.89
Lorie Jones
And Tina and I have had a chance to just chat before we started recording. And we’ve just got a lot of things in common as far as women and empowering women and helping them to take control the future, whether it be after a divorce or in their financial future. So I’m really excited about this conversation. I think it’s going to be great. Thank you so much for joining us, Tina.
00:37.00
Tina Huggins
Thank you for having me. I’m excited.
00:39.81
Lorie Jones
So the very first question I always ask is, what is your favorite book?
00:46.64
Tina Huggins
oh Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
00:49.69
Lorie Jones
ah Okay, how come?
00:51.65
Tina Huggins
um i I kind of have always seen um Napoleon Hill as technically the first person. coach, life coach type person out there. And to be able to read his book and hear um his words, his actual words,
01:08.47
Tina Huggins
It’s kind of like he was um he was in our time when he was clear back in the early 1900s. And so for me to be able to to kind of realize that that he had forward thinking and he could think about what the future needs to look like. And that’s kind of what Think and Grow Rich kind of was about. It’s about your thoughts.
01:30.10
Lorie Jones
Yeah. um I’ve read that book, but it’s been a long time. So maybe I ought to pick it up again and kind of look ah look at it with new eyes and just see. Because I think that part of growing rich is thinking about it first. And it’s part of your whole life, right?
01:48.15
Tina Huggins
Yeah. And when I’m working with my clients, that’s one of the things that we do. So what do you want your life to look like in two years? You know, it might take us a year to get through this divorce, but what do you want it to look like on the other side?
01:59.99
Lorie Jones
Yeah. And I do a lot of delving into those um deeper kind of values and growth and like, who do you want to be when you grow up, even if you’re already 65 75? Like,
02:12.47
Lorie Jones
you never stop growing up, do you? So you always got to think about it.
02:14.81
Tina Huggins
No, never. Unless you want to die and then you have no growth and then you’re gone.
02:20.92
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Tina, tell me just a little bit about yourself. Tell me how you got where you’re at today. ah i don’t think there is a degree at college for a divorce co coach specialist, and I’m guessing your path probably was not linear straight there. so Just tell me about how you got where you’re at and and what you’re doing and a little bit about you.
02:45.55
Tina Huggins
Um, just, you know, years back as a teenager, I was helping people specifically back then. It was the people that didn’t feel good about themselves. Um, they were,
02:56.57
Tina Huggins
had suicidal ideations. And then fast forward, I ended up in law enforcement kind of helping people and I was a martial artist. So I was helping women and children get out of abusive homes, literally putting my physical body between the abused and the abuser at times, kind of helping them work through things so that we could get the women and the children out safely.
03:20.33
Tina Huggins
And then um fast forward again, my father was involved in a very serious relationship where um he’d been shot at a few times. And then the last time I ended up pulling him out of the hospital after she drove over him with a Dooley pickup truck.
03:37.08
Tina Huggins
And within that timeframe, I was in an abusive relationship where I ended up with a broken hand separated ribs and eventually a dislocated leg, which is when I realized I needed to get out of that situation.
03:43.54
Lorie Jones
Thank
03:50.00
Tina Huggins
And then fast forward yet again, i met the man of my dreams and I met him 15 years after I had divorced my first husband and i ended up helping on his divorce situation.
04:02.87
Tina Huggins
He had been going through a divorce at the time I met him for two years. And going through that, I had already in my coaching career helped people divorce on a minor side.
04:15.74
Tina Huggins
And in the middle of this divorce that took him seven years, $300,000 just on his side to pay for his attorney, um i realized that this attorney wasn’t didn’t know some of the things that I knew And wasn’t doing some of the things that needed to be done. And there was just random expenditures that didn’t need to be made.
04:38.57
Tina Huggins
So I decided there had to be a different way to do this. So I went out and found certifications in divorce coaching, high conflict. um I actually hold…
04:49.60
Tina Huggins
a life coaching um training certificate that I’ve gone through. And then my divorce um coaching certificate, transition and recovery from divorce, um conflictual high, excuse me, conflictual co-parenting.
05:05.58
Tina Huggins
And then I’m a restorative family mediator and packing all of that together. And then I’m currently finishing up um two courses on high conflict and communication So that I can get the certification of the high conflict divorce coach from that specific school and putting all of those specifically with a restorative family mediator helps me to be able to help my clients set boundaries, hold their, their ground, learn how to hold the boundaries.
