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MALIK MUHAMMAD - Celery Seed to Seed Money · Eating While Broke

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today we have very
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: special guest entrepreneur, Malik Muhammad, owner of Malik Books is
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: in the building.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, thanks for having me.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: It's an honor to have you. I've been to your
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: store and I wanna say, I've been to your store
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  Speaker 1: obviously before Eating While Broke, but I wanna say I've
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: been in it after Eating While Broke and thought, oh,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: we should totally have you on. And I'm pretty sure
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I went in and asked people for your contact. That
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: worked for you. Not sure if I got very far
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: doing that. They do be screaming. Yeah, they scream pretty hard.
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  Speaker 1: But this, yeah, I was lucky. And it took a
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: couple of days to get a response. And I was like,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: he's probably not going to do it. And he did it. See,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: you ask and you shall receive.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: Very thankful for that. But before we get into your story,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: we have to get into what you're going to have
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  Speaker 1: us eating. A dish that you ate beforehand. The success.
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  Speaker 2: Eating while broke.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Eating while broke.
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  Speaker 2: Today, I didn't grow up with a lot of money
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: like most of us, but I'm here. I'm 62. I'm alive.
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  Speaker 2: I'm thriving. I'm grateful. And today, this dish is about
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  Speaker 2: poor man's potato salad.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Poor man's potato salad.
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  Speaker 2: They put three ingredients, potatoes, mayonnaise, and celery seeds. Of course,
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  Speaker 2: you can put some seasoning in it. But while I
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  Speaker 2: was broke, poor... These are the things that I learned
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: from my grandmother. My grandmother always told me, man, if
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  Speaker 2: you have a dollar, you know you can go buy
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  Speaker 2: a pack of hot dogs for a dollar and have
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  Speaker 2: 10 hot dogs. She said that was always economical. So
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  Speaker 2: I've always remembered that. So while struggling as an entrepreneur,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: trying to elevate, hey, if I had a dollar, rather
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  Speaker 2: than using that to go to McDonald's and get one
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  Speaker 2: burger for a dollar, I'd get 10 hot dogs and
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  Speaker 2: have 10 hot dogs for one dollar. Yeah. So, hey, so.
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  Speaker 1: And that was when fast food was cheap.
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  Speaker 2: It was cheap. It was very cheap.
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  Speaker 1: I wish I would have thought like that when I
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  Speaker 1: was like in college and first moved to L.A. Because
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  Speaker 1: I used to spend all my money on fast food.
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  Speaker 1: But you're right. I could have got a pack of
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  Speaker 1: hot dogs.
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  Speaker 2: It's still economical still to this day. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I think that whole pack was like $ 5.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. See, inflation.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Inflation hits you like a bug.
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  Speaker 2: Capitalism. You know how it is. Things are not the same,
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  Speaker 2: but hey. Yes. Got eight hot dogs for, hey.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm pretty sure.
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  Speaker 2: It's protein.
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  Speaker 1: I was going to say, I'm pretty sure, because these
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  Speaker 1: are turkey hot dogs, guys. I'm pretty sure the beef
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  Speaker 1: and other ones are like way cheaper.
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  Speaker 2: Probably cheaper.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, because the healthier you are, the more expensive it is.
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  Speaker 2: More expensive. Yeah, I stopped eating pork. I stopped eating beef.
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  Speaker 2: But I still eat turkey. I still eat chicken. You
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  Speaker 2: like meat, yeah. But when I'm struggling, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Do you eat fish too?
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  Speaker 2: I eat fish too.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: I love fish. And I like home cooked meals.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, okay.
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  Speaker 2: And we here to cook today.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so to get us started, so this dish is
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  Speaker 1: really simple. Just to recap, it's potato, mayo, and celery seeds.
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: And that's for the potato salad. And for the turkey dogs,
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  Speaker 1: it's turkey dogs.
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  Speaker 2: Bread, ketchup.
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  Speaker 1: Just so you guys know, we have a saying on
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  Speaker 1: the show, just so you know. It's called the cheaper
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  Speaker 1: the dish, the better the story. So this is definitely qualified, so...
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  Speaker 1: You got to tell us what was going on during
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  Speaker 1: the time when you were relying on this type of
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  Speaker 1: dish heavily to survive.
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  Speaker 2: I came from Washington, D.C. to California. I had a
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  Speaker 2: degree from USC, but while I had my scholarship, I
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  Speaker 2: was a track star running the 1984 Olympic Games in
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  Speaker 2: 100 meters, 200. But after graduating, I had no income
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  Speaker 2: coming in, but I had an idea of what I
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  Speaker 2: wanted to do, and that was to create a bookstore.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, you always wanted to?
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  Speaker 2: Yet I didn't always want it to. What I always
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  Speaker 2: wanted to be was a cook and some type of
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  Speaker 2: arch manure. That's what I wanted to be. I didn't
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  Speaker 2: know exactly where I would end up. But the heavens
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  Speaker 2: opened up and I realized that representation in our culture
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  Speaker 2: matters because I believe there's a lot of trauma in
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  Speaker 2: our hood because of a lack of knowledge. And so
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  Speaker 2: I thought books could make a difference in order to
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  Speaker 2: elevate the conversations and to increase love of self. because
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  Speaker 2: you got to love yourself to be yourself. So I
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  Speaker 2: wanted to jump into the book business because it sparked
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  Speaker 2: my life in change. I had a degree from USC,
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  Speaker 2: but I didn't have knowledge itself. I didn't know who
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  Speaker 2: I was.
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  Speaker 1: Did you get a full scholarship to USC?
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  Speaker 2: I had a full track and field scholarship while I
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  Speaker 2: was there. And while I was there, I ran in
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  Speaker 2: the 84 Olympic games. I went there between 82 and 87. Okay.
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  Speaker 1: And what was your home life growing up in DC like?
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  Speaker 2: I was a track star in high school. We didn't
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  Speaker 2: have a whole lot of money. And we had my mom.
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  Speaker 2: During the summer, family got together, had cookouts. Yeah. And
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  Speaker 2: the poor man's potato salad was always there.
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  Speaker 1: It must be really good. This potato salad must be
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  Speaker 1: really good. Guys, when I was talking over earlier, he
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  Speaker 1: sounded excited about this potato salad. When was the last
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  Speaker 1: time you had this?
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  Speaker 2: Years. I'm going to be honest. Years. I haven't had
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  Speaker 2: this in a long time. And you know at the cookout,
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  Speaker 2: we'll make or break a cookout. is the potato salad. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But obviously at the cookouts, they would add a lot more, right?
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  Speaker 2: You got to show off. You got steak, you got ribs,
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  Speaker 2: you got all kinds of... That dish that makes that
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  Speaker 2: plate pop was always a potato salad.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going to be judging your potato salad. It's
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  Speaker 1: the first time we've also ever had potato salad on
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  Speaker 1: the show.
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  Speaker 2: Really? Okay, okay. So out of almost 200 episodes....
