April Mason: I'm An Asset Women's Entrepreneurship Seminar - Oakland

to do, but the Bible literally tells us that we are to cast out what? How come it's so hard to do? Because it's a choice. Anytime any negative thoughts come into your mind, you, my dear, have to be the one to say, "I'm countering that." I was talking to one lady, and she think every man is going to cheat on her. I said, "Well, you know what? He is. Why? Because that's what you think." She said, "I did— I did They played me, I didn't wait on you, I didn't do it to you, I didn't do it to my mom, they all cheated. I said, let me tell you something, and this is not just for relationships, but it's for life. If you carry the same bricks to the same house, to a new house, you're going to create the same house. It doesn't matter who you're with or where you are. If you continue to do the same thing, then what we don't realize is you start to act because you're so all high on, "I can't, I don't want this to happen, I don't want that to happen," that you start to act in a way that causes a response of what you didn't want. Because of what? The fear of it happening, and we don't even realize we keep aiding. And I often tell the story about my fear of the police. I was always scared that I was gonna get pulled over, and I would say, "I'm gonna get pulled over, I'm gonna get pulled over, I'm gonna get pulled over." I was like, "Why was I thinking that?" And I showed people what it was. I drew that to me. Whatever you think about the most is what will happen in your life. That's why the Bible tells us what to meditate on. You gotta really key into those scriptures. Meditate on the things that God has given us to meditate on, because he knows that if you don't, we're going to be where? In our beautiful state. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Now, it said God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but it did say fear would come on. So what do you do when fear come on? You counter it with, if I have fear, it did not come from God. If I have negative thoughts about myself, it did not come from God. So everything negative that you think, understand it did not come from God. So now you know that the devil, he can't tell the truth if he wanted to. So everything that you're complaining are lies, and they'll never be true because they didn't come from God. Don't let fear interfere with your future.

That's right.

If you run around scared of being bold— and we talked about this earlier— if God said come boldly, that means he wants you to be bold. You gotta go to the throne. That means I don't want no punks coming to me. Come to me boldly. Because think about it, if I am your father, I am king, right? And I am your daughter, the princess. She don't come to Daddy all wimpy. She come to Daddy and, Daddy, look here, this is what I need. You know that little verbal right there? Daddy, I'm Daddy, I don't want that. That's how a father-daughter relationship is. You don't get intimidated, "Hey, I lost my dad." No, no. When you— I was talking to my kids, and one day— this was before I started doing all that I'm doing now— and my kids, even though I'm working so much, they ask me for stuff like I had a lot of money. It's like, "What? Don't you see what we're doing?" "No, why?" Because of the confidence they have in their mom. That's the exact same confidence that we have to have. In God about our future in every area of our life. The scripture talks about in 3 John about how he wants us to be prosperous in all areas. It's not just this. If you might want a good job, believe and trust God for that. He wants that. He wants you with the relationship, the finances, the spiritual— he wants you with everything in every area of your life to be prosperous. Have you ever noticed people that they have all this money, but their marriage is in a disarray, their kids on drugs and all? That's not what the scripture means. All of that is supposed to be good. So we have to do our part, and we cannot let our fear interfere with our future. So I know we done talked all of the personal stuff and the mind stuff and the emotional stuff. Now we got to talk business, because I know that's what you came for. Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. It goes back to, we see the completed vision. And we want to jump from we ain't doing nothing to we're doing this. There is no foundation steps set. There are no steps that have been taken. I just know that I— God showed me that I will be in an arena with 50 billion people and I will be preaching the word of God. Well, when did you witness to somebody on the street? Right? That's where it starts. You can't just skyrocket. And it's said that it takes 10 years for someone to become an overnight success. Most of the people that we see just pop up, they've probably been at it for a while. We're just now, you know, getting a hold of them. Well, except for the Kardashians, I'm sorry. Ain't like that at all. Get it while you cute still, though.

Get it while you cute.

Start where you are. Wherever you are is where you start. Don't try to look at where everybody else started. She's doing this, but hey, don't worry about that. That's not your business. Your business is to start exactly where you are. Use what you have. If you cannot— you want to write a book and you can't afford to get it printed on, start with an ebook. It's absolutely free. How many people in here got computers? I know y'all got computers because you registered for this event. How many people got Word? How many people know how to turn a Word document to a PDF? And you know it's free online to do that, PDF.com. You have a book. And you sell your book online until you make the money. There's no more excuses. In this day and age, there's too many resources available to you, absolutely free. Oh, Lord, Lady Charmaine. I know. No, when I go to her show, she does Lady Charmaine Live television show, and first thing she said, "Turn on all your awesome hormones." So you use what you have. If you don't have everything, use what you have. I'm big on bartering. Big on bartering. A lot of the things that I had done for me in the past, and still do, I get people coming to me all the time and want to barter. I'm like, well, let me see what you you got, because if you think about it, back in the day, even in the Bible, in biblical times, they bartered a lot of things. Don't be afraid to say, "Okay, you can't get something you got." Just make sure you know what you got first. Two, just because you're bartering something out with someone for a service, that does not mean you don't treat it as if they paid you.

