Welcome to Getting Rich Together. I’m your host, Shama Bunton. This show was born from my own journey. Coming out of a divorce, I reached out to 50 women to talk to them about money.

95% of them did not want to go there. That’s when I realized we need spaces where wealth isn’t hidden in silence but shared in possibilities. Here, you’ll meet women from all backgrounds, trailblazers, risk takers, visionaries, each expanding what wealth can look like. This is your place to be inspired to discover new pathways and to remember that we rise by building wealth together. Getting Rich Together is a wealth catalyst production.

At Wealth Catalyst, we bring together education, networks, and great opportunities for women to build wealth and change the world. Now, on to today’s show. I am here today with a prolific woman who’s built an incredible career building brands that I think so many women and people love and adore. April, you not only are leading the charge here at the board and really shaping and cultivating the way in which people are navigating this incredible executive world of fractional work, but your incredible career has spanned some of the most coveted brands. Violent Gray, Working With The Spring, I feel like you are such an incredible leader. I am excited today to not just talk about the work that you’re up to, but to pull back the curtains here and get to know how special you are and the human that you are on this planet. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much and thank you for this very kind words.

Well, you’re welcome. So April, before you were prolific and running these big brands, you were once a little girl and you were once somewhere between the ages of 10 and 12 years old, I would love to take us back to a young April. Was she already playing with red lipstick at a young age? Was she a tomboy? Where was she growing up? What was the life like around you?

And what was money like? I grew up in, it was born in Boulder, Colorado, and then my family moved to Lakewood in the Longmont. So I spent my kind of most formative years in Longmont, Colorado, a small town outside of Boulder, the typical walk everywhere. In high school, they were drag racing on Main Street. Like we’re going way back.

It wasn’t the 50s, but it wasn’t far back. But really coming from a family of four kids, mom didn’t really work. Dad was a salesman and the money came and went a lot. So I grew up completely taken care of. We never wanted for anything, but always really feeling that we’re on the edge, on the edge of money running out. And so I remember my mom trying to make $20 feet a family of six for a week. And so I feel like that’s definitely been a formative aspect of my career and my own fear based decision making that comes from a scarcity background in terms of financial and how it’s empowered me also as a parent and how I’m parenting my kids.

And so it comes full circle. But I started, I got a job at 11, I started babysitting. I started trying to realize that I had to supplement my income myself and that ultimately led to jobs at movie theaters and drive-in theaters and eventually to retail, which is when I think I really fell in love with fashion.

I managed a Contempo Casuals, which will very much date me out of the Boulder Mall. Had a lot of big earrings, which is why I can’t wear earrings today because I stretched out all my ears with massive three inch giraffes hanging from my ears in the 80s. But then also managed to bend a ton in Boulder on Pearl Street and got very into sweater dressing and layering and folding.

And it just really thought I was going to go the buying route and then do something in fashion. But small town Colorado didn’t have a ton of exposure to the industry at all. And so it wasn’t until I got to LA that I really figured out there was a whole wholesale side and there was other ways to get into the industry than I was thinking buying and heading to Bloomingdale’s. So when you were in high school then was it, were you driven to go get a part-time job right away?

Was it I’m going to be heads down in my studies? How did you start to think about early independence as someone who was starting to define themselves? When you realize that your parents can’t pay for anything, you start to figure it out yourself. So having worked literally since 11 and then I and going my freshman year outside of the state and really kind of spent all my money, my parents couldn’t afford to put us through college. And so I came back and took a full-time job and went to college part-time, followed a boyfriend and a sister to LA and tried to transfer, was told the community college is the way into UCLA. And then I got a job and I honestly never finished college.

But being able to afford it was a big part of that. And so it forced me to work straight through something that I really, I guess had a bit of a ghost feeling of being not 100% since I was in a college graduate and it really stayed with me as an insecurity for a long time until I realized it really didn’t matter. But it definitely was something that I regret that I couldn’t have finished. And yeah, at the same time it was what it was.

I bought my first car for $500 and drove it to LA and drove it for three years and sold it for $900. So I was really happy about that. Yeah, amen to that. I think that also in this world of fashion and retail, there are so many things that we don’t know about. I remember when I was little, I was, I had no idea that you could be a buyer or somewhere. Like there are all these jobs that you have no idea exist, but you feel called to certain industries or you feel called to creating something or something feels moved in your heart. How did you start to anchor yourself around, I know the industry or the type of work that I want to do. Did it happen as you were having these working experiences?

Was it, was there an aha moment? What sort of started to codify for you that you were following into an industry or in a direction that you’re really passionate about? I always loved clothes and having worked in retail. I spent all my paycheck back at the store.

That’s what you do. And knew I wasn’t a designer. I took some home back and wasn’t able to sew my way out of a pair of orange Kool-Ats.

And so it was clear that wasn’t my path. And my dad had done sales. And funny enough, because of the financial challenges, I was just like, I’ll never do sales. This is not a secure job.