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  Speaker 1: That's an accomplishment. Right now, you're hitting hard. Okay, so
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  Speaker 1: you go to school. At what point do you realize
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  Speaker 1: you want to be an entrepreneur?
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  Speaker 2: At what point? After I graduated. After I graduated in 87,
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  Speaker 2: between 87 and 1990, that was my awakening. And that's
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  Speaker 2: when I wanted to jump into the black bookstore business.
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  Speaker 2: There's not a lot of us in the country, but
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  Speaker 2: I'm very grateful and thankful that That when I started
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  Speaker 2: in 1990, that I was part of a black, what
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  Speaker 2: I call the black book revolution.
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  Speaker 1: What was going on at that time, 1990? In LA,
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  Speaker 1: we had the Rodney King riots. Yeah, okay.
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  Speaker 2: We had oppression still, police brutality, social injustice. We had
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  Speaker 2: a lack of knowledge of self. We got a lot
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  Speaker 2: of trauma in our neighborhood.
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  Speaker 1: And you knew that at that age?
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  Speaker 2: At that age.
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  Speaker 1: Because you were very young then.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was very young. The books.
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  Speaker 1: What were your friends saying when you were like, okay,
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  Speaker 1: I want to do a bookstore?
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  Speaker 2: Man, nobody believed it when I was about to get
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  Speaker 2: into whatever amount to anything. The level of respect I
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  Speaker 2: get now at being a book, I call myself a
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  Speaker 2: book activist. Why? Because I sell books, not dope. I
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  Speaker 2: sling books to elevate my community. Books, not bullets.
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  Speaker 1: You talk like you listen to rap all the time.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like if we play a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a beat under this, if we play a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of a beat, he's rapping on a beat.
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  Speaker 2: Never thought of myself as a rapper, but what I
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  Speaker 2: have discovered is that in any conversation, you have to
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  Speaker 2: find hooks in order to drive people. One of the
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  Speaker 2: things that was the hardest, I think, going into the
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  Speaker 2: book business was how to get people to come into
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  Speaker 2: the book store. Because we as a community have been
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  Speaker 2: conditioned not to support black businesses. And so I would
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  Speaker 2: see them walk by all the time, walk by, don't
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  Speaker 2: even come in. But I'm there for you. I'm there
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  Speaker 2: for the community. I'm there because representation matters. But how
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  Speaker 2: do I get them in there?
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  Speaker 1: But in the 90s, okay, so I have a whole
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  Speaker 1: lot of questions here. So when you, oh, drop those
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  Speaker 1: hot dogs, by the way. You got to feed us
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  Speaker 1: halfway through this.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's get these hot dogs popping.
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  Speaker 1: If there's any water left. We've been boiling water this
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  Speaker 1: whole time, guys. So when you first got into the
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  Speaker 1: book business, was there a lot of people like you?
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  Speaker 2: No, it was only a couple of people in the
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  Speaker 2: whole LA County. There are bookstores independent, but there wasn't
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  Speaker 2: a lot of black bookstores. And it's a difference. You
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  Speaker 2: can be black owned and have a business, or you
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  Speaker 2: can be black curated bookstores. She said, I'm a black
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  Speaker 2: curator and a black owner. So no, it wasn't a lot.
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  Speaker 2: And it wasn't, it's not a lot in the United States.
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  Speaker 1: Can you explain what a curator is?
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  Speaker 2: You select the type of inventory you want in your store.
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  Speaker 2: So in our store, we give voice to the voiceless.
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  Speaker 2: Most of the books are the majority are stories written
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  Speaker 2: by blacks for blacks and about blacks.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: So that's what that means.
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  Speaker 1: You don't ever cross over?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, occasionally, not occasionally. I would say maybe 10% of
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  Speaker 2: my inventory are crossover books. A good book is a
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  Speaker 2: good book.
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  Speaker 1: Robert Greene and Malcolm Gladwell and those guys.
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  Speaker 2: For sure. Yes, I have those in the store and
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  Speaker 2: a few others. A good book is a good book.
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  Speaker 2: We want to wake up today. We want books that
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  Speaker 2: can revolutionize and enlighten. So having any book that's crossover
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  Speaker 2: is a good thing because I like inspiration. I like
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  Speaker 2: nonfiction books, so. Any book that I read that I
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  Speaker 2: feel is really powerful and important, I carry in the store.
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  Speaker 1: At what point, okay, you're in college, you're graduating college.
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: There had to have been something that triggered this idea
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  Speaker 1: that it has to be a bookstore. Do you know
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  Speaker 1: what it was?
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  Speaker 2: Here's the thing is that wise man said the black
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  Speaker 2: man and woman was mother of civilization. And he said
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  Speaker 2: to me, don't Just believe me. Go out and do
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  Speaker 2: your own research and that's what you have to do today.
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  Speaker 2: You can be very successful because everything you want you
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  Speaker 2: can find in the book. So you can be very
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  Speaker 2: successful today by going out and doing your own research.
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  Speaker 2: So he said, don't believe me. Go out and do
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  Speaker 2: your own research. I grew up in the church. I
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: went to college. I had never heard that before. Black
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  Speaker 2: people are the mother of the father of civilization. What
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  Speaker 2: are you talking about? So I was told Greek, Greek, everything, nothing, Africa,
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  Speaker 2: nothing pyramids, nothing about ancient Egypt, nothing. They'd rather say
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  Speaker 2: aliens built the ancient Egyptian pyramids than Black people. I
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  Speaker 2: went there last summer and you ain't going to never
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  Speaker 2: convince me some aliens built them. I've seen the four, five.
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  Speaker 2: I've seen them look like me. I've seen them look
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  Speaker 2: like you. These were our ancestors and they built those
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  Speaker 2: and they are a reminder of how great we was.
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  Speaker 2: But I never knew that graduating from college. So I
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  Speaker 2: thought that for a lack of knowledge, my people was destroyed.
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  Speaker 2: I thought If I had a bookstore, the books that
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: I went out and read that proved what he said
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  Speaker 2: was true, it blew me away. I said, man, I
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: got a degree from USC. I don't even know this.
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  Speaker 2: This don't make no sense.
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  Speaker 1: And how was USC at the time? Was it diverse?
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  Speaker 2: No, right?
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  Speaker 1: I'd imagine.
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  Speaker 2: It was a small percentage of us. Most of the
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  Speaker 2: students at the time of USC were black. They were athletes.
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  Speaker 2: They were black. So it wasn't a whole lot there.
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  Speaker 2: It was an opportunity for me. It was a great opportunity.
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  Speaker 2: I took advantage and got my paper and graduated in 87.
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  Speaker 2: But while there... I took anthropology. I took ethnic studies.
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  Speaker 2: I took ancient history. Didn't hear none of this. Didn't
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  Speaker 2: hear none of this. So it's intentional that we don't
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  Speaker 2: know this. Nowadays, people know that, listen, if it wasn't
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  Speaker 2: for the black woman who gave birth to humanity, none
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  Speaker 2: of us would be here. I'm here to celebrate that.
