WHY NOT Wednesday with April Yvette Sedun

There's a certain kind of coach who believes what we believe.

Who leads people to greatness, who gets people unstuck, who unlocks all of your passion. A coach who helps people discover what drives them to tap into their superpowers.

Then knowing your why is the first step to untap potential.

To focus.

To breakthroughs.

A coach who's looking for a better way.

Are you that coach?

One. And welcome to why Not Wednesday. Today's guest is April Yvette, and I cannot wait to tell you guys about her. Now, we're having some technical issues, so if anybody out there's a stream yard expert and you want to chime in on the comments and tell us, hey, how do we get April's video to work? We'd love to have her show her her face here, her smiling, bright face. But let me tell you about April event. Let's introduce her to you. She's an American motivational keynote speaker, trainer, and sales and marketing strategist who inspires and challenges people to get out of their comfort zone. She activates change and personal transformation so they can achieve their highest potential and sales goals. She helps ambitious entrepreneurs, sales professionals, speakers, and coaches unlock their full potential potential. She impacts millions with their message and have predictable sales monthly with her signature programs. Who doesn't want predictable sales monthly? Right? She's got two signature programs, A School for Thought Leadership and Breakthrough to Prosperity. So welcome to the show, April. How are you today?

Oh, fantastic. Thank you so much, Dan. It is such an honor to be here with you today. I was so excited and fired up about our conversation today.

Well, I'm fired up for our conversation because you and I have been talking for a while. We've got a collaboration we're going to be doing here later this month, and next month we're going to be sharing with each of our audiences. And I can't wait to do that with you. And you know, April, you're one of those people that the more I know about you, the more I like you. You know, there's some people that they make a great first impression and then the more you know them, you're like, oh, maybe they're not all the real deal. You're the real deal. You do a lot of amazing things. I love how honest and open you are on your social media and the things you share. And I've just really enjoyed getting to know you. And this is going to be a lot of fun. I can't wait to talk to you for the next half hour.

Oh, thank you. I feel the same way about you too. I'm excited.

So we're gonna, you know, this is our new time. So this is, you know, I, I've got it. I'm gonna admit, live on the air. April, we, you know, I have this show scheduled every week at 1:30 Mountain Time, 3:30 Eastern. So we decided to change the time and I made the biggest mistake. You were my next guest right when I made that change. And so what I did is I changed the date and the, the time and, and then, you know, the, my calendar app says, do you want to save this for all events? And I said, sure, I want to change this for all events. Well, all of a sudden, April got flooded with probably like 30 invitations because we're booked out till October. So April got booked on why not Wednesday from now until October of this year because I had erased all my future guests. And so I had to go back and redo all of that. So thank you for your patience, April.

Of course. Don't you know how technology is? You just work through it.

And we're dealing with it right now. Thankfully, you had a great pict of yourself. They're all getting a chance to look at you. But let's get started. You know, one of the things I, I love to do is re go over people's why operating system. You know the name of the show is why not Wednesday. So we're going to talk about your why not moment. What it is the time in your life you said why not do something and you're so glad you did. So we're going to talk about that later. But we always start with your why operating system. So we discovered your yos probably some sometime back. Like I said, we've been talking for a while, but your why is to contribute to the success of others. So that tells us you're someone who likes to make a difference, make a positive impact in the lives of others. And that's what you lead with. Your how is to make sense of the complex and challenging. So that tells us you're someone who loves to solve problems, likes to help people get unstuck. You're really good at taking in lots of information, lots of data, making sense of it, and then helping people understand it. Because make sense of it. So that's your gift. That's how you contribute to the success of others. And your what is to simplify. So what people can count on from you is simple solutions that are easy to implement. There's not a lot of fluff you like to get to the bottom line. Get to stuff that works and share it with your clients. How does that resonate with you, April?

Yes. I remember when I first took the assessment, when you sent it to me, and as I was reading through the results of that, I was like, whoa, that is confirmation. Huge. Of exactly what I believe and how I operate. So I thought, this is. There's no more questioning. That's clearly it. Like, I've known it. But sometimes you just need that extra confirmation to really put your stake in the ground and own it, you know?

You know, a lot of people tell us this, and I'd love to hear your perspective on it. April, it's not so much that you learned anything new about yourself. You've always been somebody who wants to make a difference, someone who solves problems and who. Someone who likes to keep things simple. But this kind of gives people language to say it, so there's a lot of simplicity to that, and people like that.