That's right.

I've been burned. That comes from a hurt place. I've been burned like that. So it's all— there's other ways to get what you need to get done without having money. Ask questions, and if you really want it bad enough, you'll figure out how to go get the money to go get it. I had— I went to this seminar, and I went to December, and the guy said that was teaching, he said, I wanted to go to the seminar. The seminar was $2,000, and I didn't have it. So I went to the guy, I told him my story, and I poured out my heart, and he said, well, when you get your money, you come to the seminar. He said, I was in the bottom of my TV. He said, I took what they call those title bonds out on his car. He wanted it that bad. And then I turned around and go to his expensive seminar because he got the information, he took it, used it, now he's teaching others. That he wanted it bad enough. The question is, how bad do you want it? What are you willing to give up to get it? Who are you willing to let go to move forward. We're willing to just cut off each other. You've known to cut it off a long time ago. You just show nice. And who you're connected to will also hinder you from getting to that next level too.

I—

God is in the book of Esther. Connected to the wrong people. If, if people that come to your life, you're not prospering because they're in your life, and do what you can. Don't try to overdo. Only do what you can do. Of course you want to always keep moving forward, but do what you can do and stop looking at what everybody else is doing. That ain't got nothing to do with you. That's their road. You don't know what they went through to get to where they are. You couldn't walk in their shoes if they came up. So start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can. And my question to you I'm asking you now is, who are you? Do you even know? Do you even know what you bring to the table? As a woman, as a person, as a child of God, do you really know? Have you identified who you are? Or are you operating based upon what your past dictated to you, what your family said to you, and what some man decided how you wanted to treat you, and how your value was loved? Have you decided and sat back and wrote out, "Who am I?" So what is your story? Everybody here has a story. And I promise you, there's somebody in there that wants to hear it. What is your story? How did I find out my story? I have a 3P method: peace, pen, and paper. My peaceful spot when I was up in Atlanta was in my closet. My kids would come in there at any given moment and I will be knocked out in the closet. That was my peaceful place, because I have to— when I create, I have to be absolutely quiet. Don't ask me nothing, don't ask me to do anything. You can't, because I get real touchy, because God has given me the gifting to be able to create. And I can't create when havoc is going on. My most creative time, I can start about 7, 8 o'clock in the evening and work until about 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. So go find your peace with your pen and paper. That means I don't care what's going on, I don't care what situation you're in, I don't care where you live, I don't care what your job is, find a peaceful place, pray, and then start to write out what it is that you want in your life, what it is that you see, what it is that you feel. Normally, honestly, when we think back from when we were kids, We kind of already know where we should be, and some of the desires that we had, they didn't go anywhere, but we just didn't pursue them because, "Oh, he grown now, girl, okay, we're gonna stop." Check and see what that is. What hardships have you overcome? I told you earlier, you have the answer to somebody's problem. It could be in your hardship. What successes have you had in your life? People want to hear your successes too. We don't want to just hear about people going through You want to hear about some successes? Use the 3P method. Write down what you've overcome. That's your homework. I'm big on homework. You come to my class, I give you your homework, and I expect you to get it done. Why you shaking your head yes over there? I expect you to get it done. You never know when I might pop up in all your house. Because in order to take my class, I got to have your phone number. Who are you? What problem do you solve? Who are your target audience? Have you decided who your target audience is? Everybody has a story. I just want to tell the world. But the world don't want to all hear your story. There's specific— there's a specific target market that wants to hear your story. I honestly believe it's not written anywhere in the Bible, but I just believe that God has given each one of us a number of people that he has entrusted us with to empower, inspire, and equip. And I don't want to get to Judgment Day and he say, "Oh, you were doing all that, but who did you help?" Right? We all have people that we are assigned to, or that is assigned to us, that we are supposed to help. Who was that Martin? If you were abused, if you dealt with domestic violence, that's possibly your audience. For me, my audience is women that have had to overcome traumas. My ministry is a trauma-based ministry dealing with molestation as well as the entrepreneurship. That's just— he just gave me that. I'm so glad that he did. How do you want your audience to view you? How do you want to be seen? These are important when you are starting. How do you want people to be— are you going to be timid and say, "You know, I wrote this book. I don't know if I like it. Check it out." No, you say, "Girl, I wrote this new book. It's hot. I'm telling you, you got to read this book. Matter of fact, let me read some to you real quick." You have to have that type of boldness Don't downplay your stuff. You took the time to write it. You took the time to create it. Value it. You can't expect people to value what you don't. How will you connect with your audience? You said that? I got an idea. I'm figuring out who my target audience is. How will I connect with them? Where are these people? It is, you said, on Facebook, Twitter, even with Facebook and Twitter, there's an art to Facebook and Twitter that most people have no clue about Facebook and Twitter. Matter of fact, if you follow me on Facebook, what would you say I do on Facebook? What do you perceive from me? Other than my daily words of wisdom, what do you see? What makes you want to go to my page?

