Welcome to another episode of our serious SLG meetups by Superloxery Group, where we connect with some of the most interesting players in the Luxury Market. My name is Alvaro, and today we're going to be having a very special guest. Her name is April Irrenet Donaldson, and she's a Senior Lights President and how to media group. In this conversation, our guest is going to be talking about her journey in the company and how it has become one of the leading Luxury media networks in the country.
April also will be talking about the importance of building the right circle around you and how to use technology to leverage your relationships and maximize branding structure. Definitely a great insight for those looking to learn more about how to build your business and your power base. Enjoy. April, how are you?
I'm good, how are you? Very nice to see you. Great to see you. Thanks so much for having me right now.
I'm in Miami at LiveInHote Media Group corporate offices. Nice, so you're bringing the fire today to this SLG meetup. Bringing the fire. Tell me, I was just giving you a little introduction, Senior Lights President and how media group is one of the largest Luxury media networks.
You're based in Miami. Definitely a great spot to be connecting such amazing individuals in the Luxury space. Tell us a little bit about your story. How is it that you end up building such an incredible brand?
Well, first of all, it's certainly not me that's about this incredible brand. I'm thrilled to be a part of it. Our company actually started 16 years ago. Sesamal, I'm a live Kamahaj and Donnie.
I think a lot of people follow them and know them and with all of the different things that we do as a company. But I actually started with a company a half years ago and very innovative. I feel like we're always ahead of the curve. That's right.
We're doing it. That's what we need to call. Go ahead. Oh, it's actually the DNA of our company, interestingly enough, is real estate.
We started in the real estate space 16 years ago and really grew from that brand forward into luxury brands. We have all of these great different collections now for plastic searching through Hote Beauty medical doctors through Hote M. D lawyers through Hote lawyer. Hote residents, of course, with some tremendous real estate and real estate brokerage partners.
You talk about all of our different brands interconnected into the Hote Living Lancer lifestyle brand from Hote Time. A lot to like to bring in hot living by hot living off things luxury for kids. Hote, it's Hote everything over here. Hote everything.
I love it. This is great because at the end of the day, what you guys are doing is incredible. Connecting such individuals into the same platform, the same network. Ourself, Super Luxury Group, it's part of the Hote residence network and for us it's been an incredible experience.
It's incredible because you get to connect with all the other brokers from different destinations as well. It keeps us really healthy and interesting, you know, family. Absolutely. The Hote Living brand followers are really a pretty passionate individual.
We certainly have a passionate following base for sure. When you're able to take a brokerage or an individual like you and Daniel, of course, and then represent them across all of our platforms and everything that we do as a company and connecting you into that end user base, the results are there. Something we do over and over and over as a brand and as a media group. We have a passionate team over here as well and we all love what we do.
No, definitely. We love what you guys are doing. You're giving us the opportunity to become part of that family. I think that everybody that is on board feels that passion, that energy, that fire, that it lights everyone to want to go forward.
This is what it's all about, connecting that same DNA and working towards your goals together. Absolutely. April, tell me a little bit because you've been doing it all. You were mentioning about this difference, your brand, how you're at all these different areas.
You definitely have touched what Luxury is all about. I always like to ask this question. What is Luxury to you? Luxury, to me, it's time.
It's time with our loved ones, time with our family. That's a good response. Especially nowadays when we get into this groove of wanting to do so many things that look, it's Friday right now. I was helping my knees right in the bike last Saturday.
I was at a really beautiful moment. I'm really looking forward to it. The whole week passed by so quickly. I guess that Luxury is what you called is time.
Very good thing. It's time. They're carrying through the day, time with your team. We love our team here.
That's important to build this front team that you love. April, tell me something because you were telling me about the importance of growing your brand through the digital space. You're really big on social media. What are some of the current platforms that you're utilizing to keep building such a big brand and network?
We're really strong in the digital space. At hoteliving.com, we interconnect all of those different collective's you and I spoke on at the beginning. Also, all of our different luxury brands, everything interconnects back into that core site. It's a very powerful site with every piece of content coming through that site.
We're feeding to Google News. That's a tremendous SEO driver as you know. You guys are great partners of ours. What we're really able to do in a digital space is pretty powerful and pretty special.
Not all in itself. Over and over and over, which we do all day for clients such as yourself. Over with our social media, really being strategic and building out all across all different platforms from Instagram. We've got our Twitter app and running Facebook, of course.
Our YouTube channel, I hope everyone follows up TV over on YouTube. We have got just about 10,000 followers there. That really gives you a behind the scenes on so much that we do as a company. A lot of those webinars we've been running and continuing to go from there.
Something that we've gone into and are developing out is actually our social media management to actually go in and work together with brands and individuals. That's the whole division that we're launching and growing. So important these days. What are some of the markets that you are focusing on?
Because you were focusing from Miami to the world. What are some of the areas that you're emphasizing? Well, I think the biggest takeaway that everyone should have. We're certainly not a Miami soul company.
The West Post is very strong for us. Los Angeles, New York, Miami, of course. The feeder markets across the country, Las Vegas, Boston, Chicago. Tampa is going to be a great market as well at Atlanta.