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  Speaker 2: I'm here to elevate that. It matters. And all black
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  Speaker 2: women should know how important they are. And I didn't
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: know that. And I had a college degree and I
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: was a grown man. We want to honor, we want
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: to protect and respect the black woman. We need a
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: movement today to teach about who we are and what
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  Speaker 2: we're capable of doing. I thought, I didn't think we
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: did nothing in this world. Nothing, nothing. Built nothing, did nothing.
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  Speaker 1: And that was all the way up through college, you're
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: thinking this.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: This was all the way through college. I had a
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: very low perspective of blacks. And that means including myself.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: And I remember one day I shared this to my
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  Speaker 2: mom and she said that she hated being black. She
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: told me she hated her dark skin. What you think
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  Speaker 2: a mother who hates her dark skin going to do
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  Speaker 2: to their children? They're going to teach you to hate yourself. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm not in denial that I was self-destructive and
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: I had a low view of myself. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And did she say why she did she ever say
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  Speaker 1: in words why?
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  Speaker 2: It's just because she was dark-skinned. Society teaches the darker
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  Speaker 2: you are, the most hated you are and ugly you are.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: We was talking earlier, it's like, why representation matters in books?
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Because you have to love yourself to be yourself. There's
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: more than one standard of beauty. But it's not one standard,
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: but that's driven down our throats every day. One standard.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: And it's blonde hair, white, blue eye. That might look
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: good to some people, but it don't look good to everybody.
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  Speaker 2: I'm sitting here with a beautiful black sister. You know
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  Speaker 2: what I'm saying? I'm like, look, beauty is not one style,
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  Speaker 2: one type. And we're beautiful people. Our hair is beautiful.
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  Speaker 2: We have it for a reason. Our nose is beautiful.
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  Speaker 2: We have it for a reason. And so we got
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: to celebrate who we are. And like I said, I
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: came out of college with a degree, but I ain't
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: have a knowledge itself. And I certainly wasn't loving myself.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: And I think a lot of the problems we have
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: in our community is a lack of knowledge. And I
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: think books can make a difference. So I'm excited. That's
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  Speaker 2: why I get my passion to do what I do.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: So when you get on this road to start this bookstore,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: what's your first play, first move? And how do you
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: get funding to do.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: All of this? You know what I realized? Relationships sometimes
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: bring about opportunities. and it was through a relationship, because
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: I ain't had no money, but I've established a relationship
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: with a book distributor, and he gave me a credit line,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: and I went in the streets and sold the product,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: paid him off, reinvested what I made, and continued to grow.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: But it's relationships.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes- Wasn't it a black author too?
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  Speaker 2: It was a publisher. Yeah, it was a distributor of
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: black books. Wow.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: And they- How are you selling the books? Who are
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: you selling them to?
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: I went to festivals. I went to black expos. I
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: went to the community, but also I took 22, I'll
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: never forget this, in 19, I took $ 22, 000 that I
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: saved up and invested in a bookstore, having no knowledge,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: no understanding what I was doing, picked a location. What
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: I know now about business, these are the three rules.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: I put that baby in a location that was not
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: conducive to what I was doing. So it wasn't helping
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: me because people understand this. To get people to support you,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: you got to have a marketing strategy. I didn't know
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: nothing about no marketing. I didn't know about no finance.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: I didn't know about no taxes. I didn't know nothing
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: about nothing. All this I'm going to learn because I
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: didn't get a degree in business from college. I got
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: a degree in public administration. So I had to learn.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: And by learning through experience, experience is the best teacher.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: So as a result, the experience, you know, taught me
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: along the way. And I made some mistakes back then.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: I had to get out of that location and move
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: more west to the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw area.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: So where was your first location at the time?
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: At that time was right there in L.A., right by
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: the 110 freeway by Manchester and Figueroa.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Now, when you got that terrible location in Miami, I'm
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: assuming you're just losing money, you're bleeding out, or are
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: you at least breaking even?
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: I'm bleeding out. I learned another mistake back then. Because
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: my mom was a real estate broker. I came out
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: of college and I was also trying to be a
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: mortgage consultant. I'm always helping people. Whether I'm selling books,
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: helping people. Realizing a home is your biggest investment. So
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: I was blessed to buy this home. Somebody was losing it.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Paid them some money. Signed it over to me. I
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: was blessed. Rule number one. Don't and spend the money
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: and the equity from your house to put it in
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: an unsure investment.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Like a startup business.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because find them. So eventually I lost my house
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: because I was using the money I was getting from
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: my home I was putting it in a bookstore.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: This is the first bookstore?
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: It's the first one.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Oh, you bleeding out.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: I'm bleeding out bad now.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: You can't sleep. You couldn't even function. You was definitely
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: living on some potato salad.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: Hey, listen. There were times I had to do with
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: my grandmother. She was a hustler. She sold KDDs on
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: the street and sweet potato pies to send me money
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: every year for college. I ain't had no Midas college yet.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: This your grandmother?
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: Who is this? This is my grandmother.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: That's a powerful woman in my life.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: But I will say this. I want to backtrack because
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about, I think that when you
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: get in business for yourself, sales is a must-have skill.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: And I can't overlook the fact that you mentioned that
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: your first step was selling these books.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: How hard was it to get to the place of
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: comfortability selling-wise? Because, you know, dealing with rejection like that.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It's pretty brutal. I didn't give up. I pivoted. Relocated.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: And tried to start up again. Wow. Started out in
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: a hole in the wall. It was a little shack.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: What was your family saying when you're like, oh, I
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: want to go at it a second time?
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: You know, I can only say this, is that All
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: the work I have done in my life has been
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: under belief. It was like that word, which means king
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: in Arabic, was transformative. And it took decades for my
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: mom to call me by my spiritual name. Because all
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: the work that I was doing that she loved, all
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: the events that I hosted with Top celebrities and all.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: It's still, she struggled. But before she made her transition,
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: she called me Malik. I never forced her. I respected her.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: She wasn't calling you Malik before?
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: No. She called me by the name she gave me
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: by birth. I transcended and changed my name because of
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: the work that I was doing. And so she had
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: trouble dealing with that for decades and years. Wow. But
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: before she made her transition... She called me. I said,
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: she said, you love the work I'm doing? You know
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: I did it all. Listen, just like Peter was named,
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: his name was, Simon became Peter. Just like Saul became Paul.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: All my work became Malik. See what I'm saying?
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: When did, wait, so this is, when you first started,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: you started under Malik. So right after college.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: The store was called Malik.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, so she was still calling you by your birth name.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she was calling by my birth name. And then,
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: I transcended, had the name changed, see? And she had
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: trouble and difficulty respecting that.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: So is your full name, your original name Malik Muhammad
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: or you changed both?
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: Changed both. What? Changed both.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, you were a gangster.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: And that was something that's different. Look, listen, we free
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: today and we can choose the names. I want to
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: be connected to my ancestors. I want to be connected
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: to the people whom gave birth to us before we
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: came to America. I wanted a name that represented attributes
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: that I thought I represented. And that's why my name
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: is King. One Worthy of Praise.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: And I think the work that we're doing is praiseworthy
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: because we're making a difference in our community and not
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: just talking about it, but being about it. And so
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: it took her, but before she made her transition, she
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: called me Malik. I never forced her to, because my mom,
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: I love her. She did the best she could, but
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: God also have a say. And so as a result,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: I made a move that I thought was in my interest,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: in the community interest, and she gained respect for it
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: in the end before she passed away.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: I like that. So what did you learn on the second?