05:37.09
Tina Huggins
communicate with their possible ex and or soon to be ex their attorney. All of that can save them thousands of dollars if we follow the path forward and get everything preset before we even bring on the attorney.
05:54.89
Lorie Jones
So you get them, you’re like a pre-coach for that kind of space.
05:59.02
Tina Huggins
In that part, if they can come to me beforehand, that’s when we can save them the very most amount of money right there in the very beginning, because we do everything together before we get the attorney.
06:11.95
Tina Huggins
And we don’t have to pay the attorney to do that. And right there is close to five grand in some divorces, that initial part where they have to gather and put everything together. We do that.
06:22.66
Tina Huggins
So we’re able to save that amount in the very beginning. And then I help them all the way through through into their healing side on the other side of the divorce.
06:32.65
Lorie Jones
So um you said that you were working with kind of women trying to get them out of homes or abusive relationships. what Is that what you went to school for?
06:43.31
Lorie Jones
ah did you tell me about the early years? What did you want to be?
06:47.04
Tina Huggins
actually um That’s not what I went to school for. What I had originally gone to school for was in um natural medicine. And the the law enforcement was helping me go through that kind of stuff. And I just realized you know i was a martial artist, like I had said before, and I ended up teaching self-defense in battered women’s shelter.
07:12.30
Tina Huggins
And that part right there helped me to see that level of abuse and and see that those people needed help. And in that specific situation, there were only women. And I know that this podcast goes out to to to women. And i actually have helped a lot of men go through this because the men don’t have what we women do.
07:36.95
Tina Huggins
But my training in the martial arts is what helped me in the law enforcement.
07:44.50
Lorie Jones
And why did you, um what caused you to change your direction? Like with the law enforcement, you were just, you were finished with your schooling, so you just moved on what?
07:56.53
Tina Huggins
Well, yeah it had to do with moving, physically moving away from my um the hometown where I had left my husband and things like that, just moving on in my life.
08:07.55
Tina Huggins
And I kept in the natural medicine because I’m able to use what I have learned in the natural medicine because it was mind-body medicine. And so so when we when we have all these stressful things and we don’t talk about them, they’re going to store inside our body.
08:16.98
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
08:26.39
Tina Huggins
And that storing inside our body is eventually going to cause either joint pains, heart attacks, strokes. Those things, those problems that we’ve dealt with need to come out.
08:40.04
Tina Huggins
Communication is one of those ways. Martial arts, where we were rolling around on the ground or punching bags and things like that, or even inside the ring,
08:50.51
Tina Huggins
we were physically dealing with those emotions. So you have to have twofold. And so one of the things that I do with my clients is we talk about those things, right? That’s the emotional side.
09:01.09
Lorie Jones
and
09:03.58
Lorie Jones
So, Tina, tell about the best investment as you’ve kind of gone through your journey and your professional life and all these different changes and stuff. Is there an investment that you’ve made in yourself that was kind of ah it was something that you were like, oh, my goodness, I just would not be who I met, who I am today without doing this?
09:26.96
Tina Huggins
Oh gosh, there’s lots of those along the way. um But I think that just just understanding, um and I go clear back, and I just came from a live Tony Robbins event, but clear back in my early 20s, I started reading things like Think and Grow Rich and Tony Robbins books, and I started getting tapes and stuff. And I truly think that me,
09:53.27
Tina Huggins
Being able to believe in myself that I could do this, I can get from here to there. That was the original. And then being able to hire coaches to help me get to the next level.
10:05.44
Tina Huggins
ah I recently lost my husband just over a year ago, and I wouldn’t be sitting here today had I not had the coaches, the help and the support, therapist, as I’ve moved through this. So asking for help.
10:21.04
Tina Huggins
And letting people help me is the next one through that course.
10:25.95
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm. I’ve, I’ve felt too, though, that sometimes it’s really hard to find like the coach that’s going to fit during that phase because there are so many out there. Like, how do you find the right, I am 100% on board with like reading and learning and becoming and, and growing all the time and, and coaching, but how do you find the one, there’s just so many.
10:52.82
Tina Huggins
Yes. And, and when we were talking about that, you need to find a coach in, in the place that you’re wanting to make those changes. So if it’s in your personal, I usually look in a spiritual, not religious sense, but I want somebody.