Yeah, I agree. I thought so too. Like, it gave me some wording for how to describe it, because I. I 100% believe that success is possible. Greater levels of success through comp. Contributing to something greater than your. Yourself or like a higher purpose.

Exactly, exactly. And that's. That, you know, that's what drives you. You and I share the same why we actually share two of our top three. I have the same why, as you make sense, is my what. And my middle is challenge. So. But with you, it's contribute. Making sense of the complex and then simplifying things and making them easy to understand. So you've had a ton of experience. You know, you. You've been a retail. Retail management and marketing manager for indie Racing League. You've been in new construction, real estate sales, and you went from humble beginnings, earning $9 an hour to $9 million in sales in 12 months. That's quite a journey. What's. What's the key to that journey?

Yeah. So the short version of that story was, you know, I started out from humble beginnings as a freshly divorced single mom with two kids. And, you know, I just. I think like many of us, when our back is against the wall and we. We're sick and tired of the status quo or sick and tired of the results that we've been getting, or we're tired of struggling or tired of not having what. What we want or what we feel like we're being called to something more. And so that's where I was at many years ago, and I started searching. I didn't know what to do through, you know, just through Prayer and searching. And I started studying successful people. I made a life changing decision about probably around 1998, 99, that I was done struggling and that I was going to create a better life for myself and for my kids. I didn't know how it was going to happen, but I made this life changing decision. And because of that, it, it literally was a catalyst that caused me to shift away from being a victim of my situation and circumstances. And I chose to take 100 personal responsibility for my results. That completely rerouted my life. And, and it's because I started doing things differently. I, I made consciously made different decisions. I studied successful people and I honed my skills in sales and marketing. And then I made the decision to take a leap from retail management into selling new construction real estate. And I literally went from earning about $9 an hour to generating $9 million in sales in 12 months. And I won salesperson of the year. And it just kind of snowballed from there. You know, inventing a product, being on Shark Tank. And it led me to what I do now, which is motivational speaking and training and consulting and helping others in that area.

Well, you just mentioned something that caught my eye. You said you invented a product and you were on Shark Tank. Tell us about that experience.

Yeah, so, you know, it's like you ever thought it had an idea and you're like, huh, that's an interesting idea. I wonder if that could be the next big thing. I don't know. Most people don't act on it. I made the courageous decision to just go for it. I literally had this aha moment driving in my car for I was looking for an alternative way to curb my appetite instead of taking a diet pill because it made me feel jittery and I wondered. I did some research and I discovered there are certain scents or aromas that when inhaled through the nose 30 minutes before you eat it can curb your appetite. So I put two of those clinically trialed aromas, pure extracts from plants, in a lip gloss and launched it. And I landed a spot on the TV show Shark Tank. And I was on lots of other publicity. You know, Fox Business Network, Fox News, NBC Daytime, Los Angeles Times newspaper. The product ended up being sold in retail stores across the US and, and about, I shipped to about five other countries.

Love that, Love that. And so what, what you saw that. So you saw a problem, right?

Yes.

You made sense of it. It's like, okay, we need, how do we do that? And then you, how much simpler than just is it? Was it a Lip gloss. You put on a lip gloss?

Yes.

Yeah. So just real simple. You put it on and it curbs your appetite. How cool is that? How has that gone?

Yeah, it went great. I was in business a little over six and a half years and then I got to a place where I was completely sold out. And I was at a crossroads and asking what is my real purpose? What's. What am I really here? What do I enjoy doing? What do I love to do? And that's when I knew very clearly that I'm a strategist. I'm really here to help others on their journey. It was time for me to make that leap from being the. The person that was in the trenches doing the work to then coming out alongside others to help them in fulfilling their goal vision. And then definitely in sales as well, because that's been my background.

You know, I love that. That's. That's a background. You help people with that. But want to talk about one of your areas of expertise? Expertise. Relationship selling. Tell us what that means to April, because everybody talks about the importance of relationship selling. Tell us your spin on it.

Yeah. The old way of selling has to do with being. It's transactional. It's about what can I get? And it's about pushing and forcing and striving and hustling and grinding. And I just don't subscribe to that anymore. I used to. And it was exhausting. It's not sustainable. You end up burned out and quitting.

Right.

I knew there had to be a better way, so I started to really look at alternative ways. The better way that I teach and that I've done for years, that actually helped me to reach $9 million in sales and. Right. And have rapid growth, revenue growth in my business.

