PEN KEN - Player Potatoes to Penning Legends

Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host, Coney Witt, and today we have very special guest, Kenneth Monroe, also known as penn Ken in the building. Very excited to have you. Oh, I forgot to introduce guys. He is an author of children's books and many more a long time over twenty years as an entrepreneur. But what caught my eye is your books

It's more they're doing well, so it's more to come.

Yes, they're all and that's even better to hair. So before we get started into your story, what are you gonna have me eating today?

So what I'm gonna have you eat is a meal that one of my mentors taught me years ago in Oakland, California, five to one over the town. And these are called player potatoes. Player potatoes is something that gets you by. It don't cost a lot, but it's enough ingredients in there to get it's fulfilling. You have your potatoes, you have your cut up garlic, you have your cut up carrots, bell, pepper, and it's something that you can make that you can eat it two three times with one server.

So and it's very affordable, extremely affordable because this is like under five dollars in this economy, and you can eat you get survived. Yeah, yeah, you can survive. It will keep you.

Bulky absolutely when you loan funds and stuff like that. When you grinding, you can make a part of this and you can eat it twice in one day and still have a little bit left over for the next day.

Nice. So how long on average does it take to make this dish?

About twenty twenty twenty five minutes.

Okay, go ahead, start cooking it.

Do it.

This will be my I eat cereal in the morning. Now I'm like a little kid. I eat fruity pebbles or Captain crunch. No healthy cereals here. When you have a little kid, you know that you become a little kid again. I did not know that's the thing. When you become an adult and you have kids, you get to become a kid again.

That's the fall part, yes, and.

One of the things not trying to sidetrack at all, but as becoming a new mom, I did do by a lot of kid books, and I started to realize, like some of the publishers I liked when I was a kid, I was like, why Doctor Zeus was one of them. Ah, I can't do it with these classes talking to me thank you while we're taping. They're like sending me messages and I'm like, oh no, I can't

A dear we can't relate to that, we can't resonate with. And that's one of the things where I wanted to do the books because we didn't have nothing for the culture for us. Hip hop is a big part of us in the culture. And when I was doing my research before I started the books, I'm like, when I first sign with my agent, the first thing I told her, I said, I don't want.

To do them, no cute bedtime stories.

I'm like, if I want to if I'm gonna get into this industry, you have to be books that's going to touch the culture, the kids to parents, something that we all can resonate with that we grew up on. So I'm like, it's nothing touching on music. Music is such a big part of our world and our culture. Why aren't kids learning about our hip hop he ros? When we in school, we learn about presidents all these type of holidays, but we don't learn about hip hop

And I love this too because kids are seeing kids that are reflections of themselves, which you know, you have people of color in the book. Obviously it's hip hop, but we don't really have a lot of that going on either.

And everything comes back for a circle. Imagine when Wese kids think about it. What was we listening to around the house, the old school, the seventies music. So these kids in this generation, they need to know about the legends that we grew up on exactly.

Let's get into Take me back to what was going on during the time of potatoes, and this you said came from your mentors.

And they called play a potatoes potatoes.

Take me back to what was going on when you got advice to make play of potatoes to survive.

So this was a time we experienced different things in our life, different hardships that we have to persevere through, but we always remember our first time experiencing hardship for real. Even if we have different hardships throughout our life, you will never forget the first time you really experience like what it means to be.

Low and down.

I grew up in EA, Chicago, Indiana, a two parent household, my parents two two jobs, great jobs, my whole like me and my little brother, I didn't struggle growing up. I could not have asked for a better childhood. My mother and father, they just from what they taught us and how they raised us. They just raised us the right way, and we was grateful that they could be able to afford things and do things with us to provide a great childhood for us. I went to school.

And what did you want to do in high school?

In high school? In high school, I was like, one day, I want to go to LA. In high school, go to LA and see what the entertainment industry is about. I was always in high school. I was popular. I was known a lot of my personality of the classes and stuff that I was.

In was like communication classes and TV classes.

