The Inclusive Networker

Mail Some Joy! Re-establishing Connection and Joy in Online Business with April Brumm

• Dr. Raymona H. Lawrence • Episode 51

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Did you know that a simple card can be your golden ticket to building meaningful connections in business? In this conversation with April Brum, owner of Mail Some Joy, we uncover the power behind personalized cards and the role they've played in her business strategy focused on heart and relationship building. April shares her journey to business ownership and how her faith has guided her path.

Tune in to discover the impact of greeting cards, giving you an insight into her unique approach, April reveals how cards have been instrumental in introducing new products, celebrating team advancements, and above all, in showing up for herself. She throws light on the 10 Card Challenge and the role of cards in standing out in network marketing and affiliate marketing. Get ready for an enlightening conversation that will leave you inspired and eager to discover the power of a simple card.

In this episode, you'll learn the following...
1. The power of personal connection for network marketers.
2. How to build relationships and authentic networking.
3. What the 10-card challenge is about and how to implement it in your business.

Learn about April's 10-card challenge: 10cardchallenge.com

You can find April on…
Website https://aprilbrumm.com/
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@aprilbrumm
Contact Mapping https://app.contactmapping.com/hi/april

Want more from Dr. Raymona?
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/drraymonahlawrence/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/drraymonahlawrence/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/drraymonahlawrence/

Thank you for listening!

~Dr. Raymona

Speaker 1:

Hey, hey, hey, welcome, welcome.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to this week's episode of the Inclusive Networker podcast, where we help network marketers, small business owners and solopreneurs become aware of gaps in knowledge or awareness that could be keeping their networks and businesses small. Tune in as we give tips and simple practical tools to make your business more inclusive and we teach you how to build inclusive communities that support diverse customers, team members and business partners. So if you want to authentically build relationships with diverse communities of customers or business partners, you are in the right place. But be warned you will be challenged. But here's the thing you won't be judged. I'm your host, dr Ramona. I'm a speaker, coach, consultant, public health professor, wife, mom and a fierce challenger of broken systems that keep people from reaching their highest potential. I'm so excited to be with you on your journey to becoming an inclusive networker, so let's jump right in. Hey, hey, hey, welcome, welcome.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to this week's episode of the Inclusive Networker podcast. This is your host, dr Ramona, and who am I calling into conversation today? Well, it is my friend, april Brum. I am so, so, very excited to have April as a guest today, and let me tell you just a little bit about her. She is a pilot's wife of 22 years. She is a boy mom. I love that, april. I am a boy mom too. She's a boy mom. Her kids are 19 and 20 and she is a people collector. She's the owner of Malesome Joy, a marketing company showing business owners how to get back to the heart of business and build relationships. So, april, welcome to the Inclusive Networker podcast.

Speaker 2:

Oh, thank you so much for having me. I just, I love talking about loving all people.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I know that and that is why you are here, because I cannot tell you. Okay, I'm going to tell the audience. April has loved on me so many times. So I I met you. I don't even know. I guess I mean it was on social media, clearly, because we've never actually met in person.

Speaker 1:

And I just started getting cards in the mail and these cards were not just random cards. They had my picture on them, they had these really important events that were happening, you know that, in my life, and they would just pop up in a hard copy in my mail and I would just think who is this person that is sending me these wonderful memories that I never would have printed out myself, I never would have would have had a card. You can't run to Hallmark and get this thing. It is so personalized and just such an amazing touch, and so I love, april, that you do this online business. It's totally online, but it's also something that gives such a personal belly to belly touch point, and so I'm excited to have you. Let's just start talking about that, because I'm too excited about this and excited to share this with the audience. So tell us a little bit about how you started with these cards. What's the name of the company? Anything that you want to tell us?

Speaker 2:

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1:

I just, I love just talking about loving on people and my grandmother would have loved the fact that you could whip out your phone. She died before any of this stuff came about and she would have just really enjoyed all of this. That's going on right now.

