We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful April Davis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with April below.
April, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
Sheer grit, resiliency, and resourcefulness. It’s necessary to never accept “No, it can’t be done” as an answer.
April, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I realized I needed to take my skill of intuition and understanding people to the next level. Coming from a small town with very hard-working parents, the work ethic rubbed off on my siblings and me. Having received my Master’s degree by the age of 20 and working my way up a Fortune 500 company, I also pursued modeling and Professional snowmobile racing on the side. But there was one thing I felt I knew more than anything – it was how to help people find love. And not just the butterflies and hearts type of love – the real, long-lasting, take home to Momma, marriage material type of love.
After all, I am married to a Divorce Attorney, which gave me a unique insight into knowing what’s going to last.
I was a Matchmaker for years within my own circle of friends and acquaintances. Whenever I’d meet someone who was single, I would naturally start thinking of who I might know that would be a good fit for that person.
Also, I often wondered why so many of my girlfriends were single – they were all high-caliber women who were beautiful on the inside and out. Many were just unable able to meet a man they truly connected with, but that didn’t mean there were no good men out there! The challenges involved in singles meeting quality matches became increasingly apparent, and it was then I realized I needed to turn my matchmaking hobby into a full-time career.
Now LUMA is one of the top Matchmaking Services in the country and also an INC 5000 Fastest growing company.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
April initially did some competitive analysis and determined there was definitely a niche and need for something better than the current so-called matchmaking options out there. She wanted to focus on helping busy professionals who didn’t want to meet someone at a bar and didn’t have the time or energy to dedicate to online dating. They also don’t want to go on a bunch of dates but on quality dates. When April went to meet with a competitor and to learn more about the company model, she was told they had over 10 guys who would be a match for her. Well, April is a pretty selective lady and knew there was no way they had 10 men who she would be interested in. So their negative reputation found ubiquitously across the web was confirmed for her at that moment.
There were several big corporate players in the game who seemed to be ruining the industry by promising people a bunch of dates but sacrificing quality. Also, anyone could attest to the fact that many of the single people out there need more than just to be set up on a date. They need coaching and advice to help guide them in how to attract, connect, and keep a match. Finally, the 3rd differentiating factor came in what people actually did on the date. The idea of going to lunch or dinner seemed so outdated and formal. Luma was going to set the stage so people could have a fun experience with each other without feeling like they were on an interview. Couples would go on activity-based dates where they actually did something instead of sit across the table from one another awaiting that awkward silence moment. They could go bowling, paddle boarding, dancing, or maybe go for a walk. The goal is to get them next to each other versus facing each other, which is much more comfortable.
Having a background in business, the next thing April did was put together a Business, Finance, and Marketing plan. She had a ton of ideas and just needed to write them down. After that, it was just pulling all the pieces together and getting the infrastructure and marketing in place. Working full time and doing this work simultaneously proved to be challenging and it wasn’t until about 2 years later after April’s extremely well-regarded and respected boss was let go from the company he served for over 30 years and at the age of 52. It was on this day the fuel was put on the fire and she knew she had to be done with corporate America and be the Entrepreneur she always wanted to be. Within 2 months, the website was finally finished as well as marketing materials were created and business started coming in.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
After starting the business I realized I would have to hire people in order to be successful. I was working full time at my corporate job and was working early mornings, lunch, breaks, and evenings to get the Matchmaking service off the ground. I knew I needed help in order to scale so I hired people to do various roles in Sales, Matchmaking, and Marketing. Since I was trying to do 2 jobs simultaneously I didn’t realize the gaps that were present in the Matchmaking service. It wasn’t until I could give the business my full attention after I left the corporate job, that I realized the people I had hired were less than stellar and lacked a good work ethic. I ended up having to fire them all and start all over. I learned their roles by doing them all myself so I could teach, measure, and monitor the next people I hired. It was definitely a challenging process but ended up being what I needed to do to ultimately grow the company.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lumasearch.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aprildavismatchmaker/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LUMAsearch
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilmdavis/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LUMA_search
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LUMALuxuryMatchmaking
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/luma-luxury-matchmaking-saint-louis-park
Image Credits
LUMA Luxury Matchmaking