And those were commission only type companies that he was working for. And so funny enough, I went in the head of global sales and strategy and somehow I got there, even though I said I wasn’t going to go that direction. But it’s been always the people piece, I think when you work in retail and you work closely with customers, then you get to know managers and designers and brands along the way. And then when I got to LA, I figured out there was a wholesale business. And I really wanted to work at a spree and kept looking at the green sheet out of the California mart, hoping that there would be a job available. And I ended up taking a job at a company called Karen Kane, which is still around.

It’s really in that bridge world. And started as a receptionist and in three weeks was promoted into sales. And at 22, I was making probably $30,000 a year, which was about what my dad made and feeling, wow, there’s a whole other world here. And that’s why I didn’t finish college and stuck and stayed. And the downside for me was that fear of instability kept me at companies far longer than I should have stayed. And one of my regrets of not really trusting myself early that I could jump and move. And I really was like, but I have a 401k and I have health insurance and I’m just going to stay.

And completely different times also. But at one point, I probably had a roster of about 650 specialty stores I worked with. And I really felt any, I can go stay at anyone’s house in Wyoming or Utah or San Francisco, just building all these relationships. And when I think about it now, it really was foundational to how clearly where I am now building a community model planted in the 20s of the importance of relationships and the importance of real human connection to do business, to grow and learn, and to really feel like you’re having an impact versus transactional and selling somebody something.

Because when things hit the fan, which they always do, it’s the trust and the ability to navigate those based on deep relationships that help you work things through in a different way than if it’s really kind of superficial. You know, what’s interesting as I look through and see your prolific career, one of the things I’m so curious about is as you were moving through your career, were there any inflection points financially, either where you said, okay, now I’m going to negotiate or ask for more or find these ways of starting to go. I know I’m really good at this, right? I feel like there’s always a moment when you’re like young and you’re like, good at this, can I do this?

Is it possible? And then you go from that to, oh my gosh, I’m really good at this. And now I can start doing some self-advocacy and asking for more and maybe designing my life a little bit more. At what points did you throughout your career start to ask for more or start to think about your life more holistically?

Sadly, much later than I probably would have liked that. I think it was that scarcity mindset that kept me feeling like, just grateful that I have a job, just grateful that I’m here. And then I also was raised with that not being too aggressive mindset in that female generation and just working really hard and you’ll be noticed. And then you realize eventually that’s not how the game is played. You really have to raise your hand and fight for things. And it took me probably until my late 30s, honestly, to realize, okay, finding out what other people are making, finding out bonus structures, finding out things that you could ask for that you didn’t know you could ask for. And again, it was a moment of really people playing it really close to the vest. Everyone was really gated. No one was really sharing salaries.

And so you’re negotiating pretty blindly. And I think that’s changed in these generations where there’s a lot more openness and willingness to help each other navigate those areas. This is before like the HR departments. And there was no real mentors, honestly, telling me what I should be asking for, what I should be making. It was always that negotiation of like, how much do you want to make versus how much does the job pay and then not wanting to overshoot it or undershoot it and just the most stressful frickin’ thing ever. And then realizing that your peer is making $20,000 more than you and doing a lesser job.

And when things like that will up and can really, honestly, knock the wind out of you, you start to rethink how you each next step. And so I think for me, it was my days at DVF and realizing and I spent nine years there. And so we took the company when I started, it was making $6 million. When I left, it was $360 million.

And it was this crazy ride that we all went on, given the time of contemporary market growth. We were trying to turn down orders. Like this order is too big.

Sacks, please don’t send me this order. And so because you gave it all back with margin and returns and everything. And so when you start to look at the growth of the economics of the business, you start to realize your role in it. You start to realize your power and what you’re worth versus sometimes you’re in a more of a maintenance business that may not have the same kind of growth trajectory. And so when I got to tech, and I realized no one’s going to get rich on just a salary, which I wish someone would have told me in my 20s. That’s just not how the world works with your 4% cost of living increases year over year, realizing that equity when you can get it and other ways to really think about your economics. And if you’re willing to put that time in and work that hard, why not have a piece of the business if you can.

And so it wasn’t until I moved over to tech in about 2012 that I realized, holy crap, there’s a whole other model here. There’s a whole other way to think about in sweat equity. And for sure there’s risk versus coming from a privately held company that was run by a wealthy founder that was doing running a business. Definitely not a vanity project, but not in the way that there was investors keeping you accountable. And there was a certain expectation for growth year over year.

And so that to me was a big eye opener and equally realizing that the young kids had almost more say than I did as a seasoned senior executive. I was 20 years older than the founder who came from money. And so his relationship to money was very different. He literally told me on my first day that I was the only one taking a salary. And then two weeks later told me about how he was doing a $2 million renovation on his $4 million apartment. And so I was like, okay, and so context, you start to do.

Yeah, exactly. And so I was feeling really guilty for taking a salary and a startup. That was a quarter of my salary at DVF. And it’s just the journey of understanding where in that move for me, moving from fashion to tech was basically going back down the back of the jungle gym and coming back up and around. And I knew I had to take a cut, but I wanted to learn a whole new industry. And I wanted to really bring my knowledge over and then grow in a different direction.

