We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nikki High a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nikki, appreciate you joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Opening my bookstore was a huge risk. I have worked in corporate jobs for my entire professional career and earned a good living. There is something very comforting about being able to budget your lifestyle based on a regular income.

Even with this, I decided to following my dream. I quit my job and opened a bookstore. Obviously, there are risks in being a business owner, but opening a bookstore in a time where books are easily accessible online, I was convinced that readers are still yearning to peruse bookshelves, engage with other bookworms and to get personal book recommendations.

During the first lockdown, I started to think about what made me happy, what legacy I wanted to build and immediately got working on a bookstore.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was an early reader and fell in love with books. I loved reading about other places, history, love stories, other cultures. Essentially, if it was in a book I wanted to devour it.

I was raised in the 70’s and 80’s (shout out to Gen X!) and was almost always reading. It wasn’t until I was around 16, I read Kindred by Octavia Butler. I had never read such an incredible story and it was my real first introduction to books that were written by someone who not only looked like me, wrote characters that I could identify with, but who also lived in the same city as me.

I became an instant super fan. This singular book, was the start of my discovery of so many more authors. I consumed Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Bell Hooks, Audre Lorde and so many more.

I would scour the shelves of libraries and bookstores looking for more. However, these discoveries were few and far in between. Shortly after, I started to visit Eso Won Books in LA. I was exposed to so many books by Black authors and I loved being there.

I wished I access to a store like this when I was little, I wanted to create a space that would give people of all backgrounds the opportunity to discover new stories.

My bookstore is filled with books written my underrepresented authors across all genres, My customer base runs a complete spectrum.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I used my savings and also crowdfunded

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think being authentically myself has helped build my reputation. I lead with integrity and honesty.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.octaviasbookshelf.com
• Instagram: @octavias_bookshelf
• Twitter: @octaviasbkshelf
• Yelp: Octavia’s Bookshelf