11:09.46
Tina Huggins
um And I’ve got one of those right now where I’m working forward um in my personal growth and And so it is a law of attraction type coach. And he’s a father in the Catholic church. Not that I’m Catholic, but that was super important for me that somebody could understand the spiritual side in the way that I did.
11:30.19
Tina Huggins
So asking, you know, meeting all these coaches and asking all these coaches that thing. And then I currently have a business coach and I have actually had to tell that business coach how to coach me.
11:43.27
Tina Huggins
Um, They know what they’re doing and they were trying to let me fold things around the way I’m not.
11:46.55
Lorie Jones
right.
11:50.52
Tina Huggins
No, I am the type of person that I need a box. In other words, I need to know the rules. I need to know where I need to go. This is something I don’t know.
12:01.34
Tina Huggins
So I need you to set that forth. And then I need you to push me hard because I can push myself really hard. So in this specific case, I found somebody that had the knowledge. And then I’ve told them how to coach me.
12:13.60
Tina Huggins
I have fired a Tony Robbins coach because they were too fluff and stuff. I need somebody for me that pushes me.
12:18.24
Lorie Jones
yeah
12:21.71
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that’s so interesting. And it’s interesting that you’re coaching the coach. Like, i I do think that they that there is some ah partnership involved in coaching, where you have to say, yeah, that’s not going to work for me. I know me, I’ve known me for, you know, 29 years now, because I’m only 29. Don’t tell me differently.
12:42.64
Lorie Jones
But I’ve known myself for a long time. And I know what I do and and how I come at this. So these are the things that I’m looking for. Maybe that gives you a better relationship with your coach, kind of helps them to move you forward faster. if You can give them those cliff notes on and who you are, right?
13:00.39
Tina Huggins
Yes, yes. and And I do think that that’s an important part. um I didn’t have to, with Father Rafael, I didn’t have to tell him how to coach um because this was something that had a routine.
13:13.88
Tina Huggins
We do A, then B, then C, and that works the best for me. I can’t just have the sporadic stuff going.
13:22.02
Lorie Jones
Yeah. um What is the worst advice someone gave you, Tina? Have you ever gotten really bad advice and did you take it? That’s what I’m always interested in.
13:34.00
Tina Huggins
So, yes, early on in in my divorce coaching, you know, because back when I was working, everything was in person. And then COVID came and everything went virtual and Zoom became a mainstay in our homes. Right.
13:48.70
Tina Huggins
And so I needed to know how to work in the virtual world. And one of the coaches whom, whom is still in my life, um, told me that I needed to come across as an attorney.
14:02.11
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
14:03.19
Tina Huggins
Well, I knew that wasn’t going to work and it wasn’t, you know, it wasn’t in the way I’m trained that we’re not attorneys. I can’t give you legal advice, but he wanted me to come across that way when I was, um advertising, so to speak. And um,
14:22.01
Tina Huggins
I did it. I knew it wasn’t going to work, or at least I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to work. And I did it. And I’m really super glad i did it because it got me outside of my comfort zone, which was necessary to get me to go, OK, I think this one’s going to work. So I’m going to try it. Plug my nose and take a dive.
14:42.69
Tina Huggins
So even though it didn’t work, it was really bad advice. It made me look kind of not so great in front of the people that I was working with. It just taught me so much. And so I’m really glad that I took that bad advice and and know what it did and how it did and what I need to do moving forward.
15:04.83
Lorie Jones
I think that’s really interesting about bad advice because because sometimes you can’t learn unless you take unless you do the wrong thing first, right?
15:15.67
Lorie Jones
And those and ah for those of us that are perfectionists, which is me, I am a perfectionist. i am bad at it. And I know it keeps me back sometimes because it’s hard for me to try if I’m going to look stupid or if I’m going to fall flat on my face, right?
15:34.06
Lorie Jones
and
15:34.20
Tina Huggins
And please.
15:34.58
Lorie Jones
And it’s hard for me to try if I think I might fail, but that’s where the growth comes, isn’t it?
15:41.44
Tina Huggins
and And I know for me, that’s where my growth came. And when I went and I hired this coach, because it’s the first business coach I’d hired for this business, first one I’d worked with in quite some time. And I and don’t know if you’ve heard of the movie Yes Man.
15:58.77
Tina Huggins
with, um shoot, no, I just lost his name, um Adam Sandler. And so in there, he joins a cult and the cult is a yes cult. So he has to say yes to everything that comes in front of him.
