How April Smith Is Turning Ambition Into Action
April Smith is a serial entrepreneur, real estate investor, and full-time professional who’s building wealth and breaking barriers one bold decision at a time. Despite challenges, she has fixed and flipped a single-family home, become an angel investor in a restaurant, and purchased and house-hacked a 4-unit property — all while working a 9-to-5 job.
Now, April is channeling that same energy into ONE DAY, a planner she designed to help others turn big goals into manageable daily steps. Grounded in the belief that progress starts with a single action, her product empowers users to move forward one intentional day at a time.
Her Agenda caught up with April to talk about her journey into entrepreneurship, the mindset shifts that made all the difference, and why betting on yourself is always worth it.
Her Agenda: What inspires you the most in general?
April Smith: That’s a tough one. I feel like often times when you’re in environments that expose you to something that you’ve never seen before you can’t unsee it. And once you’re given access to it, it becomes something you aspire for and towards. Inspiration for me comes everyday.
Her Agenda: What would you say inspired ONE DAY planner more than anything?
April Smith: More than anything I really want people to understand that the ideas they have – like that “one day” goal that they say that they want – they can do it. [Especially] if they take it one day at a time [instead of it being] just a “one day” dream or desire [that] you never pursue. [That] is why I call the brand ONE DAY, because I want people to understand that if they have a specific goal in mind they can achieve it.
Her Agenda: Who is the ideal person for the planner?
April Smith: The ideal person is someone that has a nine-to-five, [who also has] a side hustle or an aspiration and you just need accountability to hold you to it. The other piece about is it’s for the busy woman. We have so many hats that we wear that oftentimes we are doing all the things for everybody else, never making time for ourselves.
Her Agenda: As an entrepreneur, what would you tell a millennial woman trying to achieve a goal that may appear to be a massive feat?
April Smith: Well, first you want to understand why you’re pursuing the goal in the first place; when you know why, it will be much more difficult for you to then give up and not do it because it’s so overwhelming. One of the ways I encourage people to [overcome feeling overwhelmed] is by breaking down their goal or aspiration, and that’s what the planner helps you do, so it’s more or less [focused on] milestones. Don’t try to do it all at once, but carve off a little bit of time each day to do one task.
Her Agenda: What drives you to balance it all as a serial entrepreneur?
April Smith: My obedience is tied to some else’s success. And if I’m able to commit to what I’m doing, there’s people waiting on me and they have goals they’re sitting on because they don’t have the actual planner or the accountability to do the things they desire.
Her Agenda: What do you hope your customers take away from your product?
April Smith: I think for one is this is a product that is something that’s adding on to your life. The planner is meant to be about you achieving the goals that you want. I put quotes from people that look like me, African American men and women are there to keep us motivated.
Her Agenda: What has been your biggest challenge yet? And what did you learn from it?
April Smith: There’s so much to do. When you think about a planner product, it was originally just for me. I just wanted to create something that was going to help me stay organized; then I started realizing all that I was able to accomplish, and I wanted to share it with the world. I had to learn how to sell a product. I had to know how to present a product. I had to know how to do a web design, I had to figure out how to do marketing, as well as understand a customer and what they want.
Her Agenda: If you could re-do one thing over again in life what would it be? And why?
April Smith: That’s a loaded question. So the things that you go through can be tough, that’s the soil. But I’ve always been someone that would just go for what I desire. I could go bigger. I could go grander. I would probably have started the entrepreneurship route before doing the corporate 9 to 5. It’s fun and you grow through the process.
Her Agenda: What is your next life goal moving forward?
April Smith: I want to impact more people and help achieve their goals. I want to see more success stories and enjoy being able to celebrate with them. I want to host events that open people up in their minds and perspective of what they can do.
Her Agenda: Do you have a favorite quote or motto that you live by?
April Smith: I don’t say it but I think it’s kind of become my thing: “Just do it and figure out the rest later.”
