IAM079 – Founder Leverages Her Skill of Intuition & Understanding to Help People Find Love

It all began when April Davis, Founder of LUMA – Luxury Matchmaking, realized she needed to take her skill of intuition and understanding people to the next level. If there was one thing she knew more than anything – it was how to help people find love. April founded LUMA – Luxury Matchmaking in 2010 and takes her background as a Certified Life Coach to help singles in over 22 states find the one they can spend the rest of their lives with.

• CEO Hack: Searching on Google, YouTube & Listening on Audible and AirPods
• CEO Nugget: Understand your numbers & EOS
• CEO Defined: Responsibility

Website: http://www.lumasearch.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LUMAsearch/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luma_matchmaking/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilmdavis/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LUMA_search

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have April Davis of LUMA – Luxury Matchmaking. April it's awesome to have you on the show.

April Davis 0:37

Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:38

No problem. I appreciate you for being here. What I want to do is just read a little bit more about April so you can learn about all the awesome things that she's doing. It all began when April Davis, Founder of LUMA – Luxury Matchmaking, realized she needed to take her skill of intuition and understanding people to the next level. If there was one thing she knew more than anything, it was how to help people find love. April founded LUMA – Luxury Matchmaking in 2010 and takes her background as a Certified Life Coach to help singles in over 22 states find the one they can spend the rest of their lives with. April, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

April Davis 1:12

I am. Thanks.

Gresham Harkless 1:13

No problem, no problem. And the first question I have is just if we can learn a little bit more about you your background, and what led you to start your business. What's your CEO story?

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April Davis 1:21

Well, I have been a matchmaker for almost forever. The first couple I ever set up was when I was 16 years old, I was working in a little cafe and I helped, put two people together, there was a patron that would come in all the time. And one of the ladies I worked with, I knew that he was interested in her and vice versa. So I kind of helped nudge them together. And then yeah, well, several years later, I ended up getting my MBA in Business and working in process improvement. And I had a lot of single friends that would tell me stories about how difficult it was to meet people. And so I started looking around and looking into the different evidence that people had for the meeting. No, of course, there's online dating, which has its own set of issues, and everything there are other types of services.

So I met with all the services and I kind of tried to grab the different pieces that I liked from all of them, and created the model that we have today. And so we work essentially as an extension of our clients to help them to find that person who they're looking for. And you know, the number one way to meet someone is still through someone else. And so I've made it into our business. And our clients are typically busy professionals and executives that don't have a lot of time to do with online dating, or they don't want to meet someone at a bar.

And some of them are young and just looking for their first-time marriage and to have kids and everything. And then others are divorced after you know, a lot of times, people are divorced after 20 or 30 years of marriage. And they're looking for that next step and next phase in their life. And they want to find that person to spend it with. And so use our services to find that kind of personality. And we're also certified Life Coaches as well.

So we use our coaching background to help our clients to put their best foot forward because it's not just about going out on a bunch of dates, putting your best foot forward in order to attract the kind of person that you want, ultimately.

Gresham Harkless 3:12

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And especially with that Life Coach extension and having that background, I'm sure you're able to course ask the right questions, but also to make sure that you're making the perfect match for those people that are looking for their special someone. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear a little bit more about how you guys are helping serve the clients that you work with. Can you take us through like exactly how that goes?

April Davis 3:31

Yeah, so we'll meet with our clients and we interview them and we go through what are their hobbies or interests, but most importantly, their values. And we want to understand what's important to them because that's ultimately something that is never going to change, you know, people can see around, we're cool change in our hair color, or different you change your eye color. I'm not women can change their height, depending on issues. There are some things that are, you know, ultimately, our values are most important.

So really, your religion is very important to you, you want anyone to be with somebody else that is of the same religion, not probably not someone that's an atheist, that could be an issue, especially if you're looking at having kids together at some point. And so just things like that we'll try to align on and we meet with everyone, we see what they look like in person, you know, it's not, it's not just you know, whatever pictures, someone submits, that can be really old or not even their things so we're kind of like an executive recruiter, but for people's love the lives. And then we so we'll select and interview on average, about 40 to 50 people per client.