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: So you moved to the new business. This is while
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: you're in the negative, right?
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: So how are you pulling off a pivot? With no
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: money and a lost house.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Yes. That's, you know what? I still think about that
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: to this day. Cause I took, this is when I
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: moved to the West side of my park area. I took,
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: I had good thing is I was blessed to get
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: a place that had very reasonable rent. And then by
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: me understanding, I need to do marketing. I visually and
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: just hasten my attitude. and work ethic to go out
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: to cultural events, go to the people. So every week,
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: though I might have had my physical location, I went
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: out in the streets to let people know, number one,
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: let's make sales so I can pay my over here.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: Number two, to let people know where I'm at to
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: come later on if they don't buy today. And then
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: I moved into the mall. And this is what I realized.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: People move like schools of fish. And if you don't
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: have a marketing budget, All you have to do is
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: set up where they already go.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: The mall.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: So I went into the mall because they already go there.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Now I have to worry.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: About marketing as hard. But now the malls have a
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: lot of rules and they're very expensive. I've never seen
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: a mall that's not expensive.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: Yes, they are expensive and very challenging. And just because
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: you're in a mall don't mean they're going to come
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: in once again. You have to find that formula that
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: works where you have books. If you just rely on
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: black books, you're gonna starve.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: If you just rely on what?
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Books, black books. Because for one, we're not, it's not mainstream.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: It's a genre. It's a niche.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: We have to figure out how to have things accessorize
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: around the books in order to continue to have sales. Otherwise, because...
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: All you're doing, your market is already small to begin with.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: It's not universal. So once you see that, then you
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: got to figure out ways to have other things and
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: do other things to bring in other income besides just books.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: So what did you do?
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Gifts that speak to our Afrocentricity. I went to gifts.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: I went to- You said gifts?
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: Gifts. Okay. Yeah, tote bags. Yeah, yeah. What else? Do
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: you have calendars?
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: When you're doing these deals with these published, I don't know,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: what do you call it?
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Distributors. Yes.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Do you have to sell? Are they looking at your numbers?
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Are these hot dogs busted open too?
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: They ain't busting open yet. They're about to though. They're
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: about to bust open real nice. They looking good.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Hilarious.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Now these potatoes. Now look, you know.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: And now you're not, what, they're too hard?
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: They soft. But here's the thing. I'm going to smash
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: them rather than cut them. Okay.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: So. It's still potato salad, but some call it whipper salad.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: That's hilarious. So it's going to be like mashed potatoes.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: But you don't put butter in it?
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: Nope. I don't put butter in it. Now, making the
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: pork man, see, this spoon right here chops it up too.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: So it'd be some chunks too as well.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: So here's the thing. They soft enough where it just
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: goes right through like butter. Okay. It's real soft. But
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: I'm chopping them up now. And listen, I'm not peeling
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: them because there's a lot of nutrients in there. around
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: the outside of the potato. Now, you can choose to
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: peel them, but I choose not, because I need all
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: the nutrients. Because there are only three ingredients. It's potatoes, mayonnaise,
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: and celery seeds. Put a little seasoning salt and pepper
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: on it. We like, we do.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to try this. And you usually eat
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: this with hot dogs or no?
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: I eat it with hot dogs because.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: That's a whole meal.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: It's a whole meal. It's a whole meal. You got
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: meat and potatoes. You got your starch and you got
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: your protein. So yes.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: So are you under pressure to sell the books by
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: the distributors or will you lose your deal with them
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: if you're not moving books?
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: No. The only thing that's affected by not using, not
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: selling a lot of books is your account. But You're
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: not in jeopardy of closing it. You're in jeopardy if
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: you ain't paying your bills. So that's the only way
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: your accounts are in jeopardy. But like I said, when
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: I started, I had a credit line. Met somebody. He
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: believed in what I was trying to do. He credited
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: me the books. I paid him for what I sold.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: And the relationship continued to grow to where I'm at now.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: And that's the concept. It's like, hey, make some money, reinvest.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Make some money, reinvest. Make some money, reinvest.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: I don't want to jump too far ahead, but how
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: does companies like Audible affect your business?
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: The experiment is over. Listen, they tried to put the
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: physical books out of business through audio books and e-book,
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: all right? Guess what? They went through that.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: I remember the Kindle came and tried to get your-
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: The experiment is over.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Listen, people want physical books. we already see in the
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: music industry. They got rid of the CDs and albums.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: Now they trying to come back after they had a market.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: They thought streaming, electronic, digital, they thought that was the answer. Not!
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: They have no retail. So guess what? They trying to
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: come back. They tried to do the same thing in
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: the book business, but it didn't work. People want a
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: physical book.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: That's true.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: I do both, but I love me a physical book.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Most of the books I get, though, I try now
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: to have them all signed. I like having them all signed.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: I personally, I like to get e-books with my car.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's how I do it. And I also do
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: it in the gym, even though gym is where you're
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: supposed to listen to pumping up music. I listen to
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: a lot of books during my workouts.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good way. Instead of music, you learn. Inspirational.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: So it's a market for that, but it don't have
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: to be the whole market. But that's what they wanted.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: They thought that they can transcend the publishing business in
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: the same way they did the music. But guess what?
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: It didn't work. People want all three. They want an e-book,
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: they want audio book, and they want the physical book.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: And they also make great gifts.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And we learned through the pandemics. If
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: you got kids during a pandemic and they had to
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: sit on that computer all day. And you know how
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: much time everybody spends on social media. So we realized
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: that we're trying to get them off of that.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Reading on a tablet. Yeah. Reading on a computer. Yeah.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: So there's room for all of this. Yeah. And so
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: we want to minimize the amount of time on computers,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: on laptops, on computers. Digital tablet.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: It's also not good for your eyes. So you opened
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: the second location in a mall. You take on a
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: huge lease. Are you intimidated?
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: No. I opened the second location, Fox Hills Mall. That's
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: what it was called. Now it's called Westfield Culver City Mall.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: They reached out to me and they gave me a
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: deal I couldn't refuse.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: They reached out to you? I didn't know malls reach out.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Put some celery seed in there because there ain't no vegetables.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: This is the celery seed. Yeah, they reached out. They
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: have a leasing department. The leasing department goes out and
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: look for items they think might be a good fit.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: So they reached out to us and we came during
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: the pandemic and we were concerned. But you know what?
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: This is your second location.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the second location.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I thought the Crenshaw Mall was the second.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: The first. That's the first. I started out on Crenshaw,
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Baldwin Hills, the Merck Park area.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Oh, in the area, but not the mall.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in the mall. I went in that mall in 1994.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: That was after Fox? No, that was before Fox Hills.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: No, this was before Fox Hills.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Which is your second location?