I played sports, so I knew that sitting behind the desk wasn't just gonna be my journey. So after my second year in college, I told my parents. I said, I don't want to waste no more time to do another two years, knowing this is not what I want to do. They teach us to go get your degree, go work for something for thirty years, get your pension.

How did your parents take the news.

I have some very supportive parents, and that's one thing I've learned through other feings.

Parents sound amazing.

Yeah, I have very supportive parents. You got parents that try to hold their kids back from what they want to do. My parents was like, we don't know nothing about Hollywood. My mother was scared to death. She said, but if this is what you want to do, we can hold you back. And so they said, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna go out here to La We're gonna get your apartment. We ain't gonna get

MTV and you were doing intern level or what No.

I was doing TV shows like talent you know what I mean, like.

Bucking the talent or I was the talent. Okay, oh you were getting paid and stuff.

Yeah, I was getting paid back in them days, like the reality shows, they pay you I think five hundred dollars or a few hundred dollars.

They want nothing.

But I was doing like different shows. And then I started working for a playboy and doing different things. And that whole year, I was just meeting a lot of people and I was just building my network. And long story short, after that first year was over, or around towards the first year, that's when I met my mentor. He had came to my apartment complex. He was he did real estate, He did a lot of the music industry. He is a guy that taught me a lot just

I believe in you. He said, if you ever get in the buying or something like that, just let me know.

This guy had I called him pimping because he had so many women he like. When I met him, he was in a drop top baby blue Rolls Royce when he came to the like, he had limos. He was just like but he was a good guy. But he took care of the hood.

He was that guy.

But he was around a lot of dope heads and drug dealers and alcoholics and just from trying to help people and put people on.

So what did he do for work?

Real estate?

He did real estate, and he did while you go ahead, start cooking.

While he did he did real estate, and he did a lot in the music industry.

Yeah, I'm good.

He did real estate and a lot in the music industry. After the first year, I had met a woman and she had a small daughter. She had a small daughter, she was like two three years old, and she had just got out of a divorce with a big TV producer, and the TV world, it was a lot of long hours and stuff like that. So when I met her, she was fifteen years older than me, and that was my first time dating a older woman. And she had a small kid, and we got really close, and I

So I went and got a little job at office depot, you know what I mean.

Didn't want to do it, but I wanted to show my woman that I got my all money.

I'm gonna get a few dollars.

I'm not about to be taking you out to dinner, panding on my parents' allowance. Like fifteen years old than me. I'm like, I got to grow up at some point. I didn't want that job, but I went and so I was stocking the shelves. I think it was twelve dollars hour.

It want nothing. I got a job.

After five months, I said, I'm not doing it. I said, this ain't me. I'm not about to force myself to do this. Things start getting hard. I wasn't telling my parents what I was going through. They had called me a check on me and how I'm doing this, and that I was lying the whole time. I'm doing this, I'm doing that. I'm getting some money, but I'm struggling the whole time. I'm behind. I'm behind on my rent. I had a roommate I'm behind on my rent. Things

Oh wow, and you still ain't.

I had to at that point because they had to help me bail me out.

And was their name on the apartment too?

Yeah?

Oh wow? So you was did they handle that? Did you get in trouble?

I didn't get I didn't get like in real trouble. But they gave me a long talk. They gave me a long talk.

And I got it. I got evicted.

I had just recently, me and my girls together about a year and a half. We had just recently broke up because we was going into two different directions and she wanted to get married again. I'm like twenty one years old. Yeah I'm vib and that's not what I wanted to do. And the thing that hurt me the most is that me and her daughter was very close, and it's like walking out of a kid's life when they three four years old, walking out of kids like when they're three four years old.

And that kind of messed me up mentally. That hurt me.

My mentor in Oakland, he was like, you either gonna go home or you can come out here until you get on your feet.

So he said, come out where to Oakland.

He had this big house.

He was the only he he was the only black person in the hills of Oakland, waterfalls, all his backyard. He was like, like the only black all white people around, the only black person in the hills of Oakland.