Speaker 2:

So thank you for having me, thank you for letting me chat yes, tangible in the mail and, I think, so many times in this world. I watched a documentary the other day and they were just talking about what makes people live longer lives and the through line sort of. There was a lot of factors, but the through line was relationships and, like you just said, belly to belly.

Speaker 1:

but we don't do that right now You're in a world where everybody's either zooming or something like that.

Speaker 2:

But if you can do this to somebody and literally have this, they hold it in their hand and you can literally say here's why I think you did a good job and you know when you can do that, you're making a difference. But I have always sent cards.

Speaker 1:

My mama, I'm from the deep South.

Speaker 2:

to girl, I'm right there with you and my mama taught me always send a thank you note and never show up empty handed, and so sometimes she would even start writing the thank you note before she went to an event and then finish it up that night and mail it the next morning. And I noticed Princess Diana used to do stuff like that too, like it's just the thought and not personal touch. So I had drawers of cards. I can remember going to Goodwill one day and there was a bin of cards. I'm old lady from the South must have died or something. Somebody just donated all her card drawer.

Speaker 3:

And so I thought I'd hit the jackpot and I came home, I organized them and everything.

Speaker 2:

But then a friend of mine in 2016,. She called me up and she was like girl, there is an app that will let you send cards and they'll print it, stuff it and mail it for you. After you hit send and I was like wait, what I mean? Because I'm thinking, I'm always rummaging through these drawers of cards, you know, and the card doesn't quite say the right thing and you wish you could put a picture with it or something like that. Right, ok, I thought, if I can create what I want, you know. And now we got apps like Word Swag and Photo Funia and all this other stuff and you can just pop something really cool on there. And like, the first card I ever sent to you was you speaking at an event and you were just like control the room and I was like, oh my gosh, that's gotta be on a card.

Speaker 2:

You know, and so when I began to send these cards as a customer, my intent was never to even be where I am today, but God knew and he mapped out my path for me, and really all I did was begin to share joy with people in the mail, because we all have hundreds of thousands of unready mails. Yeah, yeah, but very few people have an unopened card.

Speaker 1:

Oh that's so. Wait, let me absorb that. That was good. Oh, that is so true.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you can tweet that. Yeah, tweet that. Thing. Or ask that it's not tweet anymore, is it?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh don't. Oh yeah, we're behind time, I don't even know, I don't even know what are we doing.

Speaker 2:

And so you get 30 or 45 seconds a day to get in front of somebody when they walk out to their mailbox.

Speaker 3:

If you can be that little shot of dopamine, if you can be that little shot of hey you go, girl, or I'm behind you or I'm tearing you on.

Speaker 2:

nobody wants another piece of junk mail with their mug on it Saying, hey, I'm a realtor hey I sell this hey. I sell that and there's your head shot. They don't throw that away, but you send them a picture of themselves. Send them a picture of their kid going to school for the first day.

Speaker 1:

Peace to people April.

Speaker 2:

Oh, this is good, they'll never throw it away. And guess what?

Speaker 3:

You don't even have to put your branding all over it, because they'll never forget the person that gave them that shot of dopamine.

Speaker 2:

So, loving on people, and so here's what happened I started just loving on people, like I always did, and one of my realtor friends messaged me and she goes how'd you do that? And I was like do what, because?

Speaker 3:

I send so many, I don't retrac like I don't wait for somebody to call me and say thank you.

Speaker 2:

And I said what are you talking about? She says you just sent me a picture of the house I sold, with a box of brownies in the box with the card. How'd you do that? I said, oh, it's an app on my phone. She goes I'm on your street, I'm coming over. I was like, well, I better put bras. And so here she comes and I taught her how to do this. Not even this is what God does for us, right? He furthers our reach for his good and his glory. That was the beginning of 1,100 customers.

Speaker 3:

What.

Speaker 2:

I never intended to do that and now I get to teach people to build their businesses, grow their audiences through love and celebration and kindness, which is way easier than marketing Way easier.