Right.

It had to do with relationships. And I call it purpose driven selling. But it's really about building relationships. And you're driven. It's the exact opposite. It is. What can I give? It's starting from that where you're magnetically attracting ideal clients to you rather than trying to push and force and convince.

Right.

And it also has to do with.

You're driven by purpose. You're driven by peace and love and. And from a heart to serve. That is a whole different energy. And you become a highly magnetic leader, sales, professional, even business owner or speaker. When you coming from that place, listen, it makes it so much easier and people are drawn to you. There is no convincing people. You share what you do from that place and people say yes with ease. It shortens the Sales cycle dramatically.

Absolutely. You know, and that's kind of the relationship you and I have had. You know, we've been talking for a while and it's real, really been all about, hey, how can we help each other? Rather than, you know, what can I buy from you or what can you buy from me? It's been more about, hey, how can we help each other? You've got a great audience. We've got a great audience at my institute that we want to share with you. And you're. You know, one of the things I shared on, on the, on my, on my social media this week was your values, April. And I listed them in order. Faith, purpose, inspiration, innovation and thought, leadership, authenticity and integrity. So I know we only have half an hour, but I'd love to talk about each of those and what part they play in your success and in the coaching that you do. And you lead with faith. Tell us about that value and the importance it has in, in your coaching.

Yeah. So in the past, I spent a lot of my time like just trying to harness my willpower to make things happen.

Right.

And you know, I kind of touched on that earlier and it was harder and, and I was, I think that the stages of spiritual growth, which is important when you are really stepping into the spotlight on a greater platform as a leader and entrepreneur, because there's these stages of growth and transformation that need to take place to really catapult.

What you're really here to do. But let me. Here they are. You start with being reliant on others. Reliant. You're relying on other people. Right. That's victim thinking. The next stage is being self reliant. That's where you're a manifester and you're pushing hard and you're using your willpower and making things happen.

Right.

I've so been there. But you get to a place where sometimes there's something more that you need besides just willpower, it's often sometimes not enough or it leads to burnout.

Right.

So the next stage from that is being God reliant. And this isn't just sitting on your couch and praying and saying, God, please bring me new clients, or staring at a vision board, thank you for the new clients. You know, that kind of thing. I call it faith in action. I began to rely on God, that this is my personal worldview. And I believe in cultivating a close personal relationship with God and be guided, just like a gps, rather than just trying to figure it out all by myself. Because our Creator created us on purpose. For purpose. He's already mapped out our entire life. And his plan for us is even bigger and greater than anything we can ever ask, hope or imagine. And so our vision and our goals pale in comparison to what God's been trying to get. Get to us all along. All we have to do is pause, just take that personal, private time alone. Maybe in the mornings. Even if it's just five minutes to just listen, to be guided and then, and then have enough faith to act on the guidance that you're hearing. That was a game changer for me. Game changer.

Love that. And, and you know what? I love that you brought the fact that it's not about just sitting there and praying it, praying your, your business into success. You still have to take action. And I love that. You also brought up the fact that God has a plan. Right. I listened to an interview over the weekend with Jim Caviezo, who's doing this new movie, and he talked about the fact that at one point in his life, he thought of taking his life. And he now imagines sitting and having that tough conversation with God at the end of his life and him saying, you know, you were meant to play my son in a movie and you didn't do that. Had he done that. Right. And he's doing this new launch of a movie. So I think it's so much of that is not just. I think one of the quotes that he mentioned was when God calls you to action, you can't hesitate. Would you agree with that, April?

100%. Yes.

You do not hesitate. Right. He's calling in action. Go do it.

Yes, Go do it.

Love it. Tell us about purpose, faith. Second purpose is your second value.

I have always been purpose driven my entire life. There's. There's purpose in all things. There's purpose in the failures. There's purpose in the wins. There's purpose in everything that we're doing, especially in, in business, in every aspect of our lives. But I believe in being purpose driven. So. So starting with a purpose that's greater than ourselves, a cause, a mission, something that is important to you, that is, that is greater than just the money. And when we hone in on and know what that is, which. You've been talking about this all along, you can call it your. Why, you could call it your higher purpose, your greater purpose. That's what. It's an intrinsic motivation that pulls you forward rather than fear trying to push you into achievement, right?

Yeah. Because achievement, for the sake of achievement, there's always more to do, right?

Yes.