So it's kind of like we're going out on first dates for our clients. And then we select who we're going to line up with. We plan the dates and everything for school. All they have to do is show up and have fun, and the dates are curated for the couple. So if there's some, you know, a couple that is really into the outdoors and hiking, they could go on a hike or paddleboarding. Doing something fun, inactive on like the form, if they just want something more casual, we've had clients just go for an ice cream cone and go for a walk. I've also had clients that have flown to New York City and gotten to the metal for us. So just really is around the type of people that we're matching.

Gresham Harkless 5:18

Nice, and that's pretty awesome. And as you mentioned, I know that you have those busy professionals that you touched on. And they have so many things that they're doing that they don't necessarily have the time to kind of do all those things that you guys can kind of take off their plate so they can continue doing the awesome things that they're doing with their job and their work and everything like that. So I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this is kind of like your differentiator, or what you feel kind of makes you unique or your organization unique.

April Davis 5:42

Well, there are a couple of things. I mean, we are a boutique agency. So it's very special and personalized, you know, you're not just a number with us, each matchmaker is limited to only taking on about 15 to 20 clients at a time. So you're not a number, all of our other clients have their matchmaker cell phone number, you know, it's just highly personalized and that way. And then another thing is we have very well-known backgrounds and process improvement.

So I'm all about automation and using technology when applicable and when it's helpful. And in some ways it is best in that we have a huge database, we have over 25,000 members in our network. Rolodex that we have to choose from, when we're looking for the right person for clients, you know, gives our clients the ability to be in the driver's seat, you know, they're the ones that are selecting who they would like to meet. Whereas with online dating, you just are swiping and hopefully the person that you want to meet will swipe back to you. When you're working with us. You know when somebody when calls someone, we say hey, we have a client that we think you should meet because people are excited to hear that. And they want to go out with our clients.

So it just kind of gives people their opportunities in that way, you know. And then the other third big differentiator with us is that we're all like coaches, and so we're not just throwing people on a bunch of dates, and we help our clients. So I've taken client shopping, help them pick out, you know, what eyeglasses to buy or close or, and then oftentimes, oh, it's just a lot of different things. We're not therapists, but we can help them with a lot of different areas.

So I've had clients or you know, not even just holding them in, you know, it could be just helping the date move along. I got, I just got a date that I had really good feedback about, about both people and they liked each other. She was worried that he made some kind of common she took it as he was not looking for marriage. And that's what she's looking for. And it's just the opposite.

Actually, you know, he has been he hired us. And he's I'm looking for marriage. And I kind of hit and help nudge them back together and explain to her like, no, actually, that was not what he meant that he this is what he meant. And then you know, not that way. And now they're going on a second date. Or if she wasn't, she wasn't sure that she wanted to go with him again after that. So it's kind of been that intermediary. And whether it's been a coach or just something, nudge them to the finish line.

Gresham Harkless 8:08

Yeah, and that makes perfect sense. And those are all you know, great differentiators are formed the secret sauce. And I liked that aspect that you talked about in the very beginning, how it's kind of like you're getting introduced by some of your best friends are somebody that knows you, you guys kind of have that extension, having that boutique feel also sounds like it provides that opportunity for somebody, not just a random person to try to connect you with somebody else. But somebody that knows you want to see the best for you.

April Davis 8:31

Yeah, when your friends are hooking you up with someone, they have great intentions, but oftentimes, they'll set you up with someone they think is great, maybe great for them, not necessarily poor. And the other thing is they just a lot of times are like okay, who do I know I'm single? And they just,

Gresham Harkless 8:47

Yeah,

April Davis 8:48

The only other single leaves throw people together. It's unnecessary.

Gresham Harkless 8:52

Right, right, that makes perfect sense. So it's great that you guys have the experience to be able to do that. So now I want to just switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And CEO hack could be an app or a book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

April Davis 9:07

I think the biggest thing that the biggest realization that I've had in a seat was it's just the information that is out there if you want it, people ask me all the time, oh, how did you do this? How did you do that? Google, YouTube, and whatever it is, you know, and one concern One major concern I had when I left corporate America and went company on my own was I was worried about what was going on in the world. I'm gonna be on this island, not gonna know what people are talking about. And with the help of the app of Audible, I've been able to, I know way more like push myself way more. And I've learned so much more because I have a library on my phone with over and over 100 books in there. And I've invested in it and I make my team listen to those books as well.