Speaker 1:

Ain't this more fun? Yeah, and I always say, April, that it's not your skill set, it's how your soul is set.

Speaker 2:

Oh yes, there's another one. Yes.

Speaker 1:

So a lot of times, people are like I need another skill, I need another training, and I have been doing some speaking training with Eric Thomas and Jeremy Anderson, and one thing that they always talk about is how is your soul set up? This is what is the secret sauce that I have, and when I say I, I'm talking about Eric Thomas speaking to us. What do I have that's different, that makes me this phenomenal speaker that's all over the world versus some other speakers? And it's not just skill. It's that piece that we're missing. It's the mental part, the emotion, the will that we have, and that piece people are not adding into their businesses.

Speaker 1:

And I love that this does this, and so we're talking about these cards. So let's hold on. Let's tell the audience exactly what the company is, Because we have been. We just got so excited about the cards and what you've been doing, and that's the thing y'all. That's. What's happening with this is that it's so exciting to get that in the mail. You know it's something that's so small, and I love systems and processes and all of that, and so we'll talk about how to add this into your system in just a minute. But what? What is your company? Are you, do you mind telling us the company?

Speaker 2:

No, it's totally fine, so I use the system that prints this for me is a company called Send Out Cards. They've been around for almost 20 years. They have sort of a overarching parent company now called Promptings because that's really what this is about. This is less about this just came the other day it says it says hey, guess what? You're pretty amazing. Just thought you'd like to know that. I appreciate you.

Speaker 3:

Like who did?

Speaker 2:

you know that you could send this to real quick.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So this is the manifestation, if you will, of acting on a prompting. This is what it looks like to act on a prompting, because we all get them. You've got a red light and you're like, hmm, I wonder why Dr Ramona just walked through my head, you know, like I hope she's okay and you can text them real quick and say hey, I just thought of you, but you can also send them a quick card. Very quickly and in a minute you can send a card, and so it's called send out cards.

Speaker 3:

The parent company's called promptings because we also have, like, va services and all this other stuff with it.

Speaker 2:

But I am. This is not my company, it's the company I align myself with and I am an affiliate. And so we all anybody listening to this knows the power of affiliate marketing.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

I love. This is a shirt that, honestly, is one of the most comfortable butter soft things you've ever had in your life, and I called this company up, messaged them and said, hey, do y'all have an affiliate program?

Speaker 3:

Cause.

Speaker 2:

I've already told like six people about this shirt.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And so they were like yeah sure.

Speaker 2:

So I applied and qualified, and that's another way to create more streams of income in your life. If you love something, chances are that company has an affiliate program.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

And so that's how this sort of came about. Thank God that it has rolled, you know, on its own. My oldest son is getting his pilot's degree and that is not a cheap endeavor, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so this has afforded us being able to do extra things like that sharing a good service with other people and to answer a lot of people's questions. Right now they're going well. If this is an affiliate kind of thing, they must be expensive cards. So this card is $2.75 a piece currently, as of this recording, if you only send it by itself, but if you send it with some sort of plan or subscription it could be as low as a dollar.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

So cards? These days you can go to Kroger or wherever you are in the country and spend $5 on a card that doesn't even look good.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and more time and more energy and all of that, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean just a simple thank you card sometimes is $5 or $6. And then you know what? They get all tacky on the back and instead of having a cute little logo. That's your business logo down here. On the other side it says this person paid $8.99 for this card. Didn't your mama always teach you to peel the sticker off?

Speaker 3:

so nobody knows how much you paid for something.

Speaker 2:

That's true. They put it on every card.

Speaker 1:

That's right, rude, rude. So, april, let's talk about how you help people fit this into their system. So you know we're thinking about I always talk about my Roar framework, where we talk about recruitment and onboarding and then the activity that you do and then how you retain people and we wanna do that authentically and we wanna build community and networks and all of that. And so when you're helping people to fit the send out card into their system, where does it typically go? How do you put it into the system? How do you help people like the realtor or the person that's doing affiliate marketing we have mostly network marketers here how do you help us fit this into our system?