And so when I look at my career, having spanned retail fashion, and then moving into tech, and then beauty and now community, all of those moves have been a combination of salary. And what am I going to gain? How am I going to add new layers to what I’m doing? Just in my transition from fashion to tech to beauty to now community, it’s really in those lateral moves that it’s a combination of salary, but also now what can I add to my place that I can have more to bring to it and more I can ask for in companies. And I’ve been taking a lot more equity in companies that I advise. And one out of 10 may prove out. But ultimately, if I’m going to put that effort in, and I’m going to leverage 30 decades of knowledge and networks that I’m looking to have something more than a retainer.

Yeah, of course. So with that first move into tech, I’m sure it was also fascinating because in my experience in retail, I remember it was very much like you are one of only a few people, right, in these jobs, right? There are only so many people actually in the history of these companies that have ever had the job that you have. And I remember at Gucci feeling that way, I was like, the first person to do my job.

And there’s this really interesting feeling that goes with that. And then you move into tech, right? And tech is obviously, it’s a different mindset. It’s a different way of thinking about things. And certainly when it comes to things like equity and an exit, I remember my first sort of fashion retail adjacent tech role, I got offered equity. And I remember being like, what does this even mean?

Like, how do I even make sense of this thing? At that time, as you were evaluating this opportunity, what, who did you turn to? How did you decide what was the right sort of compensation for this new industry that you had no experience in? So when I, so spring was the first one, I got an equity offer. And then I, like I said, I took a quarter of my salary, I went from making close to half a million to making $125,000 a year salary and taking founder level equity and thinking, okay, this is my million dollar exit.

No, for sure. And luckily, I spoke to a friend who was one of the early days at Intel. He’s a super guru. And I sent him all the packages. And he was like, no, let me get on the phone with you and really explained the tax implications and things that I didn’t even think about.

And to get the, I think it’s an 83b, I figured it’s called now. And he actually went to back with the founders for me because he told me what to say scripted it. I sent the email, they said no. And he was like, I’m getting on a call with them. And he explained them like, why, what is nothing cheap for you to give this to her? It’s like nothing for you. It’s a tax implication for her. And I would have not known to fight for that.

I would have not known that was even a thing. And I think we’re just not educated in a way that is really comprehensive. And there’s more and more companies now that help women really think about how to get paid, right, how to ask for what they want and how to really understand all the different types of equity. And as we know, they don’t really have to tell you how many shares there are, you can sometimes just get a percentage or you sometimes get like 10,000 shares, like of how many, but it’s just really hard to understand the value of that.

And so when you’re leveraging it as part of your compensation, I think it’s a little smoke and mirrorsy in many cases. I remember too giving, at spring, we gave all these kids equity and we paid them nothing. And they thought they were going to have some big payout, but no one was going to last four years.

And I knew it. None of these guys are going to invest. So this is all bullshit. This is just the company using it as a carrot to pay them less salary.

And I saw that happen a lot, which was pretty disheartening. And I was just not even being able to explain to them saying you should get a lawyer to look at this offer. What 23 year old kid is going to go hire someone to help them understand the stock options.

And so depending what type, how the company, how the founder really thinks, and you hear amazing stories of really generous founders who bring so many people along on that growth journey, if there is a big successful exit, but more so I’ve heard the opposite of people that kind of used it to pay as little as possible, fully knowing that it probably wouldn’t need to an exit or that person wouldn’t last through the vesting cycle. Wow. Yeah, but it’s also so important, right? Because these days I know a lot of the women who are listening to the show are also considering being on advisory boards or just equity gets exchanged in so many different ways now. And I still feel like there’s not enough understanding of both the risk of equity and then also what the long shot is that it transacts into something over some determined time and what those dilution metrics look like and truly what the value is.

What is the value of this? Just don’t think that it’s gust often enough. For future raises and the dilution and what level of stock options you have, and especially if you’re early, if you’re in early, you know, you’re going to get diluted the most. And that’s the rub for being on the startup team. Is that in many cases, you’re in common stock and therefore whoever has preferred is going to get a lot more than you down the road. So listen, in the world of chat, you’d be tea now, we’re a lot smarter.

But back in the day, you’re blindsided. And it’s funny because I have my daughter’s studying finance at the University of Wisconsin, primarily because I was just like, this just can’t be an Achilles heel. This has to be an area that you feel confident with the P &L thinking through the economics and equally looking at the structures in terms of venture inequity and she’s looking to go into finance. And it is a lot because we had many conversations as I stayed in leadership roles. And then as I built something on my own about how to structure and what to ask for, and she’ll be my go to down the road.

I love that. The future, we are investing in the future. So then as you then decided to obviously in your career path, your lifelong New Yorker in your career, and then all of a sudden decided to take an opportunity that then centralizes you onto the West Coast. And it’s really clear that every place you go to, you bring with you your reputation, your ability to lead your contacts, you are certainly a tour de force for any company that you end up touching.