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Fox Hills Mall, Westfield, Culver City. That's our main store,
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: but that is the second location. The first location is
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: in Baldwin Hills.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: But that wasn't a mall?
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: No. I went into the mall, Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall,
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: in 1994, but I started out on the street in
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: 1990 on that corner.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: So wouldn't that be your second? Wait, which one's your
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: second and third? Okay.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: Okay. So right now it's only two.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: So the first is Baldwin Hills Crenshaw, okay? And the
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: second is Westfield Cove City Mall, a.k.a. Fox Hills Mall.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Okay. Wait, I'm getting them confused.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: That's fine. The one you went to was.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: I go to the Fox Hills one.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Fox Hills. Yeah. Okay.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: But you're saying that the one that you're talking about
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: is the Crenshaw one?
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: Yes. Okay.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: I got it confused. Sorry, guys.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Yes. All right.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: So you're in the... So you opened the Crenshaw Mall,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: the one in the Crenshaw Mall?
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's OG.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: That's the OG.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: OG.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: You take on the lease. There's no part of you
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: that's intimidated, nervous. Are you honored that they thought of you?
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: I started out as a cart in the center of
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: the mall. I didn't even start in the store.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Oh, you started out as a cart. Those carts were expensive, too.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they were. You know what? A cart wouldn't work
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: for me. I sold them on a different design. And
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: I was there. And we did well. And that's when
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: I went into a store. Wow. I grew into the
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: store from the cart to the store. Wow. Start where
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: you can.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: How long? did it take for you to go from
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: a cart to a store? But you also have a
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: great sales background at this point.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: At this point.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: You can sell right to a roach, right?
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: Hey, ice to an Eskimo. Listen. Listen. If you spend
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: enough time doing something, I got over 10,000 hours doing this. Yeah, exactly.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: I am a professional book seller.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: You're in a cart. That's what I'm saying. Who's going
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: to get past you and not stop and buy a book?
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: I'm a pro, professional pro at selling books.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: I've been doing it since 1990. Got 36 years experience.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: I know the industry like the back of my hand.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: This is what I do.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: So you're doing the, you're selling, you move into a
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: bigger location. Now you're getting into the design of the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: store and all these other needs. Are there any between the,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: are there any things between the cart and the store
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: lessons that you wish you could have dodged in that era?
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: How to negotiate terms when you get into an inline
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: store that would be more beneficial for your success. Because
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: a lot of times, You're paying so much just to
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: be in that space that you end up having no savings,
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: having no money other than paying them their rent. And
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: you got to have money to live. Yeah. So I
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: had to have money to live. I have to have
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: money to survive. And all the money was going paying them.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: So what do you mean by the terms? What could
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: you have done differently in the terms?
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: Get lower terms, get lower, pay less per month. Paying
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: $ 1, 000 less per month makes a huge difference because books
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: are not the industry of books is a volume business,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: not a book here and there. And that's what a
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: lot of people don't understand the challenges in the book
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: industry is a book industry is about volume, not one
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: book here or there. And all of these things you learn.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: But sometimes you jump in and not understanding that. This
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: is why my first bookstore didn't fail because it's a
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: volume business. And why was that? Nobody's going to drive
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: over there. And I don't care how much money you
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: spend trying to market that location.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: But if you're not doing book by one, are you
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: talking about like when you say volume, like when you
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: bring the celebrity or the author into the store and
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: you're trying to sell a hundred books that day?
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Doing events, that's volume. Also having people come in, have
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: a hundred people come in today, every day, you know,
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: Hopefully half of them buy. If they buy, 50 people
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: buy at $ 20, you done made $ 1, 000 in sales. Now,
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: but the majority of that money is still inventory because
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: books don't have a large percentage like others.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Oh, they don't have like a good profit margin?
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: No, the profit margin is very marginal, very. So you
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: had to learn how to budget. You got to budget
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: just like a grocery store. A grocery store profitability is
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: only probably about 3%. Really? Yeah.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Here we thought they were purposely robbing us.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: They make a lot. They sell a lot, but they
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: pay a lot. It's just like the movie industry. The
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: money they make is not the movie. It's the popcorn.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: It's the food.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: So you're doing, in your store, you're doing gifts, you're
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: doing books. I've heard some people do coffee.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they have hibernated type bookstores. Yes. Ours is gifts.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Ours is events. And so we kind of mastered that
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: being the premier bookstore of Los Angeles. Yeah. Hosting top-rated
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: caliber events, which we're proud about. We've hosted Spike Lee,
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Cedric the Entertainer, John Hope Bryant. He's a financial literacy person.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: That's just a tip. Taraji P. Henson as well.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: You guys are going to do Cat Williams soon too, right?
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: About to host Cat Williams. We partnered with his management company, yes.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: And that, they've been at the Wilshire Ebro Theater. We
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: still have, there's still tickets out there, but they resell
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: tickets because it's sold out. But you can still get
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: a ticket by buying a reseller.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: But those are your events, right?
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm part of what is called the National Association
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: of Black Bookstores. Wow. We've been around for about a year.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: I'm one of the founding members. I'm very excited about that.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: And the purpose of it is to create generational wealth
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: as well as to create a legacy in the black
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: bookstore world. space. We don't want this to be fly
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: by night and fade out 20 years from now. We
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: want this to continue, industry to continue to grow, continue
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: to evolve. And so my me being part of that,
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: and our founder is Kevin Johnson, who envisioned an association
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: in this idea. So a lot of events, we partnered
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: with the National Association of Black Bookstores. We partnered with
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: management companies of certain authors and celebrities. We create partnerships
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: with corporations. And so it's a saying called your net
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: worth is your net worth. You know what I'm saying?
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: So we got a network today. And so Cab Williams
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: is a collab with the Cab Williams management, obviously Cab Williams,
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: the publisher, National Association of Black Bookstores, and Malik Books. Nice.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Now in California, how many Black-owned books? Not black, just
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: black curated. How many black-owned bookstores are there, at least
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: in South LA?
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: I think it might be about- Southern California. For independent
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: black-owned bookstores, maybe two. Oh. Maybe two.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Now, do you guys get along, or are you guys competitors?
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we are competitors, but I get along with them.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: I think out in the Valley, there's one, maybe about
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: three total, but I get along with them. Listen, it's
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: enough for all. It's millions of black folks. Yeah. We
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: pull them from the same, let me tell you, the demographics.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: they're buying the most books is black women.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: I believe that.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: Y'all, hey, look, y'all is the reason why we exist.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: Let me tell you that. I ain't trying to put
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: no shade on the black, man, because we love you too.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: But it is black women who is the backbone of
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: the black bookstores all across this nation.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: That is a big statement.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Why do you think black, not trying to throw shade
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: at these black brothers out here.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: Not at all. Not at all.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Why do you think that is? Do you think it's
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: because black men have a lack of self-love?