You show them who you are. Ask them, how did you get down with him? How did you let us know who you are, you know, like, on a personal level? So we get you through that, and then you always have something to say to help them get through that. Like, you would be like, my grandma was just here. I went to go pick her up. You would show that, but then you would market something with coming back with something positive of what she did here or what someone did to you. You just always encouraging, you always helping someone else with their thing. Like, you put something up, like, I remember seeing the Brave Aries, that's— I knew about that, but was from you, up in Market, somebody else, right?

And see, the thing is, is my daughter in here? No.

Well, she know now.

When sometimes when you're online and you have a bigger presence, people think you aren't human. But I remember when I told, um, I took a picture, I was in Ross, and I took I took a picture of a deer, and I said, "I'm trying my hardest," but I spoke to her about it before I did it. She said, "Mom, go ahead so people know you're human." I took a picture of a baby deer, but I said, "I'm trying my hardest to accept that my daughter is having a baby." And for those of you that follow me on Facebook, y'all follow me from when I first found out to when she graduated high school to 5 days later she had a baby, and to now, she— little mama, she'll be down here a little later. She's going to go Go get a kiss, doing great. She's sleeping, but she's here now. I do that not because I'm trying to be gimmicky, none of that. I do that because we are humans, and sometimes people will put you on a pedestal thinking you can do no wrong, and stuff's going to happen in your life. No, I had a teen that was back pregnant just like other folks have. Yes, my son, he broke his arm and I went to the hospital because he didn't want to to walk up to you mad. So I talk about my family life because when you do so, it makes people connect with you. You can't just sit back and say, "My mom brought up." Well, why? Why did your mom—

what is it?