16:11.82
Tina Huggins
And I thought, as I hired this coach, I am going to be the yes man. I’m just going to plug my nose and do it. No matter what, I’m going to do it. Had I not done that,
16:22.54
Tina Huggins
Like I said, I wouldn’t have gotten outside of my comfort zone enough to be able to take the extra trainings that I need, to be as good as I need, to speak up about the abuse.
16:32.87
Tina Huggins
It just was a game changer for me.
16:36.05
Lorie Jones
Yeah, yeah, that’s true. And it it is hard to get out of our own way sometimes and to try new things. and And that’s where coaching really does come in handy a lot of times where they like push you a little bit further than you’re comfortable being pushed.
16:49.32
Tina Huggins
Mm-hmm.
16:51.75
Lorie Jones
But that’s the growth zone.
16:54.41
Tina Huggins
Right. Definitely.
16:56.49
Lorie Jones
um What about, not going to say regrets, but maybe a do-over. Mm-hmm. Is there a situation that you can kind of look back on and you’re like, oh, my gosh, if I had to do over there, I would do it so much differently now that I know, you know, what I’ve learned.
17:12.77
Lorie Jones
um Yeah, I have a lot of those.
17:15.68
Tina Huggins
ah so Yeah, and there are a lot of them. And I am one of these people. I don’t tend to look back because when I do, you know, I come from a farm. And so this was the thing.
17:29.37
Tina Huggins
When you look back for too long and you’re plowing your field, then you’re going to end up going the wrong direction. And so when i glance back at the past things that I’ve done, most of them just like making that that big mistake with coming across as an attorney, I i wouldn’t be who I am without them.
17:49.75
Tina Huggins
But that question is kind of the first thing that comes to mind as you ask it is just recently, you know, with my husband’s death, I moved here to South Carolina to be close to my youngest son.
18:01.55
Tina Huggins
And because of the grief that I was going through, there was just so much, so many things that I did during that timeframe that I’m kind of looking back and going, I wished I hadn’t have done that.
18:14.73
Tina Huggins
wished I hadn’t have said that. I wished I hadn’t have engaged in the conversation type thing. um Not that that’s not who I am and what I wouldn’t do probably all over again if I had to do it, but of those things that have happened here in the last year, there’s just a section inside there that I was like, yeah, maybe that wasn’t really good for me.
18:36.97
Lorie Jones
Maybe you weren’t at your best self during that time. Is that, yeah.
18:40.83
Tina Huggins
Exactly. Well, and part of it has to do with, um,
18:42.66
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
18:46.02
Tina Huggins
drinking alcohol. i I am not a huge, let me rephrase that. I was not a huge drinker of alcohol until my husband died. And during that last year, I drank more alcohol in that one year than I had all of the years prior put together.
19:03.24
Tina Huggins
And it was that part that if I could redo that, I would have I would have organized things a little bit different, but I was devoid of human contact for almost three months.
19:17.00
Tina Huggins
And that devoid part really had its
19:17.05
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
19:22.83
Tina Huggins
You know, I missed people. i I missed communication. All I had was virtual. And um because I was living in a state and in an area that I really had not gotten to know anybody really close.
19:36.47
Tina Huggins
i I just didn’t fit with those people. Wonderful people. I just didn’t fit with them. And those that I did they decided to turn their backs once my husband died. And so… You got to do what you think is best at the time. And I was lonely and the bottom of a bottle was kind of where I leaned. And and that was not a healthy choice.
19:58.91
Tina Huggins
Now I’m on the other side of that. I can look at things a whole different way and see that that wasn’t good and be able to move and just know that, okay, so that that part is done. And I don’t have to repeat that. I don’t need the alcohol to cope in this situation.
20:18.82
Lorie Jones
I think it’s really important too that we realize that we just, we really need that connection, that human connection. I found that, that that’s a theme that keeps coming up over and over again. And it’s hard for us to go out to events and find people that we, um you know, it’s like making new friends in school.
20:39.13
Lorie Jones
Isn’t that so hard to do when you’re like, I hope somebody sits with me at the lunch table. But there’s not even a lunch table to go to. You’ve got to like put yourself in these positions and and find this this friend group.
20:51.89
Lorie Jones
But its I’m finding that it’s just so, so important to our mental and physical and emotional health to to put forth the effort to to make the choice to have that deliberate connection um in person.
