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Lead With Impact From Day One

Proven strategies to deliver impact, inspire others, and sustain success from the very start.

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Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook

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The Day One Executive Framework

Three pillars to deliver outcomes, build trust, and sustain performance.

Generate Results

Deliver impact that gets noticed.

Know the Driving Force
Understand the core motivations and priorities that propel a business forward.
Master the Golden Pyramid
Know your unique value and align it with what drives the business.
Know Your Value
Advocate for yourself in career advancement and compensation discussions.
Be Strategic
Maximize career advantage and organizational impact.
Build Decision Intelligence
Make smart, timely choices that accelerate momentum instead of stalling it.
Be a Change Agent
Navigate uncertainty, lead transformation, and move teams forward with confidence.
Operate with Urgency
Execute quickly, without sacrificing quality, so results compound fast.

Nurture Relationships

Influence, connect, and build trust that lasts.

Know Thyself
Self-awareness is the foundation of executive success.
Know Others
Deeply understand underlying motivations and priorities of key stakeholders.
Create a High Value Network
Create meaningful connections that expand opportunities and amplify your reach.
Exude Presence
Say less. Influence more.
Be Accountable
Own your actions and model excellence so others rise to the standard you set.
Raise the Bar
Make yesterday's best tomorrow's benchmark.
Don’t Derail
Recognize and avoid the behaviors that sideline promising leaders.

Cultivate Resilience

Stay strong, centered, and unstoppable.

Be the CEO of Your Life
Treat your career like an enterprise: manage priorities, time, and direction intentionally.
Prize Your Time
Treat time as a strategic asset.
Be Unstoppable
Align personal resilience with strategic self-awareness to overcome obstacles and seize career-defining opportunities.
Walk Through Fire
Build the grit to endure challenges, setbacks, and high-stakes pressure.
Banish the Imposter
Silence self-doubt and replace it with unshakable confidence.
Care for Yourself
Protect your health and vitality so you can perform at your peak long-term.
Commit to You
Treat your life and your future like a non-negotiable priority: Go all in on you and live your legacy.

In the Media

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Conversations and appearances with author April Armstrong that bring The Day One Executive principles to life.

What Executives Are Saying

— Jonathan R. Alger, President, James Madison University

— The Honorable Susan M. Gordon, Former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence

— Maggie Wilderotter, Former President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Frontier Communications

— Rebecca M. Brewster, President and Chief Operating Officer, American Transportation Research Institute

April Armstrong

CEO, AHA Insight

About the Author

April Armstrong is the author of The Day One Executive: A Guidebook to Stand Out in Your Career Starting Now, which elevated to #1 New Release and #1 Best Seller in six categories in its first week of release in 2023. Through her keynote talks, coaching, training, and advisory services, April inspires and equips professionals to custom-create a rewarding career. Her specialties—decision support, conflict resolution, consensus strategy, negotiation, and stakeholder engagement—are exactly what ambitious leaders need to gain entry to, and succeed, in the executive ranks.

In her role as CEO of AHA Insight, April is a trusted "go-to" resource who helps executives turn pressure into performance, conflict into consensus, and ideas into legacy. She has served as facilitator and advisory to dozens of senior officials and C-suite executives looking to keep high-stakes projects from running off the rails, helping them attain actionable and enduring agreements in sensitive and complex multiparty negotiations. Among her key wins: Designing the U.S. Intelligence Community's tech roadmap that secured unanimous buy in from 18 IC elements; leading analysis to improve and generate enduring top official agreements around national disaster response strategy; and helping to accelerate adoption of lifesaving transportation technology across the country. In her private coaching practice, April has helped dozens of leaders land the job, ace the promotion, and pull off life-changing career pivots.

Prior to forming AHA Insight, April rose through the ranks to become one of the youngest and first female executives at the nation's largest employee owned research and engineering firm, which went public and later split into two Fortune 500 companies. She holds a Master of Science degree in management information systems from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Bachelor of Arts degrees in communications and French from James Madison University, in Harrisonburg, VA. April has extensive training in negotiation in the United States and in Europe, is an American Arbitration Association-trained mediator and licensed trainer with the Protocol School of Washington. She is an ICF-certified executive and career coach.

She regularly volunteers her time to help students nationwide bridge the gap between campus and career, and has served on several university boards, including as President of James Madison University's College of Arts and Letters Advisory Board. Her leadership tips have been featured by Forbes.com, Training Industry Magazine, and on ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX affiliates across the country.

Services

Go Beyond the Book:
Fastrack Your Success

Turn proven leadership principles into performance and immediate impact with coaching, training, custom workshops and keynote talks—starting now.

Executive Coaching

One-on-one and team coaching for senior executives and rising/new executives.

Custom Workshops

Tailored training programs designed for your organization's specific needs.

Keynote Talks

Inspiring presentations that uplift audiences and transform possibilities.

Strategic Advisory

High-level consulting for complex change, consensus strategy, and organizational transformation.

“Even in this age of AI, successful organizations will engineer the 'people' side of success as much as the technical and business aspects. They will not leave it to chance.”

April Armstrong

Author of The Day One Executive and CEO of AHA Insight

Ready to Level Up Your Leadership?

What will be most needed in the new era? Leaders at all levels and layers able to think and lead like executives. The best organizations will start NOW to embed executive capacity at every layer of their organization.

Book a call today to see whether April Armstrong and The Day One Executive leadership development services are a fit for your team's needs.

For Individuals

Organizations Impacted

Trusted by leaders across government, industry, and academia to deliver transformational results.

Government Institutions

Superior Court of California

Executive coaching workshop for judges and administrators, to enhance resilience; strategic advisory to help streamline judicial caseload.

U.S. Department of Commerce

Consensus-based decision support resulting commitment from 13 bureaus on new enterprise IT system to streamline administration annually of billions of dollars of grants.

The White House

Strategic advisory and training with top and senior government officials to improve coordinated national catastrophic disaster preparedness and response.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Executive coaching, leadership development workshops, and expert facilitation to support executives and teams leading transformational change.

U.S. Department of Transportation

Multiparty negotiation support to infrastructure investment strategies and public-private partnerships modernizing transportation systems nationwide.

U.S. Intelligence Community

Strategic advisory with leadership development programs; executive facilitation of interagency high-stakes initiatives.

Private Sector

Booz Allen Hamilton

Strategic advisory and decision support to help shape strategy and educational frameworks for connected and autonomous transportation systems.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Facilitation of the first national framework to treat early adolescent psychosis by academic researchers and federal, state, local, and tribal mental health providers.

Leidos

Strategic advisory and complex negotiation support to executives and teams leading high-stakes multisector initiatives valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.