And you end up finding yourself in Los Angeles. How did you decide and was it a family decision? Like how did you decide at that time? Where were you in your personal life to say, okay, we’re going to make a transition and a pivot look to living somewhere else?

And what made that, what made it worth it for you? So we were in Tribeca and we had about eight acres outside of Woodstock. And so we did the weekend warrior thing for about 19 years. And my husband was just super burnt out. We tried to live there full time. We put the kids in Woodstock day school right after I left DVF and was starting spring. So I would literally drop the kids at school, go to the Pine Hill Trailways, a bus station, put my keys under the mat of my car. And then my nanny would come up from the city, get into my car, I would go into the city and I would work 48 hours.

We had rented out our loft in Tribeca and took a crash pad in Soho and I would do a 10 hour day, go crash another 10 hour day and then drive back upstate. So after seven months of that, we realized it wasn’t sustainable. And I dragged the family back to New York because I was, like I said, all in. And so at that point, my husband gave me a two year window and said, two years and then we’re out. And three and a half years later, he said, I’m leaving with without you.

And so we started to look at the print. Like we tried to make upstate work. It didn’t really work. It was too far to commute and started to look around Connecticut, et cetera. And we had met in LA actually. So I lived in LA in the 90s. And I had a bunch of brand partners there through spring. Family, my sister had moved here. And so I just checked the most boxes over trying to stay as a suburb of Manhattan. And we landed in Laurel Canyon, which I joke is if Tribeca and Woodstock had a baby, it is Laurel Canyon. And so it definitely there’s a lot of ex-New Yorkers. There’s my people.

I’m a bolder to Woodstock girls very much into there’s a hippie culture that I really love. And so that just sealed the deal of where we could end back up. And you start to build your bubble. And so once COVID hit and I no longer was commuting 45 minutes to Hollywood for Violet Gray, it just became really magical to be in the canyon and to have a life side, a lifestyle that is the weather that is here. My back door is totally open right now. It’s in the 70s in October.

And it’s pretty great. Not saying the fires wasn’t a bit of a concern. And like how sustainable is this bubble? But for me, it’s really where I had a little bit of community. And then I won the founding team of I’m a Voter and really jumped into some advocacy work early after Mr. Trump was first elected and really thought about how do we if we can make if I can sell lipstick, can we sell voting? And so this idea of can we make voting cool so people do it. And we set out to build a nonpartisan nonprofit. And that was a side hustle for about 28 of us. And that was me calling brands and saying, Hey, and I remember I went to Fashion Week with a stick with a pin that was like, I’m a voter. And I would go put it on Maria Carnet and Christine Barbridge and all. And then I would say, can you give it back to me because I only have one pin?

And then I have to go take a picture of it on someone else. We started Supergrass Roots and were able to register hundreds of thousands of people over the course of those last eight years and another calling card to reach out to people. And I guess I’m a sales girl at heart at the end of the day. I was just constantly connecting the dots and seeing, you know, who needs what and who’s talking about what and who would benefit. That really led me to put a business structure around this thing that I’ve been doing for decades and really saw it coming. Once the pandemic hit and technology changed everything with Zoom and ultimately geography no longer mattered at the same time this crazy pool of talent had exited was exiting the workforce for many reasons.

And those were a lot of my peers and they would just hit me up and say, I’m out. I left LA, I moved up state, I sold my company, I got laid off and was moving into this kind of consulting space. And so it was my moment to say, oh my gosh, I really can take all of what I’ve been doing on the side is constantly connecting it and build a structure around that, but also just join forces. It’s really hard to navigate all these challenging times solo. And so once you’ve made the decision to exit some of the security of a company, and now it’s you out there hustling, it’s a whole different world. Regardless of what big jobs you’ve had and what titles you’ve held and impact you brought to business, it’s the models are all changing week over week and the way that technology is impacting things.

What’s happening in the global markets, what’s happening from tariffs and just so many curveballs being thrown all the time on top of product pollution at this point, consumer behavior changing and tech shops and a million things every day where you’re like, okay, now I got to figure this out. And so that to me was really what compelled me to build a community model that really shared networks and knowledge and learnings and opportunities and made those things transactional to provide opportunities for people to monetize differently and then to create a destination for companies to reach out when they look around the room and they realize they don’t have that specialized skill in house for the next thing they need to figure out. And it’s really funny if I was at a route at our first immersive retreat for the board in Montana, one of our members is an incredible exec coach and about 10 of us went and by the end of the four days we did the retrospective of what are some of your takeaways and one of the members had mentioned what they were doing with their life’s work and I thought, oh my god, is the board my life’s work? And then so at the end I said, I think I had this realization. I think the board boards, my life’s work and everyone was like, you think? But to me, it just really hit me like that. It was just like, I feel compelled to build and want it.

Everything has led me to here. I’m in playing the long game and I had those conversations with myself. And then until I framed it like that, it really just the power and how I’m investing my time and where I’m putting my energy and the people that are participating has just taken on a real interesting new meaning because of my intention, making that verbal commitment to something that quite frankly, you never know how things are going to go.

