When you tell a story, it's all about the audience. Today's guest, April Pertuis, spent years in TV news learning how to extract the moment that matters — the line that illuminates a room like, well, light. That word kept following her until it became a mandate through LIGHTbeamers: help women turn lived experience into communication that deeply resonate and moves an audience.

In this conversation, we dig into how she rebuilt her career around that idea and why speaking — keynotes, workshops, the mic in a room full of decision-makers — became her highest-leverage growth engine. April walks through how she wrote a keynote, practiced until it lived in her body, and then turned intention into a tracker that led to 25 talks and ~$100k in back-end revenue in a year.

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• The counter-intuitive first question great storytellers ask themselves before they write a line and why it changes which story you pick
• A simple gut-check that trims the indulgent details no audience needs — and keeps the right ones that create resonance
• The “scar vs wound” filter for vulnerable stories so your audience feels moved rather than responsible for your emotions
• The four-part speaker engine April built and how to know where your own bottleneck is
• A year of stages, $97,800 in revenue, and what actually drove the dollars on the back end
• How April repackages the same core ideas for different rooms with simple, small tweaks
• The “speaker flywheel” metaphor that keeps bookings compounding — and when to tap it again to maintain momentum

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• Let's be friends on the 'gram – @visionariesonline or @adrianegalea
• Connect on Linkedin – with Adriane or Visionaries
• Visit us on the web at visionaries.co
• Come network with us in The Visionaries Collective

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April Adams Pertuis is a Visibility and Media specialist. She is in the business of storytelling. Her philosophy is “everyone has a story” and she’s fascinated with getting to the Core of what that story is. April’s career spans more than 30 years as a journalist, producer, writer, and positive encourager. She is an award-winning video journalist who has worked for CBS Television, HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, and numerous private industries where she has interviewed thousands of people and crafted their story as a result.

Today, April works with people and brands to help them tell their story in a more authentic way so they can reach more customers, attract new clients, grow their audience, and ultimately tap into their true power. April leads retreats, workshops, and storytelling symposiums throughout the year to take women on a storytelling journey — helping them tap into their authentic voice and learn the power of their words. Her motto is “when we share our stories, we shine our light” — and her goal is to have women share their journey more openly so it may inspire others to do the same.

Connect with GUEST:

• On

Oh heyyyy, long time no talk! In this comeback episode of The Visionary Files, I’m chatting about what’s really been happening these past four months — the decisions I didn’t plan to make, the ones I had to make, and the one choice that catapulted Visionaries into the fastest growth I’ve ever experienced in business. This isn’t a tale of “I burned it all down and came back better” but rather a moment of recalibration, a glimpse inside the mess of success, and an honest reflection on the discomfort of watching everything grow faster than your systems can catch up.

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⭐️ Love this episode? We'd GREATLY appreciate a 5-star review! ⭐️

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• The single decision that triggered explosive growth — even though it didn’t feel that big at the time
• How I had a community that felt like a total flop — then how it grew 7x almost overnight
• Why I chose to stop making money right as the business was doing what I wanted it to do
• How the thing that made zero financial sense became the most pivotal decision of the year
• The most non-negotiable thing you can have as a business owner that I discovered in this season... BIG time
• What’s next for Visionaries (including the boldest, riskiest thing I've ever planned)

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• Let's be friends on the 'gram – @visionariesonline or @adrianegalea
• Connect on Linkedin – with Adriane or Visionaries
• Visit us on the web at visionaries.co
• Come network with us in The Visionaries Collective

When people say relationships are the key to business, it’s usually code for “go network more.” But this episode is the story of what it looks like when relationships are the business model — before social media, before funnels, and before most people reading this could even drive.

This is my untold scrappy startup story built on trust, reputation, and the kind of generosity that opens doors you didn’t even know existed.

WHAT’S INSIDE THIS EPISODE:

• Why my most “successful” marketing efforts barely moved the needle
• The “unicorn” opportunity that came from a decades-long relationship (and how to be ready when your version of it arrives)
• What I learned about marketing before I knew what marketing even was
• The growth strategy that was my rocket fuel (that is WAY underutilized by people in online business)
• My origin story I've never told… involving MySpace, major record labels, and street teams
• The subtle but powerful shift in how relationships serve you at different business stages
• My unfiltered take on visibility strategies that didn’t work — and the two that still matter most

Resources:

• Predictable Sales: a secret podcast around making predictable – even daily – sales
• Your First 10 Sales: a secret podcast perfect for if you're not making consistent sales yet

Connect with Adriane:

• Adriane's Instagram
• Visionaries' Instagram
• Adriane's LinkedIn
• Visit the Visionaries website

⭐️ Love this episode? We'd GREATLY appreciate a 5-star review! ⭐️