Love that. What about inspiration? April, you're just inspiring me today. You've inspired me throughout all our conversations, through the people that we have know in common. Tell me about inspiration and how that value plays out in your coaching and your speaking and the work that you do.

So I believe that we go through life experiences in our personal life, in our health, in our relationships, even in our spiritual walk. And I believe that the real purpose of obstacles. We may have heard this quote before, and I can't remember exactly who said it, but, you know, you've been assigned this mountain to prove that it can be moved or that to prove that it can be overcome. I'm not sure if that was Mel Robbins who originally said that or who the author was.

But that's really what this is about, is leading your life. We're all on this journey. We're all in this together. And oftentimes in business, you were literally just, you know, two or three, four steps ahead of your customers and clients, ahead of them on the journey. And that's where you go, I've been there. I know the way out. I can show you. Here's the solution or here's a better way.

I love that.

That's what I believe inspiration is all about. And look, this can work even in your personal life, because, listen, whether we know it or realize it or not, there are people that are quietly watching you, observing, Right. And we're either inspiring them to be. To unleash their greatest potential, or we're inspiring them to, you know, stay in the status quo, or to. We may be inspiring them to hold back and not. Might even be visible. Who do you want to be in life?

Right.

I love that. That reminds me of a quote. You know, we learn from everyone. Some teach. Some people teach us what to do, and some people teach us what not to do. Right?

Yes, exactly. Listen, I've been in all stages.

Well, yeah, you know what? I've been the example. And I've been. And I've been the example of what to do and what not to do. Right.

Me too.

And that's what's so great. And I think, you know, when you mentioned when you made that decision, it was 1997, right? April.

Yeah. 98, 99, something like that. Yeah.

So it's been 24, 25 years. It's not. You're not an overnight success. You've put in the work, you've read the books, you've followed you. You've learned from others that have gone before you, and then you've taken that and built it into a business that helps you help others. This is my favorite question of your values innovation and thought leadership. This is one of your, your keynote, your key programs helping people become thought leaders. I actually mentioned it in my social media post about our interview is what difference would it make for you in your business if you were considered a thought leader? And guess what guys, April helps you become a thought leader and be able to express that. So tell us about the innovation and thought leadership portion of your values.

Yeah, let me this is very important to me. I've always been kind of an innovator. It comes naturally for me. But you don't have to be a genius to be a thought leader or an innovator. You literally already have the ideas, your own unique perspective or point of view on your topic or on your in it, on your in in your industry. No matter what role that you play right in business, it's already inside of you. Listen, you've been thinking it, but maybe you don't have the courage to say it because you're trying to be who you think you should be or who other people want you to be so that you can avoid rejection or judgment from others and is keeping you playing small. It's also keeping you invisible and hidden in plain sight from your ideal clients. The people that desperately need your perspective in Genius. Listen, the only reason they would even consider buying your product, your service, your new thing, is because they tried this, you know, these other things over here and it didn't work. Or maybe it worked a little bit, but it's, it's not moving fast enough or they, they didn't get the full result that they wanted and now they're searching for a better way or something that actually works. You've got it, but maybe you just haven't been communicating it. This was a huge lesson that I learned on my own journey as an entrepreneur. Many of us are copying other businesses and other brands. We somebody who's wildly successful and we think we've all heard this.

The quote if you want to be successful, just, you know, copy what another successful person is doing and you'll get the same results that they're getting or you'll be successful too. Here's the problem with that. You end up having generic messaging, blending in, sounding like a carbon copy of a lot of other businesses. And you're your ideal clients don't know that you are the one that may need to hire or buy what you are offering instead of those other 20 people, 100 people who do something similar to You. And it's keeping people on the fence. It's slowing down your sales cycle. I mean, and not only that, it's not true to who you are.

Yes.

You're not being all that God created and designed you to be. It's time to come out from behind the masks that we wear and reveal your true self, what you stand for, your unique perspective. And listen. This takes courage. Because when you get this right, you will have a few people that will experience who you really are and your perspective and back away and say, oh, my gosh, that is not for me. They'll unsubscribe. And that's okay. You are not called to serve everyone. There is a specific group of people that God equipped you and designed you to serve. Right now in this season of your life, those are your people. And here's what happens when you start to really speak your thought leadership, and you're sharing your innovative solution. You didn't copy somebody else's solution.

Right.

Your own innovative new way to solve the problem.

Right.