21:09.69
Lorie Jones
That’s hard, isn’t it?
21:12.03
Tina Huggins
It is hard, you know, and it’ so back into the the aspect for alcohol. um My son and his wife manage um a tavern out here. So of course there’s alcohol. And that’s where I’ve met a lot of these people that are very, um I’ve made friends with, and one of them um lost her husband after I lost my husband, a little bit different situation for her, but her and I have become close and finding people that can lean on you when you can lean on them
21:48.59
Tina Huggins
They’re the people that fit into your circle kind of the best at the moments when you need that kind of stuff. But yes, it is very much getting yourself out there. And luckily, i am a very open person. i will communicate and talk to just about anybody.
22:05.05
Tina Huggins
But… But anybody, especially in this setting, are mostly men. And that has caused its own little thing that I had to back away from and stay away from the tavern just because the alcohol and the types of people I was communicating with.
22:23.13
Lorie Jones
ah So it that kind of brings up an important point, too, that you’ve you’ve got to look um at your circles and decide which circles you want to grow and which ones you maybe don’t.
22:39.12
Lorie Jones
Right? Right.
22:40.65
Tina Huggins
Mm hmm. And, you become the person, you know, the five people that are closest to you. That is what kind of tells you who you are.
22:54.05
Tina Huggins
So if you are somebody you don’t want to be, that’s where we should look at first. Who’s those five people that are closest to you? And Can you find somebody else to take some of their places?
23:06.59
Tina Huggins
You know, in some cases it’s your kids and you can’t get rid of your kids or your parents or even, you know, they might be at a point where their viewpoint, although you love them and you don’t want to trade them in um their viewpoints may not be the same as yours.
23:10.11
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
23:20.78
Tina Huggins
And so finding a way to communicate that with them and finding somebody virtual or not that you can communicate with that’s on the same level with you.
23:30.92
Tina Huggins
Super important.
23:33.18
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
23:33.76
Tina Huggins
and
23:34.57
Lorie Jones
So Tina, if you could look back over your journey, if there is one, this is one of my very favorite questions, but ah if there is one thing that you can just high five yourself for, like a past financial decision that you just did great, what would that be?
23:53.12
Tina Huggins
It was great until you said financial decision. So and the the best financial decision
23:57.45
Lorie Jones
i know
24:04.49
Tina Huggins
um would probably be the investments in myself. I can high five myself for continuing education, for moving in another, like right now I’m in two classes and getting those certifications and moving forward, pushing myself outside of my my comfort zone and learning new things.
24:25.69
Tina Huggins
I think of all the things financially, that would be the high five that I would give myself. Mm-hmm.
24:31.80
Lorie Jones
And it does, it does turn into a financial, um boon or a financial, ah strong point for you too, because as you get those You get the confidence that comes with those designations and you get the knowledge that comes with those designations. You end up earning more um and then you can save more, right?
24:55.92
Tina Huggins
Definitely.
24:58.57
Lorie Jones
What scared you the most when you started out? um And does it still scare you today or did you figure it out?
25:07.46
Tina Huggins
um I try to put blinders on those types of things. But the one thing is, as I started marketing in this new world, of virtual was getting um on TikTok and doing those little mini videos. And I say TikTok just because that’s where we see the majority of the videos, but the video that I put out for TikTok um it also goes on all of my other social medias. And that was kind of scary.
25:36.40
Tina Huggins
I didn’t, you know, i was taught to teach. I would been a teacher for all of my adult life until the last five years. And um being, being in front of people has, I mean, I would be in front of hundreds of people and in tournaments and not use a microphone and get the whole gym to hear me type thing.
25:57.61
Tina Huggins
I had no problem with that, but, recording things and putting them out where not just that couple hundred people, but now many thousands can see that.
26:08.40
Tina Huggins
That was just kind of scary.
26:10.05
Lorie Jones
Oh, it terrifies me. Like TikTok is one of my biggest, scariest things in the whole wide world. And I’ve been meaning since January to start doing more videos and short form videos. And um it’s it’s scary. It’s scary to me. I don’t know how, how did you get over it?
26:32.09
Tina Huggins
you know, and I teach a little class about this stuff too for local business rising, but it, you don’t get over it until you go through it. So there’s no getting over it.