And when I left by the gray and just thought about what is my next thing and thought about what I wanted it to feel like more than really what I wanted it to be, I guess, in the beginning, which was what could I have agency over? I spent my career really helping wealthy founders build businesses. And everyone said, go start a beauty brand.

And I’m like, I’m not driven around any type of product enough to take that on. And then ultimately, where can I have the ability to do it from anywhere and for as long as I want. And those things were the criteria I put into the universe while I was mind melding where what are my superpowers and what can I bring to the world, to the industry, to my community that is needed, that I see as needed, that I feel is important. And having been that connector over decades, knowing that there’s always a challenge and always a need internally at companies for the next.

And just taking all those experiences and crafting something new for the future. And I’ve been saying the future is fractional for four years. And people are like, what the F is fractional. And I literally leaned into fractional because consultancy kind of has a bad wrap. People think it’s expensive and they don’t really do anything in terms of they can give you strategy, but they don’t really execute.

And we need brands that are small teams and on hectic schedules with everyone wearing a million hats, they need execution as well as direction. And so the fractional aspect really encompasses that more so than somebody freelance or someone consulting in terms of just the vernacular. But that in purpose, it is about a fraction of their time for the fraction of the cost. And yet it’s the whole human, it’s all their knowledge, all their networks, how they really would assess the situation. And this is really where I think the future leads for companies where we’ve gotten really bloated in terms of org charts and hierarchies and managed layers of management that really prevent growth a lot of the time.

There’s so many politics that come with that. And yet if you’re too lean, you know, it is real burnout that can happen. Marrying the needs of the senior C suite that is tapped out of the way it’s been done, connecting them to companies that can really leverage benefit that from that experience that they have. And but knowing that it’s all changing, right?

None of us can go pull something out of our toolkit from eight months ago and re-employ it with the same results. And so the type of people that I think really thrive in this environment are those constantly upskilling, re-skilling, looking to the future, excited, curious, having jumped around a bit in terms of different industries. They bring so much value to the table. And that’s what I’m excited to be the bridge for.

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I love it. So let’s take me back to four years ago when you’re deciding to do this. You opened up earlier talking about how your father was in sales, feast or famine, highs and lows. Clearly you built a very stable career on a very strong reputation with some predictability, right? When you’re in the C-suite and companies want to hire you, there’s, you get to be the chooser and decide where you want to go and how you want to take your talents forward. Then all of a sudden you decide to start something, which is obviously a little bit less stable.

It’s a little bit less predictable. It takes a little bit more time because nothing’s formed. There are upstart costs and expectations.

And all of a sudden you move yourself from building great businesses for wealthy founders to now being the founder and taking a big risk and a bet on yourself. How did you internalize and then also was it a family conversation? How did you guys decide this was the right moment to do this? And how did you start to think about planning for that? Was it financial planning, emotional planning?

All right, let’s give it a go for six months. What were some of the early building blocks to getting this going and where, where was your family? And how old were you four years ago to launch this company?

Well, I’m 58. So you can do the math there, but it was one of those things too, where you start to look at, because I stayed many years at places for way too long. I was kicking myself that, oh, I should be further ahead by now. I just idled. I just coasted in certain places because it was the devil I knew and I could manage it and it was safer than being out there. And so I think the pandemic really was that shakeup that was just like life is short.

Like there, you can’t coast anymore and things are really uncertain and things can change overnight. And so that was one aspect that allowed for more risk. And ultimately I started to pick up some consulting gigs and I was like, oh, wow, I could actually maybe make more consulting than as a CEO.

I started to get monthly retainers and was working with cool brands and pulling a team in and not losing the ability to collaborate, which is what I love about the board model is being able to build dream teams for companies that are almost like you’re making a movie. Right. You don’t have the whole, everyone’s not sitting on staff waiting for the film to come in.

It’s like when you get the project, you get the best director, the best art writer, the best actresses and when you go. And so that started happening organically. I initially had a co-founder in Unigato for the first year. And so it was the two of us and there was a bunch of people.

We were just Jesus Christ. What’s next? What’s happening? Everybody was navigating fallout. Some people were their businesses closed overnight, like literally shut down if you had a physical business. And so we had a few roundtables in my backyard with a few people that were coming out of agency and just talked about like, how do we just join forces? And so it organically started to take shape, but we started to get clients pretty quickly. So we worked with Monday Hair as our first client to girls out of New Zealand.

It’s gone to be like it’s a massive company. And they were launching during Black Lives Matter. And it was very much these two beautiful girls and pink and white. And we were just like, this is not going to resonate. And so we realized, again, the value we can bring to companies that aren’t in America and where we can show up and do everything here that they don’t have boots on the ground. And it just started to open my eyes to this potential.

And we worked with Farfetch early on, too, which was just a friend of mine who at the time Holly Rogers was the Chief Brand Officer and she called me to say, what are you doing? I had posted about the board and literally every single person dude, what the fuck is the board? Do I need it? Do I want to be on it?

