We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nakendra Harris-Mason a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Nakendra , appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
I actually started my business by my own experience which was self taught. I took what I’ve learned and did what worked for me and used that to execute my business. Sometimes what works for you might not work for other people but I knew I had something to bring to the table and people would begin to take an initiative to what it was that I had to offer. I felt that I’m not the only person that’s out there with a story to tell, I know that there are others out there who was just like me that wants to become an published author but don’t know where to begin, or don’t know how to start writing their book. So I’ve decided to start my own book publishing company that I can gain clientele from and give others the opportunity to be able to write and publish their book. I started off with maybe 1 to 2 clients and then it became a big thing for me as my business started to expand. Within the next year or so my business started to grow. I started to promote my brand more and put it out there, that’s when other people started seeing what I was doing and actually started to get on board and book me as their publisher. I now have even more clientele, I’m going on 3 years into my book publishing company which I launched in 2020. It has opened up various of doors for me I now teach my own book publishing creative writing class in my community where I teach others how to write, edit and publish their book. I’ve became an instructor. I’ve also had my guest appearance on various of talk shows and TV shows such as, The Nikki Rich show based out of Hollywood Ca, The Sisaundra show that’s based out of Orlando Florida, and The Raheem Mitchell show that’s based out of Long Beach Ca. I can truly say I’m glad that I started my business when I did it has paved a way for me and still is, I’m beyond blessed.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I believe I got into the writing industry because I have always been a big fan of writing. I felt that writing has always been an escape way for me, when it comes to expressing my feelings or even letting my emotions just flow on paper. I’ve decided to take my writing to another level and just put it in a book. When I Published my first book it was not more about the money, I knew that the money would come once I had put my book out there, it was more of me getting the opportunity to be able to encourage other people and share some of my life experiences with them and inspire them to go after their dreams as I did. I used to get so many messages from people all over asking me how can they publish their book and I used to give the information out freely, of no charge because I knew how it felt, I was in their shoes and I didn’t get that kind of help. Even though I gave the information out freely the people that were asking still couldn’t grasp on how to get started. That’s when I decided to start my own book publishing company to where I can offer my clients full service. I now have my one on one client’s, my business is very structured I have different packages where they can choose from and which best fits their budget, these packages gives them the opportunity to publish their book under a reasonable and a more affordable price and book publishing can be very pricey. I also offer my clients distribution. I’m proud that I have a company that I have become successful in and I can now help others become successful as well.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
What helped me build my reputation in the market of becoming an author, book publisher and an instructor, I believe it was me being my authentic self. I’m just me and people will see that and grasp to that. I’m very humbled and my prayer life is what keep me going. I always make sure that whatever I do I keep God first and I keep my faith in God. Alot of people can pretend well and I don’t know how to pretend when it comes to me being me or even believing in what I pray for. Alot of my clients love that about me, they remind me of how open and how real I am all the time. The energy and the time that I put into my business can be un-matched at times even the hours that I put in behind the scenes that people don’t get to see. My brand is my brand it represents me. It can be a million people that do what you do and still don’t do it like you only because they are not you, always keep that in mind.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
The lesson that I had to unlearn is that it’s ok to not always say yes. I’ve always been the “ok I’ll do it type of person”, and I had to learn that it’s ok to say no sometimes and separate myself from people that don’t see you as potential but only see you as far as what you could do for them. Some of these things can be learned behavior always being the “yes woman or man ” in the situation, always being there for those that wouldn’t even bend over backwards for you, in other words when it comes to your business your yes is your yes and your no should be your no because business is business. The people that would only have a problem with that is the ones who don’t respect what you got going on in the first place.
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Photographer: Will Utley photography Photographer: AFRO TV MUA: Kreeativebeauty