26:42.94
Tina Huggins
You have to go through it. You have to keep doing it over and over to the point that now it’s like, people will see me out in public.
26:44.87
Lorie Jones
Oh, no.
26:51.13
Tina Huggins
You’re the divorce girl. And I’m like, Oh my goodness. Yeah. yeah
26:57.70
Lorie Jones
Well, all right. Well, I’m going to think about that a little while longer. Maybe I’m not quite that fearless yet, but I’m going to get there.
27:02.33
Tina Huggins
Thank
27:04.62
Lorie Jones
i promise.
27:06.75
Tina Huggins
you.
27:08.42
Lorie Jones
What about any unique challenges because you were a woman as you were going through this journey?
27:15.70
Tina Huggins
I think all of it as a woman is challenging. And for me, I was raised on a farm ranch. So I was raised with the guys. I was really the only girl that was doing all of that stuff with my dad and and that type of thing. And then i rodeoed for a little while.
27:32.54
Tina Huggins
And then, you know, I went into the martial arts and that’s that’s a man’s world too. And I fought men. I fought men as a child and got my ribs broken, broke their ribs too.
27:43.65
Tina Huggins
Um, so it was always a little bit rougher. I was a firefighter. And one of the things that I can tell you, you know, there’s people that say, oh, women can do anything. And I will tell you, we’re still the weaker sex.
27:58.59
Tina Huggins
And so for me as a firefighter, I have to realize what I have going for me and use that for my benefit. And so because I was short and because i I couldn’t carry the firefighter down the steps the way the big burly men.
28:19.75
Tina Huggins
I figured out ways to do that kind of stuff that nobody else could do. And I would come down with my firefighter, you know, through trainings, and he wouldn’t have a bump on him. And they would say, oh, it was comfortable. She cared, you know, it was all of this. And I never picked him up, never, never had to pick them up.
28:37.93
Tina Huggins
um And we get down to the bottom of those stairs and then I have to hand him over to the other firefighters who now bump him off the tailgate of the yeah ambulance and they hurt him more than I did all by myself.
28:52.87
Tina Huggins
So those types of things when you are the smaller person, when you and my dad was smaller than me even. You just learn how to use your gifts to help you in that world. So as a female, yes, it is kind of difficult. In my realm of people, no, in the divorce arena, no, it’s not um it’s not a place that’s just men. In fact, I think there’s probably more women in my arena than there are men. So I didn’t have to deal with it here.
29:21.70
Tina Huggins
It’s everywhere else before I got here. Yeah.
29:24.82
Lorie Jones
That’s really interesting because you did mention like martial arts. um I didn’t know that you were a firefighter, but that also is a a ah very physical man’s world sort of thing.
29:37.13
Lorie Jones
And um I grew up on a ranch as well. So I get that that is, you know, a lot of a lot of guys and cowboys. and And typically they made me go cook the food while my brothers got to wrangle the cows sort of thing.
29:52.98
Lorie Jones
yeah.
29:53.78
Tina Huggins
you No, I refuse to do that part. I was inside when we would brand the cows, getting kicked, cussing, just like the guys. I literally wanted to be in the mess.
30:08.06
Lorie Jones
I like that. I think that’s fun. So what, Tina, is the thing that you are most proud of?
30:19.87
Tina Huggins
To me, that one kind of comes up pretty easy right now in this moment. I’m the most proud of the fact that I got here in South Carolina, that I have a brand new home that i have painted all but one room of.
30:34.97
Tina Huggins
um And I did all of this 100% by myself. um My sister came out and she packed up my camper, which later on I needed my camper.
30:47.88
Tina Huggins
So I lived in that for a little while. I structured the move. I got the movers. I moved my camper without a pickup. I had help. I was able to pay for all of that. I structured everything. And so I’m the most proud of getting here 100% my own.
31:04.79
Lorie Jones
Yeah. And I think that’s underrated, um especially as you you look at, I deal a lot with women who are kind of taking control of their financial future, who are who haven’t had the opportunity or quite frankly, a lot of times, even the desire to be in charge of their finances. And they’re a little bit scared about whether or not they can do it, but watching them take control and being in charge and understanding what they’re investing in and understanding how to invest and understanding the different accounts and understanding the financial jargon um and and understanding that they can do it.
31:44.66
Lorie Jones
that they don’t need anyone else to help them, but they can do it all on their own. um that That is such an empowering sort of feeling. So, you know, to to see you say, I got it done.