So they are they're growing and learning more as well. And even my clients have found different books that they can listen to and recommend to help them. So I hear people say that all the time listening to podcasts or, books, you know, they learn a lot from that. But I think that's to me, that's been the biggest change, I wouldn't be where I am today if we didn't have books, weather, and then now I use Audible, like, I used to go to the library. And now you can just go to Audible. I'm a huge fan.

Gresham Harkless 10:33

I think you're right, where there's so much information and, and kind of resource you can get at your fingertips, it's just a matter of you taking the effort to do that. So I think two great CEO hacks. And now I want to ask you for what I call the CEO nugget. And this is like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice and or something you might tell your younger business self. So do you have a CEO nugget that you provide to us?

April Davis 10:56

I understand why so many businesses fail, I forget what this stat is known as this is because people don't understand their numbers. And if you're not a numbers person, you can't just say oh, I'm just not a numbers person, or you rely too heavily on your accountant to figure that out for you, you have to figure it out. You have to learn about it. If you don't, if you don't know, then go and learn that being in this role, I become a jack of all trades. And I have had to learn a lot of different things. My background, I have a number of backgrounds.

So I was fortunate in being able to dig into the data and figure out things I think reading EOS is it's an operating system for businesses, and there are a lot of books around it. So I would Google read books around EOS and learn as much as I can apply, and then apply it to your company.

So you have metrics. So everybody has a number everyone on your team, everything has a number and it should be measured. And then you should have recording enrollment and scorecards and different things and how your financials. Because if you don't, if you don't know where you're going, you don't understand your numbers, and we get there.

So I think this bit of advice just blows me away how some of these people that are trying to run businesses, just don't they found their metrics. And I understand why so many businesses fail, because if you don't, then you're lost.

Gresham Harkless 12:23

Yeah, it's huge. And I mean, not knowing your numbers allows you the opportunity. Well, when you know your numbers, you're given the opportunity to be able to forecast certain things to figure out what decisions you're going to make or don't make. But a lot of times when you don't have that data or information or you're not paying attention to it, which is even, you know not, which was even worse, you can hit a lot of roadblocks and pitfalls. So now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. So we're having a lot of different CEOs on this show. So I wanted to ask you, what being a CEO means to you.

April Davis 12:53

I think the biggest thing that comes to mind for me is responsibility. Because I'm so because I've taken on this company, and I take all these clients and employees and stuff, I have to be responsible. There are a lot of people that are counting on me to keep the balls rolling, keep things going and keep feeling like I have a lot of plates that I'm spinning, and I have to keep them home going along. Because literally families that are depending on you, there are kids, depending on me because my kids have kids and so these clients of ours, I think that's a big thing as being and responsible for so much. So that's what I'm thinking about. The pegasus first thing that comes around, to my mind is just having a lot of responsibilities.

Gresham Harkless 13:42

I love that. Yeah, and especially if you have people that are dependent on you to make sure that you're doing a lot of the things, make sure the ball is rolling, then that is a great definition for what it means to be a CEO. So April, I appreciate you so much for taking some time out of your schedule. What I wanted to do was kind of pasture that mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know, and how best people can get a hold of you.

April Davis 14:03

Yeah, in order for people to get a hold of us if they are looking to just join our database and be considered as a match to one of our clients or you want to be proactive and have us find your special person, you can just go to our website at lumasearch.com. And that stands for Luxury Matchmaking. And you can just go to that website and fill out the form or you can give us a call and talk to one of the matchmakers and see if we can help you see what we can do for you.

Gresham Harkless 14:35

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, I truly appreciate you April for all the work that you're doing and helping your employees but also all these people find love that's near and dear, obviously to everybody's heart. So I appreciate you for the time that you took and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

April Davis 14:48

First. Thank you. Thank you for your time. I appreciate the opportunity. You take care.

Outro 14:53

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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