Leisa: Hello, I’m Leisa Holland-Nelson and welcome to another edition of Women Mean Business, where we’re going to take you up close and personal with extraordinary women doing extraordinary things. My guest today is April C. Day, the President of the Women’s Business Enterprise Alliance; April, welcome to Women Mean Business.

April: Thank you so much for having me Leisa.

Leisa: April, you have been so successful and I know you’ve influenced other women to be successful also; if you had to give advice to a young entrepreneur in our presence today what would you tell her?

April: Well I would say three things and the first thing is to adopt charisma. And charisma’s important for an entrepreneur because it’s all about sales, it’s all about the marketing and we think that we’re not sales people, but we are. You’ve got to have a center of influence. And if you have the charisma and you can impact consumer behavior, you can create change in someone by giving them a much needed product or service, then you’ve got to convince them that it’s something that they need even before they know they need it. So charisma and influence is the first thing that I would say get comfortable with yourself in that realm.

The second piece of advice is I would say learn everything you can about emotional intelligence and the reason why that’s important, and there’s just two pieces; it’s the social awareness and then it’s the self-awareness. And there’s four components but those are the two that I would say are very important. Being socially aware is understanding what the trends are in the marketplace and how you can respond to them innovatively. And being self-aware is knowing where your strengths and talents lie and where those weaknesses are and surrounding you with those individuals that help complete that circle. I strive to never be the smartest person in the room, right? And so that’s one thing that I would say is on that emotional level of intelligence.

And then the last piece is join a trade organization. Network all the time strategically and connect yourself to those resources. When you join that trade organization don’t just sit in the back of the room; step up to the front, get on a committee and lead it next time. Read everything you can about your industry and I think those are the power tools for success.

Leisa: Thank you. There you have it, extraordinary advice from and extraordinary woman. I’m Leisa Holland-Nelson, President and Co-founder of ContentActive, Houston’s leading web and mobile design and development company. You can find me at ContentActive.com or follow me on Twitter @LHNelson. We’ll be back again next week with another edition of Women Mean Business.