31:59.22
Lorie Jones
i I moved cross country. I made sure that everything was working for me. I bought a new house. I got moved in. I got it all painted. Although I don’t know how you would even think that you couldn’t after you know, wrangling cattle and all the other things, firefighting and all those other things that you’ve done through your whole life. But that that is a very proud thing to be able to say, I did this. I can do this.
32:24.09
Lorie Jones
I can do it on my own if I have to. And even if I just want to,
32:30.15
Tina Huggins
bitter You know, you talk about women not thinking they can take control of their money. i had a client that… the husband had always told her how she wasn’t good at at this kind of stuff. But the one thing that the majority of women have that men don’t have is we’re organizers.
32:49.54
Tina Huggins
We have to be organized to run a household. We have to be organized to do just about anything that we do. And men, their organization doesn’t go out as far as ours. Their organization is usually three or four steps and and we set things out for 12, 20, 30 steps in in the future, right?
33:09.88
Tina Huggins
And when a woman starts to take over, this client specifically, when she started to take over her finances,
33:11.82
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
33:18.49
Tina Huggins
I just happened to say, well, you know, this is the best organization i have had from any client ever. To the point that we kept getting it more refined, her attorney asked her if she could teach her paralegals how to do what she did.
33:36.11
Tina Huggins
That’s how great that women can do things. It’s just getting them outside of that box that they were told they belonged in. That’s fantastic.
33:43.61
Lorie Jones
Yeah, yeah, that’s really important. I think that’s really important and to know is that, is that like, you’re so proud of what you’ve accomplished. And if you hadn’t stepped outside that box that they had put you in, or they told you this is who you are, you, you wouldn’t have been able to accomplish that.
34:03.34
Lorie Jones
So it’s, it’s learning to take that first, wait, fearless step. Is that Right.
34:08.54
Tina Huggins
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Taking that first step. That’s the hardest step. And then the second step might feel a little hard, but not nearly as hard as that first one. We have to take that first step.
34:21.51
Tina Huggins
Once we take it, everything else gets easier.
34:25.02
Lorie Jones
yeah yeah and we can do it we can um any advice for a young lady who’s kind of just starting down this path that you’re successful at um and and it’s a it’s a long winding intricate sort of path but is there any advice you’d give to her
34:29.62
Tina Huggins
We all
34:32.35
Tina Huggins
um
34:49.07
Tina Huggins
So yes, when believe in yourself. Don’t let anybody else tell you you can’t do it. If somebody says you can’t, look at the obstacle.
34:59.89
Tina Huggins
There’s a way over, around, through, or under it. You can find that obstacle and get it behind you so you can figure it out. So that’s important.
35:12.75
Tina Huggins
Decide somebody who’s doing it already. So like in my case, there is a divorce coach who I want to surpass. I have her in my scope. I can see exactly what she’s done and I want to surpass her.
35:28.23
Tina Huggins
So she’s my mentor. I have gone out and asked for her to mentor me. So I’ve paid her for this. And to find out how she’s doing things, I’m If you can do the things that they’re doing that fit in the way that you’re doing, great. If something they’re doing doesn’t feel right, change it.
35:48.96
Tina Huggins
You can do whatever you want to do. Then the next thing is allow people to help you. Ask for those people to help you. And then when the door or window opens, take it Don’t be afraid of the door that’s opening in front of you.
36:08.63
Tina Huggins
The more scary it is is, probably going to be the bigger outcome on the other side.
36:14.94
Lorie Jones
Oh, a hundred percent. I would a hundred percent agree with that. You just, the scarier it feels and the bigger it feels, the the more rewards you’re going to find on the other side of of doing, of taking that step and trying that thing. So thank you.
36:29.40
Lorie Jones
Thanks so much, Tina, for spending some time with us and just sharing your story. If I have a young lady who wants to reach out and ask some questions, how does she get in touch with you?
36:40.81
Tina Huggins
Well, they can reach me um on my website at CoachTinaLynn at Gmail and that’s C-O-A-C-H-T-I-N-A-L-Y-N-N at gmail.com or they can actually reach out over the phone at Thank you.
36:58.13
Tina Huggins
five eight zero six sex eight four
37:03.76
Lorie Jones
Well, perfect. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today. I’ve really appreciated it
37:08.39
Tina Huggins
thank you