When you do that, that's not only when people will buy, but that's when people will listen to you, follow you. You'll build a platform. You'll have more ease. You'll get on the big stages because you've got. You're adding something new to the conversation that isn't just rehashed old content.

Right? I. Boy, April, I bet we could talk on this forever. You know what? Here's the. Here's the deal. Because we didn't get your video to work today, we're just going to have you back because this is powerful enough listening to you. If we could see your expression. I just want to share that with our audience. So will you come back?

Absolutely.

So we're going to bring you back to talk about authenticity and integrity. Those are your two values that we haven't covered. But we didn't get to our signature question. I love. I don't like not getting to our signature question. So, April, for our signature question, it's. Tell us a time in your life when you said why not? To a challenge, an opportunity to something that showed up in your life. And you're so glad you said why not instead of no. So basically, you said yes. Right. What's your biggest why not moment, and why are you so glad you said why not?

It was the moment that I had the. There's been so many. But let me just pick one.

Yes.

When. When I had the idea about my thin gloss product, and I literally called my mom and said, I Wonder if this could be the next big thing. I don't know. I mean, should I go for it? I mean, I don't know. What. I've never done anything like this before. Listen, I didn't know how to do this. I didn't have resources, I didn't have connections. I literally just googled it. Like, okay, I'll find a manufacturer. Okay, let me Google that. Literally. Simple. I break it down to the ridiculously simple.

Simplify. Right?

Yes. Yes. And I decided to just go for it and let me look. I want you guys to get this. Dan, you two, all of us. Sometimes the real purpose of your first business or second business has nothing to do with you building a million, multi million dollar empire and becoming the next big thing and all that. It. The real underlying purpose of it is a training ground that prepares you and equips you and sometimes refines you by fire to burn off any wrong motives, to burn away any. Like to purify your heart and purify your character, which is really a cleansing process to prepare you and equip you to learn some life lessons and business lessons for the real thing that you're really here to do. That's how my other business was.

I love that everything is either, you know, if you think of those. Those struggles. Right. I think what you're saying is don't think of those struggles as you're. You're failing, you're learning. It's preparing you for the next step. Right?

Right.

Sunil, just put this banner up. April's passion. God first, family, friends. And using my gifts and skills to help others make their goals and dreams come true with practical steps.

So true.

So true. That's your passion. Your goal is to equip and mentor ambitious entrepreneurs, speakers, sales professionals and coaches to achieve their monthly sales goals by overcoming mental barriers. We didn't even get into the wounds that you. You take people through that inventory you help people take to go through. So we're definitely going to have to have you back. April. It has been a pleasure. Can you believe it's the top of the hour? We're done. We're going to fix our video issues. I'm sure it was not your fault. It was ours. So we're going to figure out how to make sure we get you on video next time. And we want to have you back. So April, if somebody wants to get a hold of you, wants to work with April, wants to learn from April. What's the best way to get a hold of you?

So the first thing is you can visit my website@www.aprilyouvet.com or if this resonates, I have a free Facebook group. I would love to maybe put the link to my free Facebook group where I talk about all of this regularly and have live training, free training inside the group weekly. We can maybe drop that link to my free Facebook group below. I would love to connect with you and have you join us. It's a group of a high achieving entrepreneurs, emerging thought leaders, coaches, speakers, consultants and even sales professionals that are going to the next level.

Perfect. Well, I've got ww.facebook.com aprilevette 2014 about on the screen. So if you guys want to meet April, learn about her Facebook group. You're also on LinkedIn, right April?

I am. I'm on LinkedIn. You know all the major social media platforms. YouTube. Yeah.

David, David Gorsuch just, just joined a little bit late. But you know what, David recorded it. It's going to live in perpetuity on YouTube, on LinkedIn and on Facebook. April, it has been such a pleasure to spend some time with you. I cannot wait for our collaboration. We're not going to, we're not going to pop the balloon here. We're going to let people know about it separately. But I'm looking forward to working with you. It's just so fun and so inspirational to be in your presence. So thank you for being on why Not Wednesday today.

Thanks Dan. It's been a pleasure. I appreciate it.

Thank you so much. Have a great rest of the week guys. Don't forget to join us next week. We've got Darrell Amy on the show. He's a strategic growth advisor, professional speaker. He's the co host of the Selling from the Heart podcast. Someone we probably need to connect April with. And he's going to be our guest next week on why Not Wednesday. Have a great rest of the week everyone and we'll see you next Wednesday by.