It was crazy.

So when I went out there, that was the first time when I learned real life. He was like, I ain't gonna I ain't gonna treat you like your mama. You're about to grow up. He was like, you've been spoiled too much. He was like, you like you're facing

This ain't like backing your hometown.

If you want to survive and make it out, hear, you gotta grow up and you gotta start understanding the game. So he when he did that, he used to take me around a lot of meetings and stuff. He was like, I'm gonna take you around all these meetings with me unless you see how you conduct business, how you do things. Now, one thing, one valuable thing that he taught me, and I appreciate him to this day. He said, the people that's gonna end up helping you in your life is going to be women.

He said, yeah, shut out to the women.

Ninety percent of the people that was in his life that he was doing business was women. He was like, look, you got charisma, you good looking, you got a good head on your shoulders. He said, a lot of guys is gonna hate that. A lot of guys that can't give you opportunity not going on to get an opportunity. A lot of guy's not even going with you around a woman, you know what I mean. And at the time,

Where you were out there for a whole year, year, I was out there.

For a year. I was out there for the year.

And it was times I was out there I was at my breaking point, but I just said, I'm not going to give up.

I'm not going home. It's not no option.

And when I went back to LA, I started gathering my network and I started throwing the biggest parties in Hollywood.

I'm talking about not clubs.

I'm talking about like Manches, hotels, yachts, like from bel Air, Beverly Hills. I was doing it in like Miami, South Beach Vegas. The women I was dealing with used to give me their homes to throw parties in, and they didn't want no money.

They was like, we're gonna give you our house throw a party in.

And that's how like my network started when I started throwing all these big parties. But I wasn't making no money at first, because you gotta fake it until you make it.

Of course, the type of.

Parties, yeah, the type of parties I was throwing was they was celebrity parties and high level parties.

So you can't really asking people.

For no money when they're giving you they homes and different things to throw parties in. And even the people that's coming, you can't really ask them for money. You gotta do the parties and build your network. So I'm still struggling, but I'm faking until I make it. I got all these rich people, Hollywood people in all these rooms, but and we party. I'm building my network. But I'm like, I'm betting on myself. If they liked me, they're gonna

What is you doing? I used to tell my mom I had a job.

I used to always tell her my work for the move of companies that help people move out their homes, like the moving trucks. I'm lying the whole time, but you know how I really was getting money until I was able to make some money. I hate to say it, but I'm gonna be real. I was getting money because the drug dealers. I used to have people, but they used to come in and serve rich people like to get high. They liked when they party that they liked

I never touched it. I wasn't driving around the car with it because I wasn't taking them type of chances.

Yeah.

So they used to come in and supply whatever they needed at my parties. And by the end of the night, I get a bankroll. I get a bank roll, just hand it to me, put in your pocket.

I leave. It's three four five thousand dollars.

That's how I'm paying rent off drug money, you know, because I wasn't getting paid from the parties at first until I started building my name. Yeah, so how I was surviving was getting a commission on that's the drugs that they was hustling at my party. Yeah, So that's how I was. That's how I was getting money at first. And then once I started building my network and stuff like that, then I was able to start getting sponsors and different things start happening as far as where I

You survival instincts, and your mentor sounds like he did a very good It sounds like he left a lot of golden seeds in your head because even if you think of it about it from a business perspective, if you're catering to a certain audience and this is what they're into, and you cater to them in total capacity, they're going to keep coming back. So you did exactly what brilliant. I thought you were gonna say sponsors from

Yeah, I moved to LA when I was like nineteen. After my second year, cops real young and start throwing the parties. My run and the parties from was from like twenty one to about thirty one. I had about a decade run while I was woll I was really.

Your dad, amazing. I want to go, but you're done. You're not doing it anymore.

I had my daughter and she got me out the game. When I have my daughter, I got off social media. I stopped throwing parties. When I became a father, A lot of changed for me. But before I had it, from like twenty one to thirty one, I had a decade run where I was throwing the biggest parties in Hollywood, Miami, South Beach, Vegas, New York. Like my network became to a certain point where I was throwing parties all around the country where.