What is it? And it just started really organic with just people calling me the minute I posted on LinkedIn that I was doing this thing. And so it just became clear that there’s something here.

I did not know what yet and I didn’t know where it was going to go. And we moved to pay membership after the first year. And that’s when I really started to think, OK, I need to think about monetizing. I need to think about reoccurring revenue. I need to think about really building this.

I played with, can I build this on a Dow? Can I can membership be equity? Like, how can I really build a true modern collective and workshop things with members? And it was just a really amazing experience to co-create a business together with people that were starting to think about the what’s next. And I just knew I had to double down and my husband is super. He’s really just great. Your turn.

He’s like, go. And I remember one day I was in the work of tape. I was first started working my dining room table because my husband had the office here. And we I remember working 11 o’clock in on a Saturday and my daughter came by. So I’m so sorry that you’re working so hard. And I said, oh, my God, I’m having the best time.

This is the first time I’ve actually built something for myself. And that was just this all moment of I’ll go. And I tend to I’ve been working probably 80 hour weeks for four years, which I’m slowing down on that. But when the momentum is there and the passion is there and the people are coming and the calls are coming and everyone’s what’s happening, what are you doing? It just felt like this real moment.

And while I kept saying I’m not quite sure what I’m building yet, I just know there’s something really powerful here. And each conversation reinforced that. I think I’ve talked to 2,500 consultants and probably 600 brands over the last four years. I was literally doing 30 phone calls a week at one point, like 30 minute zooms and bonkers. And my husband would say, like, how can you get on the phone with the same level of enthusiasm for 10 hours a day?

And I was like, I don’t know. But each call is, oh, my God, I’m meeting someone who’s very interesting and doing something really or sharing a really heartbreaking story. And so the humanity of it, to me, is what the glue is. We’re getting in a world that’s more and more divided and we’re all on screens and we’re zooming. And it’s to me, the human piece that is slowly going to be taken away with some technology, but it just becomes that much more important for our mental health and our ability to really thrive. And so I feel that in every conversation I have, and I’m so grateful for the trust that people have put into me who have joined our community. It’s like, hey, give me some money and come along and see what we can do. And so it was like a really worth the hack. And so if you were like, I’m in, let’s go. And it’s really come from that place.

And it’s amazing when I talk to someone, one of our members who joined recently managed like $42 billion at Google. And she was always the only woman in the room and she has young kids and she’s, I am done. And it’s OK, what’s the what’s next and what she’s wanting to build into. And being able to have a community of thought partners is so powerful in these transition times and equally the generosity of someone who’s going to say, yes.

And by the way, I can make that introduction or you know what, me too. And so that’s the heart of any community, I think. And what I would recommend to everybody is join one, start one, put you surround yourself with it’s what you do too. It’s like we start to organically build these networks. And then at some point you realize, wow, there’s something really interesting and powerful here. And I feel like I’ve been an octopus, like slowly pulling people in and into this micro organism of the board.

And then what is the ripple effect of all of our tentacles put together? And where can we build collaboratively and collectively looking at white spaces, having 360 views when you’re no longer inside a company really charged with keeping the lights on. You can have a different perspective.

And we’re also our evolution is like what programs can we build that we really can bring into companies with multiple people owning different pieces. And I really feel like I’m at the starting line. Funny enough, four years of building and killing myself has allowed me to be like, OK, I’m I got into this conversation super organically. And building it in a really blue way, like from a divine feminine place of just like nurture and growth and abundance and gratitude. And if you can build that into a business and have it really be about the people and the impact. And when you when someone comes to me and says, I need help, it’s such a vulnerable place that they’re coming from, whether it’s a CEO, a founder, a member, whatever. And so my first instinct is like, how can we help?

Not what program can I sell them? Oh, like how much money do you have? It’s really OK. Where are we at? And then from there, we continue to build areas from an office hour, which is hop on a phone call with someone to kick the tires with all the way to fractional the full time placement. And so it’s funny because we’ve been working on our messaging and my team is just we have to be able to say what the board is in two sentences. I’m like, if you can do that, amazing. I have not been able to in four years.

It’s been more of how much time you got. And so that’s one of my things to work on my strategic roadmap where people will be like, amazing. I totally get it. I need it.

I want it versus what the fuck is the board? And so trying to nail that narrative. But I just think we’re building something really new. And so we may just have to make up our own words as to what it is beyond just community hybrid agency collective. There’s lots of words to kick around. But at the end of the day, it’s about impact. It’s about finding ways that all boats rise truly.

And how can we help ourselves and each other and companies and build new ways of doing business? I love that. There’s also something I think so powerful about not being a first time founder in your 20s. Right. And there’s a lot of wisdom, and things that I think allow you to build something that’s very thoughtful and that actually provides value, like real value in a world where you just mentioned too many products, too many things.

There’s so much going on. But how do you build something of real value? I think that takes patience and thoughtfulness and being able to spend time on the thing that AI can’t do, which is be human and like really be able to emotionally connect and be in relationship.