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: We do have a lot of lack of self-love as
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: well as black women. But when you conquer a people,
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: a civilization, the prize is the woman. And so the
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: woman has always been the prize of our fall to
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: the oppressor. And so certain doors are open up that
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: are different than for black men. At one point in time,
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: the rate of death of black youth was number one.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: It was like you had a better chance of going
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: to war and surviving than on the streets as a
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: black boy. So, yeah. So I just think it's a
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: lot of things, not one particular thing, but opportunity in
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: America is here. I'm here to tell you that you
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: can win. I'm here to tell you, I don't care
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: what obstacles out there, both black men and women, we
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: can win. We can make a difference. We can grow
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: and do wonderful things here. We have more millionaires, some billionaires,
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: than we ever had. We own less wealth as a whole,
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: but we have individuals who have a lot of wealth.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: We used to own more wealth as a whole, like
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: land and stuff like that back in the 70s and 60s,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: but we own... very little as a whole collective. And
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: that's the reality is that we got to move together
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: to survive together.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: But I guess where I'm confused is like you, for
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: black women to be the main reason why, there's a disparity, right?
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: What is, I don't think.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: I fully understand. There are more black women in college.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: And they're also making a lot more now. And obviously
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: probably reading is what's helping them make more. But why
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: is it that, Black men aren't consuming as much, in
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: your honest opinion.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: In my honest opinion, it's hard to change when you're
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: just trying to survive. It's hard to listen to any
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: information that can help you when you're just trying to
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: put food on the table. Just when you, it's very hard.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: Trying to transform black men, it's a hard job to
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: do because a lot of black men, they don't go
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: to college, a lot of them in jail, a lot
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: of them hate themselves. There's a lot of factors that
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: go into this. That's the work that we have challenged
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: with to do because no civilization can rise above their people.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: So we all got to grow together or we won't
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: grow at all.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: But I do feel like black women face some of
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: those same exact hurdles. Like when black women are out
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: here trying to survive, especially the single moms. So it's
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: hard for me to give empathy To say that the
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: reason why black men aren't going into the same bookstore
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: as black women is because black men are trying to survive.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: When I feel as though there is a lot of
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: black women, if you have conversations, that come from a
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: trying to survive background.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: I agree.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: So I think there has to be something more to
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: it than just he's not going in the store because
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: he's trying to pay.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: It's systemic. First of all, racism is systemic. So black
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: men are not the power brokers. Black men are not
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: hiring black women. If black women are making more money,
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: it's not because of black men. It's because of corporate America.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: Black women are sharp. She's deserving. She's elevated. She's educated.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: And so she is the backbone of what's happening I
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: know in the book industry is that she's the biggest
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: buyer of books. She's the first teacher of children. And
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: so I'm not, no, it's a beautiful thing. We got
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: work to do because we want to see the men
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: take responsibility for them. Because it's not meant for a
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: woman to be a single parent. It's a lot of that.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: There are men in the homes. There are men that
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: are part of their children's lives, despite the myth that's
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: out there. But there are a lot of women who
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: are raising children on their own. And so I don't
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: have all the answers, but I know the data is
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: there for us to study.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: I'll give my unasked opinion about this, and I think
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: it's because black women have been oppressed. and continually being
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: held back and continually fighting to.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: Survive.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: And I think that the main reason why they're hungrier
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: for it is because they're driven. And it comes from
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: a place of, I want to survive and thrive.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Yes. I definitely don't disagree with that.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Because I hate the narrative that black men are just,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: they're trying to survive. And obviously I'm not a black man, but-
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: you could talk to a lot of black women and
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: surviving is the number one topic.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: The number one topic. I just know I'm no different
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: than any other black. I wrote a chapter in a
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: book called The Heart of a Black Man, 30 Stories
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: of Resilience. It's 30 black men wrote a book about
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: the heart of a black man and overcome triumph and resilience.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: And my chapter was called From Devastation to Elevation. And
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: all I could speak about was me And that I
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: went through the same challenges that any other black man
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: or woman had to go through. And yet I'm here today.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: I survived the pitfalls. There are a million things out
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: here trying to disrupt you, derail you, kill you, imprison you,
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: do all kinds of stuff. So if you able to
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: get through all that, and that's just the way forces
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: of nature down here. My chapter was like, I'm elevated
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: despite that. And you can't be too.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: You wrote the whole book?
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: I didn't write the whole, there's 30 of us. Okay.
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: It's only available on Amazon. It was a young lady
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: who collectively put us all together.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: A young lady. Was she black?
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: She was black.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: She was black.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: I'm not trying to make black women.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: The poster child of great. Courageous Black Women is her organization. Okay.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: And what's the name of the book?
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: The Heart of a Black Man, 30 Stories of Triumph
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: and Resilience.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: That sounds like an amazing book. Did you read the book?
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: Yes. And it is powerful. And I recommend it all
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: the time. I think I got a few left in
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: my store at the Westfield Mall.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, you can buy it in physical.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because I try to get author copies so I
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: can sell it at the store. Autograph.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: I want to get a copy.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: I'll make sure you get one.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: I'm going to come down there and get it.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: And signed.
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely. And what that is just things that we've overcome.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: I'm no different than no one else. There are many
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: times that I faced death, but yet I am and
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: I'm still here. There are a lot of things that
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: I've overcome. Just this alone right here, I was five
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: and didn't know glass was in the trash can. And
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: I reached in there at around five years old and
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: cut my wrist. My mom My sister yelled and screamed,
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: blood running off of my wrist. And my mom came
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: and wrapped a towel. I still remember that to this day.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: Wrapped it around there tight till the ambulance came. I
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: survived that. There are a lot of things that happened
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: in my life that I share in my chapters. I
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: could easily not have been here like so many others,
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: but I'm here. And I'm here with a mission because
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: I believe God has me in the space that he
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: wants me to be in. And I tried to walk
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: away from books and took a little break.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: You tried? Why did you try?
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: I've had back surgery. I've had on my lower back
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: because books are heavy and doing a lot of events
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: and picking them up over time. I've had fusion in
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: my lower back. I've had moments where I just didn't
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: see where I'm struggling to pay my lease in the business,
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: pay my bills at home, and be a provider. And
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: so I just thought that maybe I just ran this course.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: Oh, you have, you have obviously kids, wife and all that.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: And you have this, I can't imagine how hard it
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: is to go home to your wife and be like, oh.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: We're running tight. I take care of kids, take care
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: of wife. I'm struggling. I'm struggling. And I said, maybe
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: it's best if I, if I go back to real estate. Wow.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: Look at you. Unlock that iPhone.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm in a deep conversation.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: How did the conversations at home go when it's like,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about shutting it down? Did your wife support
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: those decisions?
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she did. But there was a time when it
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: was hard. And I resorted to my grandmother's hitting the streets.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: And me.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, you mean like selling books on the street?
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: Not even selling books on the street. When I closed,
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: I put all my inventory in the garage. But I said, maybe...
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: I should pursue being a cook. And she said, let's
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: do it. So look, I got a spot on the
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: street and I started, we started grilling up chicken together,
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: baked beans together, potato salad together and selling dinner.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: This potato salad?
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: This potato salad.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: This potato salad on the street?