We're certainly just not a Miami company by any means. I think the brand has become so popular. And as you said, the following of the network itself is so incredible that also individuals from outside the US, they want to be part of it. I've seen some of the workers from France and we started to connect with an individual from France.
She's now part of the Howard residence network as well. She's nice and it's incredible to see that it's becoming such international network. Tremendous global following base, you know, divide, lend and great partners over there. Costa Rica, great partners over there and throughout Europe and.
So how has it affect you or I guess negatively or positively this whole 2020 with what's been going on? How have you have that? Absolutely positively. I would say as a company, I feel like we're stronger than ever in terms of collaboration.
Our team, you know, we're all interconnected to each other throughout the day through multiple forms of communication twice daily company calls. You know, we're all interconnected. We really build a lot of great back-end systems through all of this and we've expanded it expanded as a brand. I was.
It's adapting to the new marketplace and you know, I feel one of the great things that we do as a company and one of the great things about living is we're really ahead of the curve. And you're feeling the market and adapting to it and going in and being impactful for our partners. That's really what it is. And you said it right because especially this year we've seen a lot of growth when it comes to the digital space.
A lot of people that were not really connecting through the Internet, they started definitely to get into it. And you guys already had that platform, that system in place for people to connect, you know, in the right place. And this is what it's all about, about keeping those relationships and building new ones. And right now joining such, you know, huge network like how living gives you that leverage to easily increase your relationship base.
So I think it's amazing and definitely those that are not aware of how living should tune in. And I love your Zoom panels. I mean, from the very beginning that you started doing it. I've been a big fan watching every single one from, you know, all these different industries.
And very interesting, you know, to see what all the experts have to say and especially in that empowering way. You know, everybody brings that positive attitude. So I want to congratulate you for also putting those things together because it's great. Thank you so much.
And, you know, everything that we do at Take the Team, there are so many people that are involved in, again, a very passionate group. And, you know, we have great synergy here and great synergy together back to our partners and to our brands that we work together with. And going back to what you said, I think it's all about the blueprint and having that solid blueprint, that solid foundation. And when you have that solid, you're really, you know, you feel out the market and where the needs are and you build from there.
And I think you really can apply that over into any facet of life, not just business. Absolutely. You're totally right. What are some of the current projects that you have going on that you would like to share?
Well, you know, really going back over our digital platform, you know, it was really the most powerful thing that we do and we continue to expand from there, you know, launching digital markets from there. You know, we touched on that global following base that's there and established and continuing to grow throughout the United States, of course, going into some different product offerings, which will be announcing very soon. And, you know, our events, everyone knew us from our events, of course, I hope you did lots of great work there. And it looks like we're going to be coming back with some of those at the end of October, starting with a private dinner with our current cover for New York, our 50 cents together with a great partner of ours, watches of Switzerland, and, you know, and you're familiar with our events.
You know, the model for those, it's a small group. It's very intimate, you know, typically 30 people. So those are exciting. Can't wait for that.
And definitely that's exciting. And April, you've been doing it all for all these years. What are some takeaways or some things that you want to share for those listening now about either how to grow their business, how important is to build those relationships, anything you want to share? And the most important thing is your team always and having good synergy there.
That's number one. Having a vision for what you want to accomplish in the day, having a vision for what you want to accomplish in the week for the month and a broad range plan for the year and the next five years and really, you know, seeing that picture breaking it all the way down to a day. And when you can see that picture, you can line up your blueprint to meet it. And, you know, that's been a strategy that I personally use every day.
Well said, that's incredible. And not only keeps you aligned, but also excited and motivated to jump into it every day as a team. When everybody has that same driven passion, it's game over. You just like make it happen.
But you know, going back to the team and collaboration. Extremely important. You've got to have a great team and you've got to collaborate because one person truly doesn't hold all the cards. You know, every every individual has their own strengths, their own set of eyes.
You know, one person can see something another person's missing and it's extremely important. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I want to thank you for helping build such an incredible network because definitely those that are part of it, like ourselves, have been seeing huge benefits from it, you know, from not just the exposure itself, but also from the relationships that we're able to build for all that network.
So keep doing such an incredible work. And I love seeing you guys. The trio. I call it all of you working hard towards the same results.
And if somebody wants to reach out to become a member or they want to work with your contact with any questions, where can they find you? Of course, reach me through Instagram. Of course, April, I mean, Donald's in there. I would, of course, check out our company.
Hoatliving.com will interconnect you to everything that we do as a company. So that's a great resource as well. Yeah. Amazing.
I'm sure a lot of people will do it because if they have noticed it, how it live in is such an incredible network that I encourage everybody to reach out and find more about it. And April, as always, it's been a pleasure talking to you. And I look forward to it. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing you soon in Miami.
Hey, thank you so much. Thank you for your partnership and looking forward to more tremendous growth together. Thank you very much. And thanks again for everybody tuning in today.
We hope you enjoyed it. And remember, embrace it's beautiful success in life. My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time.