And that’s really powerful. How, you know, obviously you’re not just a founder, but you are a mom and a wife and you have this like beautiful life. And as you have now raised and have a family, what has that experience been like for you in context of obviously the life you were raised with or your childhood experiences are not the same as the way that you’ve been able to parent. And obviously there are, I’m sure, nuances or lessons or values that that you really seek to impart or invest in life is certainly different. What are some of those kinds of conversations and how have you sort of weaved through any of the values or lessons? What is it that what is it your family thinks you do? Are they all well versed in what the board is or is mom working on her startup?

Right. What’s the conversation like? My son’s probably the least versed of it. My daughter, it’s funny when we moved here, I moved her going into seventh grade and that was rough from autonomous Tribeca getting on the subway and going to Union Square for school to Laurel Canyon. And you can’t walk anywhere.

It doesn’t know anyone. It was really rough. So she did three schools in three years and then petitioned. She sat us down and did a PowerPoint why she needs to go to boarding school and get out of here. And so she she’s a mini me in a million ways where she just watches. And so at one point I remember when she she’s mad at us and she wasn’t talking to me and I would drive her to school and she wouldn’t speak one word in the car and she’d get to school and she’d open the door and she’d go and get out of the car and then come home and cry. And I started to hand her my phone and made her kind of my like, oh my God, can you read that text to me? And then I would bring her into the conversation. I’m like, and I said, I think I should react. Like, what do you think I should say? And she’s like, oh my God, I can’t believe she’s what I would say. And it just started to bring her out of the shell and she would text for me and we would really ideate through some things.

I was actually this email just came in back to it. What do you think I should do? And as when I was at Violet Gray and I think there was a little exposure there of her getting out of her own head. It was my intention of she’s so unhappy and she’s struggling to find her people for her to look at situations where it’s OK. It’s there’s so many things going on all the time. And it’s something that I watched her bring into so many ways that she works and now communicates. And so she’s she would send me a Word document, you know, her she’s a junior in college and she would she’s all the people you’re listening to on LinkedIn.

Who can you introduce me to? And I was just like, OK, hold up. But so she is like a hyper connector. She is constantly thinking of growth and knowledge and network in that way. And so she’s been a huge champion of me and what I’ve been building. And she’s the first one when a podcast comes out or whatever.

And she reposted on her her stories. And it’s just been pretty amazing to a partner in her in building. And my husband is also a member of the board even doesn’t really come to any meetings or is not active on Slack. He just literally shows up here and there. But he’s really watched me build. And he’s also been a thought partner will come to my office and talk through some things with me. And it’s it’s been great because doing this little older, quite frankly, my kids are more autonomous. I’m not doing the school run like you do when they’re really little. And it affords me the time to really build this and to build it from home where I don’t add a commute on.

And really amazing. So I get up and hike and say hello to everybody and they come in and hang out and we’ll step out and make a meal together. And I come back to my office. And so it’s weirdly feels so normal, but it’s unique when I think about I go to New York for a week and I just I miss my routine. I miss like being able to walk in my backyard while I’m on a call and pick some roses and bring them back into my kitchen. And it’s like, who doesn’t want that?

That’s awesome. But then also have like amazing conversations and invitations to cool shit. And I just try and now my biggest thing is regulating myself. And so I will go all in on everything at the risk to my own health and wellness. And so that’s been my shift this year, to be honest, is how do I really reframe my relationship to work myself when you’ve been building? And I think it’s hard for someone who the buck stops with you on every level to not work that Saturday or that Sunday or take that extra three meetings and regulate better. And I realize like leaning into my community is the best way to navigate that.

And so having really honest conversations about how people are managing the work from home life where it’s just super blurred. It’s OK. I’m not going to feel guilty if I do a math class in my office and not get to my desk till 9 30. Whereas normally I’d be like, oh, my God, I should be in my desk at nine o’clock.

That’s when the day starts. And it’s a lot of unprogrammed that you have to go through. I think when you’ve been in big company corporate cultures to now think about you’re going to get the job done on your terms. And that’s a big conversation a lot of members have because that’s why you’re doing it. You’re looking for a different balance in different levels of ownership of your time. But it’s really easy to just fill every hour building and not great for family life or mental health. So that’s something I am more focused on.

I love that. You know, we are living longer than ever these days. I feel like every time we hear about some longevity study, it’s pegging us at 102 and 110. And so it’s very well that April that you will have another 50, 60 years. And so as you think about legacy and I know the board is your life’s work, but obviously you have an entire body of work on this planet and you encompass all these things. If you were to put yourself in this ripe young age of I don’t know, 102, right? What would be the body of work legacy that you’re looking to leave?

It really just goes back to impact. It’s like, where can I make a difference? And I did that. Actually, someone was like, OK, if you won the Powerball and you got 350 million, what would you do?