I mean, you say, "Ty, I know Ty, they mad story, they let me go." What is your story? Who are you? Where are you coming from? I hate people who send me stuff in my inbox and say, "Go to my page and like it." What am I liking? I mean, I understand, you know, everybody wants support. Introduce yourself first. Say who you are. You know, it's a pleasure to meet you. Don't just send me no buy my stuff. I don't do that. There's a way to sell without even selling. That's nonetheless. Why should you tell your story? It will show others how powerful God is. Especially people that have known you. They're not going to see the change, though. They, "Oh, I don't know, she might revert back to that. He might revert back to that." But it's okay. You know where God has brought you from. It will bless others. You get to travel. I love being able to get a call and say, "Can you come speak?" And I get to meet new people, get to see new things. You run your own business. You can still work corporate America. At the end of the day, I say everybody needs to have a full-time business or a side business, because at any given moment that carpet can be pulled from under you. And what would we do when we are dependent upon a job? And to be honest with you, I never intended it to be that way. Adam and Eve messed that up. Well, listen to me. Eve was out of line with Adam and Jack, so— Work when you choose to. You can choose when you want to work. I like being able to do that. I like being able to say, you know, I want to throw an event and be able to throw an event. I like being able to— people call and say, "Can you come?" "No, I don't want to travel." I'm a real nester. As much as I do, I'm a nester. I like being home. I like it. You always gather new ideas, concepts, and knowledge every place you go. I pick up so many great things when I'm out and visiting other places. Places and see how other cultures do things. I enjoy that part of it. Why should you tell your story? You also position yourself as the leading authority on your topic. No longer are you experts. Experts can be challenged. Leading authorities, right here. Bottom line, it's your story. It's who you are. You created it. That's the end of it. You meet other new people. The stage is yours. You can say and do and empower all the people that you want. For me, this is exciting for me to share with you. I'm probably more excited to share with you than you are your team. You gain more leads if you're trying to have a coaching— how many people in here have a coaching business or want to start a life coaching business? Anybody in here? Okay, you gain more leads that way, and you can record your event and turn it into a product. Everything you do now should be product-driven. Every talk that you do, I don't care if you want to speak for free, have it recorded. Ready? You need an audio series out of it. Let your story pay you. You are in the business of solving problems. Everybody on this planet solves somebody's problem. Tide solves our problem with our clothes. Um, what's that, uh, that Secret deodorant solves our, uh, our perspiration, um, problem. Everything, every product solves a problem, while we're long indoors. Everything you go to the store for, to solve a problem, whether it's something you want or something you need. Everything. Like I said, Oprah's book, her magazine, everything is how-to tips. Next time you go in the store, look at O Magazine. Every advertisement on there is Dr. Oz. 5 keys to a slimmer waist. Who don't want a slimmer waist? I know. 12 keys to happiness. 8 ways to organize your closet. They're selling you information. Right now, you are at the best time to create your information because information is how the majority of the millionaires that I know, they didn't become millionaires through real estate. They became millionaires through information that they sell online. People will buy your stuff as long as you're solving problems. Speakers. I know some of you could send me emails once you saw the advertisement that was talking about how to become a speaker. How many of you really want to become a speaker, like for real, in life? Do your thing? Or how many of you are— might want to, a little bit afraid because you're a little shy? You kept your hands the whole time. Okay, determine what type of speaker you wish to become. Now let me tell you this, a speaker is not just standing in front of the mic. Anytime you have dialogue, you are a speaker. If you plan on opening a business, it is mandatory that you become a speaker. How else will anybody know about your business? So for all of you that didn't raise your hand, y'all become speakers too. Think about it. At a conference, and it said, "How to make millions online." These guys, they made all this money online. But if you think about it, where were they? They were in a conference room full of people studying on how to make millions online based on what they did. If you want to start a business, it's imperative that you become a speaker. Put the shot in, we're back in this place. I don't like to talk to people, I'm not insane. Am I projecting? If you want to be in the business, you automatically become a speaker. There's nowhere around it because I'll school people now about the product. And you can determine what type of speaker you want to be. You don't have to do what I do. You don't have to do what Tony Robbins do or Les Brown. You can just do it the way you want to do it. It doesn't have to be on a big platform. Mine is on a small one. Join an organization that will help you improve your speaking and leadership. Toastmasters is great. If you're afraid of speaking, if you want to start a business, my next assignment to you is go find a Toastmasters class because you will have to talk to people about your business. Study other speakers. I do that all the time. Invest in seminars, boot camps, coaching, home study kits, and all that good stuff. Begin speaking to local groups, clubs, for non-profit. Now this one, if you really want to become a speaker today and take your business to the next level, or at least start, the best place to get new leads, to get to speak, is at Rotary Clubs. Where do you look? A nonprofit organization, a chamber of commerce. Why? They're looking for speakers, people to come in and talk. Also, he who hears it from you first will do business with you. If you are a plumber, plumbers don't want to speak, but if you go in to the chamber of commerce and say, "I want to talk about the 7 things you must know before you hire a plumber," guess what? Anytime a person needs a plumber, they're going to call you. You're not technically a you may not be a speaker that travels, but you are a speaker because you just spoke up. So I don't want you to view it as it has to be one way. Identify your niche. Now, how many people in here have more than one thing that they're known for doing? Okay, Surya, what do you do that?

Dancing, singing. I'm in a professional dance company. I sing praise worship. I'm a leader, a pastor, motivating, I make jewelry, uh, come on.

How many of those things are paying you? The company, the dance company. Okay, so who else? Who else has multiple muses? I'm a nurse, that makes money for me. I'm an author, I just finished a book, I'll show you the box this spring. I don't know, you look funny. For what I was saying, I'm literally Facebook to be honest with you. No, I'm just kidding. But I teach classes of health and fitness training. I teach people about staying healthy, nutrition, health and exercise. And that's the kind of stuff that you have a passion and love to do. Okay, who else?

I bake, I cook, I care.

So we get a pound cake? No, I'm serious. No, I'm serious. I actually bought a pound cake.

Exit. Exit. Huh?

Exit. Oh, see, oh. You know how people in the front go about that food in class, especially I'll hook you up. Okay. What else do you do?

I do some motivational speaking, but nothing on that level. Just really going out and just encouraging people, because that's something I want to do. And since I just had a daughter that's going into college, I now want to do informational classes on getting your kids into college and finding them a job.