Speaker 2:

So I will say gladly and proudly that most, if not all, of the top income earners in most network marketing companies are using this.

Speaker 1:

Okay, oh, I'm telling this. A great example, a great example.

Speaker 2:

And I have permission to share. This girl's name is Jennifer Glackin. She is one of the top earners at Shackley.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

And she's been using this to introduce new products. She uses it for birthdays, she uses it for team recognition, that kind of thing. When you have somebody who has trusted you enough to be on your team and they get that first rank, it is a big deal.

Speaker 1:

And when you can show up in their mailbox and their rank advancement is all over the card.

Speaker 2:

They're not throwing that away.

Speaker 3:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

And so to fit it into your day, you can schedule these out. Like this afternoon I'm gonna be scheduling out all my October birthdays.

Speaker 1:

Okay, it's gonna take about that. We're not sitting every day doing that. It's gonna take maybe 45 minutes to an hour because I'm intentional about them a lot of times but I'm going to be able to schedule them out.

Speaker 3:

And then the month of.

Speaker 2:

October. I'm gonna look like I know what I'm doing, because all those birthdays are gonna show up in the mail and they're gonna be like man. Thank you so much for my card, but then the daily which I have a demo.

Speaker 1:

I got this from any of your networking friends who I would know who Simon Chan is.

Speaker 2:

He's one of those that preaches consistency.

Speaker 1:

So I have a little success demo, and this is one of our cards.

Speaker 2:

I mailed this to myself and because it's shiny on the front, it becomes a dry race. And so I'm showing up for myself here, I'm reading the word, I'm praying, I'm working out, and then I send five cards every day. It takes maybe 10 minutes.

Speaker 2:

I'm checking things off my list, I'm looking at birthdays, I'm showing up on social media and I'm connecting with five new people, and so when you do that you are going to notice this ripple effect when you send three to five greeting cards every day celebrating someone, you're gonna get to the end of a month and you've contacted hundreds of people and that little ripple because, right, we don't get fat overnight, we don't get. We don't get fat overnight Except during COVID. Yeah, no joke, yeah. And we all thought during that. We thought to ourselves if I could just stay home for two weeks, I would have my house organized.

Speaker 3:

That's the problem clearly.

Speaker 2:

But so I think, if anybody can fit this in, because it literally is a few minutes. But here's the caution, and you know this as well as anybody because you're a great trainer If you get ready to get ready, you're going to be getting ready to get ready for years. At some point you just got to say okay, here's what I'm going to love on today, make the card and send it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because the card that you send is the right card. I see people all the time get stuck in the creation of it and it's got to be some masterpiece. Every time Don't you say thank you? You write a little note and you're done. I love it and this is from my plumbing company that came by recently and then I sent her a referral. So she sent me a sticky note for the referral yes.

Speaker 3:

Google reviews what about five-star?

Speaker 2:

Google reviews. Those are worth their weight in gold.

Speaker 3:

Yes, send that person a thank you note. Yes.

Speaker 1:

Love this and so this leads into because I think we've got the cards and now we're excited. So this goes into the 10 card challenge. So I know that you have this going on, so tell us about it, tell us how we get involved in the 10 card challenge.

Speaker 2:

So it's a great, simple way to try this out.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

So 10cardchallengecom takes you to the landing page to purchase 10 cards. You have 20 days to send them and it will cost you 20 bucks, postage paid worldwide.

Speaker 1:

Oh.

Speaker 2:

I like. So you're talking about two bucks a card and you're going to be able. Does your church support missionaries that are in other countries? Send them a card to? I have missionary friends in Romania and Mexico and Ireland and every coast west Africa. You could send an international postage stamp. Y'all is a dollar 50. Yeah, not on the 10 card challenge and love on these people.

Speaker 3:

And so.

