We recently connected with Nakendra Harris-Mason and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Nakendra, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
When it comes to risk taking to me it’s pretty much what it means taking risk, and what I mean by that is, you have to know what it is that you want out of your business and you have to believe in yourself and your business. Some of that comes with making sacrifices and taking risk, say for example. I pretty much do everything with a budget I have a household, kids, etc all these things that we have to take care of that we do on a day by day basis. My business is what allow me to be able to do some of the things that I love even with my husband doing his part. I would invest in my business not knowing the outcome like is it going to make me some money or will I take a lost on my investment and the crazy thing is I did both before, I made money and I took a lost but that didn’t stop me from building my business, taking risk and betting on myself. It just made me want to go harder and I did.
Nakendra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
For those who haven’t discovered me yet or my brand or for those who’s just now finding out who I am and want to know a little more about me. I’m going to first start off by saying where I’m from. I’m from Los Angeles Ca, born and raised. I’m an Entrepreneur, 5x Author, Book Publisher, Instructor and the Founder of The Author Fest Tour. I started building my brand in 2016 that’s when I started writing my first book. I released my first book called Who Am I in 2017. After my first book was released and I started making sales and my book signing was a success, that’s when I knew I wanted to go further with my writing career and that’s where it all began for me. After my first book release I’ve released four more books after that. Marriage Made & What Comes Within, in 2019, I Found Me in 2022, Beauty For Ashes “Dropping Gems” in 2026 and The Journey “Destined For Greatness” in 2026, so I’ve pretty much been on a writing streak. The good thing is I’ve taught myself how to publish my own books. My first few books I’ve partnered with a third party and the more I started getting into the writing industry or becoming an Author I wanted to start taking full ownership of my hard work, I pretty much did all the work by myself to began with so why not. I didn’t start my own company until I started receiving tons of emails and inbox messages from people all over, asking me how did I get started with becoming an Author and what can I do to help them get started.
I would literally give free advice so that way they can get started on their own book but I guess it was still difficult to some people to where they would still contact me and ask me question’s.
In 2020 while the pandemic was still going on that’s when I decided to start my own publishing company. I stepped out on Faith, I didn’t worry about where would my clients come from because I knew that I was a people person and people would love to work with me and they did. I now publish other people books besides my own and I’ve came across some amazing stories and had the pleasure in helping first time authors with their books or even prior Authors under my publishing company.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One of the lessons that I had to unlearn was putting myself last, I would tend to put everyone else first not realizing that how am I supposed to show up for anybody else if I’m not being my best self. How can I be a help to my family, my clients or even my peers if I’m slacking by making sure everyone else is happy or everyone else needs are taking care of before mine. I’m good at carrying a lot of weight on my shoulders, meaning I’m good with handling pressure. I’ve been like that every since I was a teen so a lot of things that I do always come from the heart, I’m use to it and that can sometimes be a good thing or a bad thing. So I’ve learned how to say no at some point in my life and I had to unlearn that putting yourself first is not a bad thing and it was one of my best decisions, now my kids have a better mom and my husband has a better wife and I can focus on my business and continue to build my clientele with being the best version of myself than I was before.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
The most effective strategy for growing my clientele for me it was literally word of mouth, word of mouth has always been one of my biggest marketing strategies because word of mouth can go a very long ways. Once you do business with one person, cause sometimes that’s all it takes is one, then they go and tell their momma, daddy, sisters, brothers, friends, coworkers and the list goes on and on and by the time you look up you have a whole business going on that you have established. I’ve built part of my clientele from social media followers as well but I can truly say that I’ve connected with more people off social media than I did online. I’m more of an in-person, networking, shaking hands type of business woman. My people know me personally because I gave them that window and space to get to know me like that and that’s how you build true meaningful relationships and trust with people and they stick with you longer. I’m taking my work ethic to a new level where I get more creative, I decided to start my very own book tour which I am now the Founder of “The Author Fest Tour” I’ve created this platform for Authors who can put a voice behind what they write about. I wanted to take Authorship to another level. I want to make reading popular again and not just popular, I’m doing it with swag, the goal is to make so many people want to become Authors and share their story because everyone has a story to tell. During the Author fest tour we also have entertainment we have the live panel, for the Authors we have live performances from singers, and rappers, I will add more talent such as hip hop dancers, poets, and guest speakers. The Author Fest tour is not only a platform for Authors and book signings it’s a full experience an event that you wouldn’t want to miss and you can always remember. This Tour will take place annually, I’m already looking for my next authors and talent who wants to be apart of the movement it’s been such a blessing to have my 2026 heavy hitters Dr. Tonesa Welch the First Lady from BMF, Executive Producer, Brand Influencer, Author. Her son H.Corey Mills The owner Of BMF LLC, Writer, Filmmaker, and Author. Yung Muusik R&B Singer, Songwriter, Rapper, Author, Actor. Rap Artist JayLuckk and our Host Hakeem J. Croom we have a dope line up for our 2026 tour we are getting some great feedback. People are saying they never seen nothing like it and that was my plan and purpose is to create a full experience and for people to be inspired and to stay encouraged.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/NakendraHarrisMason?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=c70efc43-206d-4849-8c73-5d162541d7cd
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luvslikehoney?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nakendra.harrismason?mibextid=wwXIfr
Image Credits
Tyreeq Mason, NycceDreams, New Perspective LLC