That's good. Somebody else?

I have some kids that want to get in the same business. So for being a Christian and not trying to push your kids into anything, I'm pretty much the person that they go to.

So we do a lot of American Cats, and stuff like that.

So trying to help them, I help a lot of people in our church. She calls me the information lady because everything, somebody that she doesn't know, I'm always knowing what to do to help keep them. Applications of how to get out of where they're going to. So I have a lot of young adults that call me too. Like, I have one that's 27 who didn't know how to fill out application to get her apartment or what all she needed. So I helped them everything, show them how to get their apartment and stuff.

I do organization, um, so I organize people's lives.

I do writing, write commercials. I can produce commercials.

I also have a jewelry business. I also have—

what else?

Oh, a promotions company. And I guess that's it. Okay. Some of you guys are like me, you have multiple interests. You want to do— but the key is decide on the one that can make you the most money the fastest so you can do the other things, or you will never get anything done. Start off, you know, come up with 3 to 6 options. Think about your professional and personal background. That is very, very important. Start with one niche market first. This will allow you to learn the process. So when I came out with Single No More, I decided I'm only going I give myself a 12-month span because what happens is if you don't see the success right away, you'll be discouraged. Decide what you want to do, stick with it for 12 months or until at least you made your first $100,000.

I just want to say that I am excited. I am really grateful to April Mason for this event. I am an advocate. I love the title. I love what she presented today. I think that it should be sent, it should be taught everywhere to everyone, um, because oftentimes we do not know our worth. And she taught this class today, did this workshop with love and passion, and I am so grateful. So thank you very much. Hello everybody, my name is My name is Katrina Ford and I just got out of the I'm an Asset Women's Conference, entrepreneurship conference, and I learned so much. In my journal I have pages of things that I took away from it. Everything that she said, she just spoke so many words that stuck with me, but specifically what I learned is to— I have a lot of talents and I need to pick one of those talents that will give— make me money the fastest. And, you know, I don't have a job right now. I've been looking. I haven't been successful, and I feel like that's a sign that I need to take some of my talents and just act on that and make some money with that. And the second thing that I learned that really stuck with me is to be yourself no matter what audience you are in front of. And I've struggled with that going to predominantly white school, but today I heard, you know, you have to be yourself around anybody because when you try to alter how you are around different people, it doesn't feel real and you don't feel real inside of you. So you just have to be you and understand that maybe everybody is not going to like you, but that's okay. Just keep it moving and love yourself the be yourself. So that's only a couple things that I learned today. I've learned so many, so much more, and I just thank April for everything that she taught us. And yes, thank you. Hi, good afternoon. I'm just so excited, so elated after hearing April Mason and the information that she actually brought forth. I'm just super duper excited because I do have a business that I want to open up, and just being here today just confirmed it, and it's very very simple. My hindrance was not having the finances or the money to put forth my business, but she brought up some very detailed resources and information that I can actually use that will cost literally nothing. So there's nothing stopping me now, and I'm so excited and elated, and I'm ready to start my business. God bless you. Well, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at I Am An Asset, and to have an understanding of what it means to be an asset now In a sense of, I have negated the value of the work that I have, but April has definitely given us perspective, focus, and definitive goals to work towards. So over the next 30 days, I have 3 goals set for myself, as well as in the next 90 days, I have additional goals set for myself. And just coming here today to this seminar, I believe, will help me reach the goals that I had already planned on reaching for the end of the year. Greatly appreciated it, and any way woman who has any vision or goals should be a part of learning more about what being an asset is. Thank you so much, April. Greatly appreciate it. My name is Linda Anderson, and I just want to say that I was greatly, greatly encouraged and blessed and happy to meet April. A couple of things I'm taking away from today is that I'm reminded that I'm an asset. I'm encouraged to stand upon my beliefs and standards and also just to be mindful to apply God's word and to be mindful that when he leads you to follow and to trust him and to stand on his word. That's the best advice that I got today. Thank you, and I'm so happy to be here. This is my first event with April.

Awesome!

I'm very proud of her. Hi, I'm Naima Visions and I'm at April Mason's I Am an Asset seminar. And the theme is right now, what did I learn today? One, say yes to God. Two, faith coupled with action, you can't lose. Three, in whatever you're asking from God, be prepared. To rise to the occasion. 4, invest in yourself. 5, be clear of what you're investing in. 6, create a 90-day plan. And 7, I'm ready to get started. Thank you and hope to see you next time. Bye.