Speaker 1:

I have a lot of people that say to me well, that's not

Speaker 2:

really going to build my business Really? What about the laws of sewing and reaping? How's that work?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, gratitude. All of them so good seeds out there.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Your life changed. What if you sent 10 cards of gratitude every 20 days, just without abandon?

Speaker 1:

So we can do the challenge over and, over and over again yes, girl, you can do it as much as you want to. Oh, that is amazing.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and then, once they get into the 10 card challenge and say, oh gosh, this is something I need to implement, then you can do things like purchase cards in bulk and things like that. Like I have a real estate customer out in Arizona and she markets to these neighborhoods that start the lowest house is $5 billion, so she wants to be the realtor for that neighborhood, so she markets with these cards. She buys about a thousand cards every two or three months, puts them in her bank of cards and just she just sends out. You know, hey, here's what to do in your yard this month. Here's the top 10 things you need to do next. And so she shows up with value, not marketing.

Speaker 2:

Again, there's a theme here Love and be of value.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And show them that you care about their neighborhood, their community, what they're doing, what they got going on Like here's the top 10 things to do at the fall festival that's coming up in your town. You could send that card to that neighborhood and on the back there's your little blurb that says this is what I do.

Speaker 3:

Awesome.

Speaker 1:

I love it. I love this because it really helps you to stand out. Yes, and so you know it's helping you stand out, because we in network marketing, affiliate marketing, a whole lot of people are doing the same thing. Oh my gosh, when we're doing this, it really is like whoa who it makes you. And when we oh, listen, when we say stop the scroll, this is what stops the scroll.

Speaker 1:

But you know, at a person's house and so we're thinking about oh, how do we just do these dances and all these kinds of things and stop the scroll on social media? But how we stop it is by doing this what we call in marketing, a pattern interrupt, total pattern. Interrupt right when we're sending a card to somebody's mail and they see us online.

Speaker 2:

Because, statistically, only 12% of your followers are seeing your stuff. Yes, Even if you buy ads, and so what makes you different? What makes you different than everybody saying, hey, if you take this, unicorn tears for the next 30? Days I've only got five spots left Right. They're all doing this and you can tell when corporate of a company has got out to do social media posts because all of a sudden, you see them yeah.

Speaker 2:

There it is. Look at your when I have a new network marketing professional that comes to me and says how do I implement this? Look at your Facebook friends. Facebook will let you know when their birthday is. They share their worst day and their best day on social media. Send them a sympathy card when their dog dies.

Speaker 3:

Tell them.

Speaker 2:

You're praying for them when they selfie from the hospital. You know because when you become authentic and caring and loving when they need, your text 있고 baeng.

Speaker 1:

They're gonna come. That's right, that is so true. That is so true Because it's about relationships.

Speaker 2:

That's what makes us live?

Speaker 3:

longer.

Speaker 1:

That's what gives our lives?

Speaker 2:

value is our relationships. Right, I can get this any day, all day long, from different people, but I order it from one certain person because she has formed a relationship with me.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Can I get it cheaper somewhere else? Probably.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

But I don't, because I value that relationship and I think that's what we're forgetting. People don't need your thing, your product, your whatever. They need connection.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's so good.

Speaker 1:

Oh, this is such a good conversation, april. So let's talk about the company that you have, malesom Joy. So tell me all the things that you do and how do we really plug in with you? Because I know people are gonna want to try these cars, they're gonna want to try to challenge, they're gonna want to do so many things. So tell us about Malesom.

Speaker 2:

Joy. So it was never my intention to have a company, but I am. I'm a pilot wife as you said in the beginning, and we were noticing that there are lots of advantages to having a true LLC home-based business. And that are legit you know that is no joke, and so I was talking with my tax professional and I am not qualified to give tax advice.

Speaker 2:

I'll just say that right now, but I was talking with my tax professional and she and I were discussing other ways to also add to income streams and she said what do people ask you about? And that's what I would tell your audience today. What do people ask you about the most? You can quickly and easily create a workbook, a journal, a PDF, something have that be a downloadable lead magnet and then create your email list and then begin to create your audience. And when you create your audience now, you can create the products that they need and sell them that. So that's what Malesom Joy LLC does now.