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Good segue. We're going to try this. This is the
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: poor man's potato salad you said?
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: This poor man. We might need some more seasoning. I
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: didn't go heavy.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Let's see.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: Okay. Let's put a little pepper. Let's put a little
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: paprika on it.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: It's missing something.
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: What do you think is missing?
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: Some more salt and pepper.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, pass me the salt. It tastes like good mashed potatoes.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: There's some salt.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: I feel like you could either barely taste the mayo
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: in it.
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it could use some more mayo. It could use
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: some more mayo.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: No, I'm going to try and chew it.
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: You got me cooking.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to tweak his recipe because I really want
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: to taste the potato salad. I don't know if I'm
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: going to butcher this. I just really want to taste
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: the potato salad vibe and see if we could pull
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: it off.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: I did add on the street some green pepper, some onions.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when you add the mayo, it tastes more.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Need some more mayo. Yes. Okay. Okay.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: He gets a pass on this.
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: Let's see. Look, we had cabbage on the street. Baked
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: beans are made from scratch. I would get some small
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: white beans.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: How long did it take you to go back into
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: the store?
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: It took, being out there on the street, cooking these
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: dinners in 80, 90 degrees.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: Hilarious.
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: Convinced me relatively fast. I need to get back in
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: the book business because at least that's something I know
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: after spending so much time. So I went to my storage.
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: And I picked up all my inventory and went to
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: a show and people started thanking me for being there
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: at the event with those books. I said, what? I
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: didn't remember people thanking me when I was at the stores.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: And the vibe was so different. Then I said, oh man,
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: this is something that I need to probably go back into.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: And since then, Malik 2.0 been blowing up, baby.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: No, you came back You took a break before, but
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: you have survived a pandemic now at this point, right?
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah. When I took a break, it was the early 2005,
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: just before the housing crash. That was 2007, 2008, right?
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: Just before the housing crash, I took a break. I
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: came back around 2011, 2012. Okay. So I had been
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: doing events, and then.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: I opened back a store.
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: Back in around 2017, 2018. I went back from selling
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: on the street to an inline store in the Baldwin
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: Hills Crenshaw Mall again.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: And then a couple of years later, pandemic hits.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: Then the pandemic hits and I opened a second store
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: during the pandemic in the Westville Culver City Mall.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: How did you survive the pandemic?
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: I survived the pandemic. And it was a trying time
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: because I was locked out. All my inventory was at
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: ball and I couldn't get to it. And I survived
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: because of black people supported me online. Wow. Black people
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: saw MalikBooks.com. And during the pandemic, everybody shelter in place,
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: wanted books, and they supported. I'm glad I had the
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: website set up. Wow.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: So instead of going to Amazon and all those, wow.
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: They went to Malik Books and supported us. That's how
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: I survived. My people supported me, and I'm very grateful,
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: very thankful. I survived because of the outpouring of love
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: from people all across this country who supported us during
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: that time. And I was able to open Malik's second shop.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: because of that outpouring of love. Wow. Because I had
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: the money. I also found other ways. When my family,
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: we would get even purchases from corporations, 100 books here,
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: 200 books there. We in the backyard, shutting the place,
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: packaging them up. I'm dropping them off. And then we
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: all go as a family field trip during a pandemic
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: to the post office together to drop them off at
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: the post office. So we did things as a family.
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: During the pandemic, we hung out in the backyard every day,
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: grilled every day. And those are some of the things
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: we did. But it was the people. The people, man,
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: came and gave us love during that time. I'm very grateful.
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: Things are different now. And we was able to fulfill
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: all their orders at malikbooks.com. And so that's how we survived.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: And I took a leap of faith.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: Now, how many of your customers, ratio-wise, are black versus
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: all the other races?
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Say that question again.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: When you look at your ratio of customers, how many
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: would you say are majority black or is it now
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: more diverse?
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: Although our inventory is black curated and diversity books, I mean,
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: other people too, I would say that the majority is
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: still black by far. I would say over 90%. And
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: we have customers come in. Just the other day, I
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: was there and a white man came in and said,
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: I love your store. He said, it's needed. I've had
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: people come in and say things like, why this selection
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: of books? I said, why not? Why not? I was like,
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: I'm not picking any other stores to say why you
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: don't have... I said, look, I feel the whole store
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: just in our voice and our stories. I ain't picking
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: another store to say, you should carry all this. I
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: just simply open my own. Sometimes you can just open
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: your own instead of trying to boycott somebody else. So
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: I like what I do. And we're a gym. And
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: we provide a space that makes an impact. That's why
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: I say that I'm a book activist, first and foremost.
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: But they call me the hype man of books because
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: I like the hype.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: You definitely are.
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: You are that.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: So what advice would you give to someone trying to
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: open a bookstore or that's currently... A bookstore owner.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: You got to find a way to take over your city.
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: You have to find a way. I don't have all
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: the answers and I don't know the dynamics of your business,
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: but take over your city. Take over your community.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: Be at every community event. Is that what you mean?
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: Be at the community event, network with other businesses, politicians,
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: all that. But be present in your community, for your community,
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: by your community, but take it over. And that's different
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: for each store. I think Malik Books has become a
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: household name because of all the events that we've hosted,
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: all the festivals that we've been to that. And the
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: fact that we have a retail outlet that they can go.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: It took years to get to that level. It took years.
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: And I'm grateful that we have created a mission and
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: that has become a brand.
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: And in business, do you still ride a roller coaster
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: or do you think it's just going?
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: It's all businesses or what we call a heartbeat up
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: and down every business.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: I never heard that term, but I was going to say,
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: because I think that there's this idea that maybe one
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: day you open a business and it's just, there's a
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: tipping point and it just.
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: Yes, but they all come down. Yeah. There's no business
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: that never dipped down to go back up.
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: Apple went through it. Microsoft went through it. Why shouldn't
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: Malik go through it? Got to learn to pivot.
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: Big business, small business.
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: You got to learn to change.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: You call it the heartbeat?
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: It's the heartbeat. That's life. Life is up and down.
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: Everything ain't always up. So we go up and down.
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: And you find a way to continue. Because what happens is,
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: one of my most favorite books, it's a white author.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: The book's called Who Moved My Cheese? Simple read. But
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: change is going to happen. Whether you like it or not,
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: be prepared. And be prepared to pivot. So that's all.
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: You got to constantly know you're going to stay stagnant.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: So we just constantly trying to reinvent ourselves. There's some
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: things that I don't want to discuss that we got
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: going on that we trying to do. Until it comes
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: into fruition. During the pandemic, the people was talking about, oh,
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: you got to be outside and things like that. So
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: we created a bookmobile and we go to schools and
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: we put on book fairs at schools and we take
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: the books and bring authors and we try to make
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: reading fun. And I ask them all the time. I say,
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: who likes to read? Not a lot of people raise
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: their hand. Reading. It's fundamental, but at the same time,
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: it's so important. It's so important. And our kids, we
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: got to find a way to make it exciting because
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: it's a lot of distractions. Social media is a big
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: part of it. And so we got to find a
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: way to educate the next generation. Remember, 100 children are 100%
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: of the future. And children, right now, we have to
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: invest in them to take over from us. And so
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: we want to see a transition. We want to see
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: generational wealth. But we don't want them to start on
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: the bottom every time. No. We want them near her
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: or something. So we got to reach the youth and
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: the young in order to make sure that we're making
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: a smooth transition to our future.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: I love that. A little bit of more mayonnaise, salt
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: and pepper.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: I feel like it was the mayo. It was the
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: mayo that was kind of like.