And I was like, I think I’d still be running the board. It just feels like there’s something that is about impact. And I keep saying that word. It’s not really social impact in the traditional social good sense, but every conversation, every connection you make, every idea you share and the impact that you can have with your life experience. And I’m experiencing it. I’m dealing with some health stuff and I posted something on social media and I had 130 DMs with suggestions, recommendations, me too. This is what I’m doing.

Try this, try that, call this person. I can get you. I was blown away. And I just thought, OK, guys, I’m not dying because someone’s just like a brand was like, can we send you something? And I was like, no, I’m I was just wording people to the fact that my my stamina is a little low.

But I was like, holy crap. And now what I’m realizing is to the theme of longevity, we’re all navigating this world health organization approach to life now when you hit 50 and you are dealing with menopause and everything that comes with that. And it’s not it’s not something that you see the beauty trades really cover. It’s just all the stuff that starts to change and how there’s really no answers. And you have to go on a solo journey through nutrition and through wellness and through, I think, a combination of functional and non traditional medicine to figure out what is happening as we age and sharing that knowledge is so key and everybody is experiencing things. And the minute I say it, everything comes out of the woodwork of what people have been going through and it’s mind blowing. And so I’m like, OK, how do I connect the dots there?

I’m like, I’m going to take everything I was damned. I’m going to put it on Excel spreadsheet. I’m going to share it across the board and have everybody add their stuff. But you just start to realize like this, literally, it’s like, how can I aggregate this intelligence that was amazing of people that for years have been on their own journeys and have got their formulas and have figured out what works.

And then I’m like, OK, I need to get all this in one place. And I think impact is that right. It impact is sharing experiences with someone taking the lead and saying, let’s all go. Or this is really interesting. And I just don’t see myself stopping doing that. I think it’s just how I’m my DNA is wired and what I am doing a better job of not helping people if they’re not asking because that was a big lesson. It’s really easy when someone’s talking like, oh, my God, you know what you should do or you know who you should talk to.

And then I myself 20 minutes worth of work. And so I’m literally sitting on my hands in some conversations, but I’m like, don’t say it. Don’t say it. They’re not asking. They’re not asking.

Don’t say it. Which was great advice. Someone gave and really trying to be intentional as to where I show up in those ways.

And vice versa. And when I’m asking for help and it’s so powerful and doing that, I just don’t see a world where it stops. My dad’s 94. He’s doing 400 pushups three times a week. He’s the one who turned me on to creatin where he got up, he bought a bar to do pull ups and he couldn’t do three and then two weeks of creatin he did 12. And so I’m like, OK, where’s the creatin?

So it’s just like very important. Is that two final short questions, April? The first is obviously this show is about money and sometimes it can take on a more somber approach when we think about savings or where am I?

What am I building? But obviously it can also be really fun and really joyful. So my first question is, what is your most recent, most fabulous way in which you have spent your money that you’ve enjoyed? Oh, I grab my family, went to Toronto Santos at the beginning of the summer and I just knew everyone’s schedules is crazy and we just ran for four days. And normally I’m the girl who looks at the budget and blah, blah, blah. And sometimes I’ve just let’s just go and my kid’s like, is it OK if I get a pina colada? I’m like, yes, everybody get whatever they want.

You know what I mean? It was just this for the first time. I was just like, I’m not going to worry. I’m not going to care how much that dinner is and how much the car service was. And I’m just like it was the first time I personally removed the budget mindset from my brain, which can be a fucking buzzkill, too.

And so you don’t want to be that person who was just like, but I just never I just didn’t come from that level of just we’re going on the $50,000 holiday. And those moments where I realized, you know what, the memories of this is so valuable and everybody having just an amazing time. And so more and more experiences is where I’m going to be spending my money. Truly, I’ve been to Morocco and Madrid and we’ve done some amazing trips. And I realized those are the things I think about the most. It wasn’t the handbag.

It wasn’t the car. There’s nothing material that sticks with you like the memories of a trip together. And as my kids get older, realizing how hard it’s going to become to release schedule.

So grabbing long weekends that are just just because I think is what I’m most excited to to invest in. Oh, I love that. And then my final question before I let you go is our audience loves to rally around the women who are on the show. What is it you’re calling in right now? What can we support you with?

What do you need? I feel like just visibility is always great. Just the connections. We have a lot of amazing members really wanting to get in front of more kind of private equity potential partners to to realize what a resource we can be across their portfolios.

Not raising. I feel like building a membership model kind of allows me to bootstrap and have that capital I can reinvest in the business. But ultimately, where can we bring real value to the partners that really do also help their companies? When I talk to VC, it seems to be a little bit less of the way they think versus private equity. And I’m looking at how they’ve used operating partners in the past and what I know a collective of incredible operators can be in those environments.

So that’s something that’s on my list to develop more and more of those relationships. Amazing. You got it. April, thank you so much for being here today. It was an absolute pleasure to have you. Thank you so much for having me. It was a treat. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Getting Rich Together. My hope is that you leave every episode feeling more inspired, more powerful and more connected. Until next time, remember you have everything it takes to create wealth on your terms.