Like it was, but I got caught up.

It was a lifestyle that I would never go back to because I definitely got caught up. And you spending as fast as you're getting it, and you're seeing a lot is happening at there's parties, and you can't keep a relationship like that as well. So it was cause of issues with my relationships.

And you mean like your personal relationship.

Absolutely, because my parties was like eighty percent women my parties. You walk one of my parties. I was doing parties, Playboy Mansion I was doing. It was like eighty percent women, all the parties I was doing. Because that's when my mentor taught me, get the women on your team. That's how you're gonna get money.

That's why he's nicknamed.

I name him that because that's how i'm him.

Is he still around.

Yeah, I haven't talked to him, and I haven't talked to him in a while. We lost touch a little bit throughout the years when I had my daughter, when I became a dad. But he's about he about eighty years old.

Now, wow, he's still doing the lifestyle that he was when you met him.

No, you can't be doing that at that age.

It's not an eighty I'm just saying, I don't know if he's just a retired pick.

No, he's still gonna beat him. He's still gonna get money with women. But he didn't slowed down from that lifestyle because he eighty Now.

Okay, did he ever settle down and have kids or not trying to do.

He do have a kid, He do have a kid that I was really close with.

But his lifestyle was just always he wasn't selling down Mary type.

God.

He always had women around him like all the time ever since I known him, So that that won his personality.

Now, all right, so what happens at thirty one where you start to take another pivot?

Thirty one? That changed my life because.

You did that. You did the party scene for thirty or for ten years, right, Yeah, so then what happens for Yeah, tell me what happens at thirty one?

I was with my girlfriend that held me down. She she was like seven years older than me, and all throughout the Yeah, no, she held me down. She was somebody that my journey wouldn't be my journey without the role that she played in my life.

I'm talking about Ride or Die.

And we were together for years throughout the whole party scene. We had separated and broke up, and when we had separated, I mess someone else and she got pregnant fast and I had a daughter and.

I had a kid.

So when that happened, we were still maybe talking about getting back together and whatnot. But once I knew I had a kid on the way, that was over. I had to leave La move to Chicago because she was from Chicago, and she was like, I don't want to get a birth in La.

Oh the girl that you hooked up with.

My daughter's mom.

Great girl, great family. I appreciate like her family, like we're still close today. Great person, great family. And I come from a father that was in my life. So I wanted about to do no raising, no child long distance. I moved to Chicago. I was depressed for a while because I got a baby on the way. I don't know what that's I'm leaving in La, I'm leaving my network, I'm leaving my lifestyle, and I'm coming out to Chicago

I just never knew.

So it's like a culture shock.

Yeah, it's a culture shock. So it's a.

It's like jumping into a cold water plunge. You like, wait, what differ, don't you?

Yeah?

Absolutely absolutely. It was a culture shock to me. So when I when she was pregnant. I was at every doctor visitor, I was involved the whole thing. And I said to myself, I said, bro, you got to change your ways. I said, you're about to become a dead just the lifestyle that you've had the past ten years. You can't do that no more. Your father now I had to become responsible from a mindset perspective. That was when she told me she was pregnant. A couple months later,

You know what You're right, because I think I did try to look you up on social I know I found you on LinkedIn.

I don't call that social media like a business profile, but TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

I got off that about close about ten years ago.

And people ask me all the time, how do you do everything you're doing and know the people are doing what you're doing and you're not on social media?

And that's the way the world works.

And I tell people all the time, if you knew how to hustle and get money and do your thing before social media, you can do it now. Life is about relationship.

Really, ten years is a long time of relationships that are solid.

My relationships is strong, and that's why I tell people I don't need to be on social media because my relationships I'm talking about twenty years in the game.

People.

A lot of people that's on social media, they force themselves to be on social media.

If you really think about.

Me, we do. You're watching this.