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: Should have just. you needed one of those not one
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: of those the ones that you scoop in and dab
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: it what are your top three books that you is
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: I have a book in my arsenal that I always
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: recommend but what are like the top three books that
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: you'd recommend to just anybody as far.
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: As you.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: Number one is Powernomics Powernomics by Dr.
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: Claude Anderson which is a book that focused on economics.
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: It's the blueprint for Black America for economic empowerment. And
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: that's why, because that's what we, listen, financial literacy is
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: the number one civil rights issue today. Anything else is
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: just a distraction. America was built on economics.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: Power economics.
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: Power. So that's number one.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: And the author is?
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: Dr. Claude Anderson.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Okay. And what's the next one?
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: And the next one, I will say is Who Moved
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: My Cheese? It's a simple read. Why? Because sometimes we
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: gotta make things simple.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: I need to read that book again. But yes, it's
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: a very, yeah.
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: Who Moved My Cheese, simple book. It's not a black author,
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: but it's a powerful book. And a lot of us
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: gotta change in order to grow. Change your thoughts, change
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: your mind. And then the next one, I will say
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: Think and Grow Rich, A Black Choice by Dennis Kimball.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: Think and Grow Rich, A Black Choice.
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, by Dennis Kimball. And the reason why, because all
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: of those books help you. It's all about the mindset
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: to change the way we think and view life. And
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: so I would say those are my three. But I
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: would say the fourth one is, I would say, The
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: Message to the Black Man by the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: I got to give him credit and props because he's
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: the father of black nationalism. And the book, to me,
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: is not about religion. It's just do for self or
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: suffer the consequences.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: Wait, say that again?
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: To me, the book is simply in a narrative. It's
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: do for self or suffer the consequences.
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: Do for self or suffer the consequences.
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: When you neglect to do what's in your best interest,
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: you suffer the consequence. See, take for instance, see all
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: the social injustices that occur? And then we are outraged,
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: but we're not outraged when black on black go down.
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: Nobody's talking about all the black on black crime, black
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: on black murder. There's no outrage. And so if you
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: don't change that within your own community yourselves, then why
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: would somebody outside your community stop killing you? Because they
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: don't see you respecting yourself. Blue on black only happens
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: because black on black don't do nothing about black on black.
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: Then that's how I see it. Is that once you
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: stop the killing in the hood amongst us and backstabbing
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: and the cheating and the lack of moral ethics, then
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: you see a transformation because it's mindset. Life is precious.
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: Dennis Kimball said, and they can grow rich, a black choice,
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: scientists study, how much is a human worth? That's a
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: question I'm asking you. How much is one human worth?
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: I actually don't know.
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: Start with yourself. How much you think you worth? What's
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: your value?
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: This is so terrible because I actually don't, I don't know.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't even know where to begin.
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: Some people will calculate body parts. How much is on
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: the heart worth, a liver worth, all right? And that
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: still won't cut it, Dennis Kimball said in Think and
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: Grow Rich. You're worth billions of dollars. You know why?
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: Because you're atomic and one human body can run a
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: city A major city for almost six months based on
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: the energy it generates. He broke it down in there.
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: How valuable life is that we take for granted. We
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: don't see value in each other. So therefore, I don't
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: see you worth billions. Without you, we lose billions. Wow.
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: And he broke that down in that because it's the
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: way we don't view life as much of nothing. I'm
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: constantly like, if I see Lord, why kill it? I'll
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: just move it to another place. Because life is perfect.
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: There's a whole lot of space, but there ain't a
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: whole lot of life. And we killing life like it
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: don't matter. So.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: I never thought of it like that. i was at
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: the statue of liberty and i was actually thinking and
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: even if you're i was in new york and i
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: was telling my daughter people got together and built a
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: whole subway system even like how we get around in
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: new york now i remember it was not you could
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: just punch in on your phone and get direction you
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: had to really figure it out. And I was like, wow,
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: the human race to be able to design and build
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: all these things and the engineering that goes behind it.
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: And I was actually thinking about it. I was like,
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: that's crazy that we did that.
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: And that's the power of the mind. It's incredible. You
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: know how much organizational skills you have to deliver mail
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: six days a week to every address in America? From
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: one coast to the next. And deliver mail six days
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: a week. It takes an extraordinary amount of organization. But
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: that's what we are. We're organized. That's why it's called organs.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: They work together. So human beings, they're second to none.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: And we have to use our minds in order to
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: get to the next level that we need to get.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: And we can't do that unless we work together because
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: humans are meant to work together. But no, it's fascinating.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: But it's math. It's math. That's the thing. People come
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: in and say, man, I got this going on, got
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: that going on. I say, brother, check your formula. What
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: you talking about? Brother, life ain't nothing but a math problem,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: a formula. You need to eliminate some of them things
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: out your equation so you can have success.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: Because it's actions, and actions have consequences. Once again, it's
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: just mindset. Life is nothing but a word problem. It's
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: the sum total of all the decisions that you're going
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: to make. You make better ones, you get a better outcome.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: You make poor ones, then you make... A poor outcome.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: There you go. See? Wow.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for taking time out your schedule to...
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: I know this was the random request of the day
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: this morning when I was trying to... I was like,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: oh man, I have to explain. He has to cook
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: this broke dish. But thank you so much for taking
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: time out your schedule and coming to bless us with
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: your energy, your space, your knowledge, your wisdom. your story,
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: and the food, I would rate it as a survival dish, y'all.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: It will fill your belly on a budget. Malik did
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: a good job. I can't say I would run home
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: and do it, but I can say if the cash
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: flow isn't working right, this is what we're eating.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: You can eat. You can eat.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: You can eat.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: You can eat.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: Where can everybody keep up with Malik Books events? Obviously,
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: you guys know where to buy some malikbooks.com. And then
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: keep up with you on socials.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: Definitely. Our social media handle is Malik Books, M-A-L-I-K-B-O-O-K-S. Malik Books.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: Follow us online. Visit us at the Westville Culver City Mall,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall. And you can email us for
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: any events at malikbooksatatt.net.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: And then the Bookmobile.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: For the Bookmobile, yeah, you can reach out to us
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: at our email. Okay. Or call the store. Okay. We
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: got a beautiful staff there. Take your phone number and
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: get it in touch with us. Yes. But that's, stay, hey,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: you got to follow us because we have a lot
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: of great content and we do a lot of events.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: We host the who's the who of the who.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: The who's the who of the who events. And they
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: sell out quick.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: Yes. Yes.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: All right, guys. Thanks for tuning in. Peace out.