Speaker 3:

I help individuals create their audience help them realize what they're good at. Because if somebody walks up to somebody says, what are you good?

Speaker 2:

at. Our natural bent is to be like oh, you know hardly anything, or you know, when you take a group photo, what do we do first?

Speaker 3:

We look at ourselves, see if it's postable or not.

Speaker 2:

Or somebody says, oh, I'm not good on video because I don't like the way I look, Guess what? I'm going to give everybody a secret. Nobody cares, Nobody cares. You are the only one who is tearing yourself apart and picking apart little things here and there. Everybody else just sees the spirit that you're giving and so go for it. That's what Malesom Joy LLC is doing now. I am working with mostly women, but individuals that kind of don't know what their impact needs to be. But I ask them, I ask God for wisdom and discernment. He's going to show you what you're good at. The last class I just taught and I virtual online class it's called social media scheduling for beginners.

Speaker 2:

I'm not a guru of social media scheduling, but I learned how to do it. And I know more than 60% of the population. So I taught it and I charged 999 a class and 42 people took the first class. What yeah. Like if somebody told me six months ago I'd be teaching a class on that, I'd be like why don't I do that? Learn something, turn around and teach it, and then teach those people to turn around and teach it. And now you've got a rolling business and you're helping other people make money.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 1:

Well, april, this has been so amazing. I just love the fact that you just have such personal connection. We love that. On the inclusive networker, because, you know, the networking is the piece that we're always trying to figure out how do we make sure not only that the environment is inclusive, but that we can network with people, and how do you do that authentically? And I think that this is a wonderful addition to all of our systems and the things that we want to do that really do authentically connect with people, and so thank you so much for being here, thank you for having me. Yes, yes, where can we connect with you? Let's make sure that we have your information. Where do we need to go to?

Speaker 2:

Yes, so I am April Brum on all social media platforms. It's super easy to find me AprilBrumcom April Brum on.

Speaker 1:

Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn.

Speaker 2:

I am not on TikTok I was, but it was such a time suck. It was something that wasn't productive for me, so I had to just make the decision like. I didn't do that one, but everywhere else I'm easy to find and it's just. It's such a blessing that the Lord is allowing me to reach other people. He's been telling me every day share the gospel, share the gospel, share the gospel, because at the end of the day, all of this makes no difference whatsoever if we don't know Jesus.

Speaker 2:

And so I quickly make sure that folks know we are about spreading the word, helping people have a better day and loving them where they are no matter what. Because we come from all walks of life we come from abusive backgrounds. We come from people being oppressed, people being kicked on and sometimes all they need is somebody to say, hey, I see you and I appreciate you, and they stop the scroll, tell somebody that they matter, and they'll be like, oh, hadn't heard that today yet.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's so powerful it is, that is so good.

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you, april, and thank you all so much for listening to this episode of the Inclusive Networker podcast. Thank you again to my fabulous, fabulous guest, april Brum. You will find her information in the show notes and we will see you on the next episode of the Inclusive Networker podcast. Bye, and that wraps up another episode of the Inclusive Networker podcast. I want to express my sincere gratitude to you, our listeners, for joining us on this journey of learning and growth. Your support and engagement are truly, truly appreciated. Creating a more inclusive network and beyond starts with us, individually and collectively. Let's continue these conversations beyond the Inclusive Networker podcast. Engage with others, challenge your own assumptions, take action to make a difference in your own spheres of influence and share, share, share this podcast with a friend. So here's what you can do next Go to drremonahlawnescom and keep up with me. Stay in touch. That's D-R-R-A-Y-M-O-N-A-H-L-A-W-R-E-N-C-Ecom. Don't forget my why in Dr Ramona, and don't you dare forget your why, and I'll see you on the next episode of the Inclusive Networker.