Clip absolutely, but you don't need social media because if your relationship. That's why I tell people I don't cross people. I don't cross people for no money. I don't cross I do everything with good intention, of good character in my karma good because everything every business, when I do business is all good intention. I do things the right way. So I got relationships that I've had fifteen twenty years ago.

It's all referral.

So I'm the type of person that I know that if I don't have no money, my phone gonna ring. Like you gotta have that mindset it's the work that you've put in throughout the years.

It's then people still gonna ring your phone.

Yeah, I agree. So you and just you and this young lady, do you guys settle down officially as like a family.

We did, and unfortunately we broke up when she was like four years old. But we do a great job of co parenting, and it took me a long time to She has a new boyfriend that she's been with for a few years, and as a father, you don't want no man around your child, around your daughter. So he's a great guy. He treats my daughter with nothing but love. So it's something that I had to get over and accept. But we do a great job of

And now the backtrack, the getting off social media, why was it so crucial for your growth?

I had to.

I had no choice. I was in the party scene so tough. I had so many girls that if you're trying to settle down and have a kid and be a father, you got to get out the spotlight. I'm not gonna I'm like, I'm not gonna say names are going to I don't do that. But it was getting It was to a point where I was having relationships with a lot of celebrity women, high level executive whatever was coming to my parties. I'm talking about full on relationships.

On relationships as in like on the personal side, Oh so you was.

He was really a lot of sexual relationships with a lot of celebrity women and influencer women and socialites.

I mean they was coming to my parties. And it got to a point where like I was and demand and you know how it go.

So I had to get off social media because that won the lifestyle that I needed coming to Yeah tonight.

I would imagine you go into your phone and three, four or five ten messages from hey you want to and you're like trying to turn your life around.

Yeah, that's why my relationships didn't work out when I was in a party scene, because like it got to a point where it just the lifestyle I was living. You can't have a relationship and have a family doing that. It's never gonna work. So that's why I got off social media because I want to focus on being a father.

So you become this dad and you're reading children's story, I would pay me the scene of how you know, becoming a dad morphs into a children's author per se without skipping a beat. So if I'm moving too fast, slow me account.

So I give the whole story to run down. So what was the biggest thing to have happened in our life these last few years?

I'm talking about the whole world? What changed the whole world a few years ago?

Pandemic.

When that came, nobody a lot of people stopped making money. Productions were shut down. You couldn't go nowhere. So the pandemic came. And the person that's now my agent and my business partner for the books, we was talking about some business, some toy business, a toy deal for one of my clients at the time.

And well clients at the time, what were you doing at the time.

I was doing a lot of different music stuff, sports stuff. And one of my clients at the time, she was like fifteen years old. Once she's one of the biggest shout out Brooklyn Queen. She's one of the biggest influences on TikTok and stuff like that. But she had a massive following and we was talking about doing different business with her. So that transpired into have you ever thought about she's an author, she's an agent, she's a very

Unless you have a kid, you ain't.

Really thinking about children's But she was like, you know what, that's a big industry. That's something you need to think about. You have the network, you have to create the vision to create your writer.

She was like, think about it.

So I'm like, she was like, ah, you can make some money during the pandemic when ain't nobody making the money right now? Yeah. Shout out Karen Kilpatrick. Thank you for everything you did for me. I wouldn't be in this book industry without her. She taught me the game. She taught me everything I need to know. My success in publishing is because of her, and I think her for it all the time, because it changed my life.

It took me, these books took me around the world.

These books are just so you know, for all the listeners, these books are so beautiful, like the animation the Professionals. It's distributed published by HarperCollins, which is a bit. That was another reason why I wanted you on the show to like walk me to how do you get this? But I see how it's working. Okay, okay, you got this long resume.

Yeah. So she was like, let's start creating.

So I told her, I said, you know what, if I get into this game, I don't want to do the cute bedtime stories. I don't want to do stories that don't mean nothing. I want to do stories that I think is cool and I think that kids and their parents think it's cool. So I started doing my research. I said, you know what, I see all these books and stories, but I don't see nothing that's talking about hip hop. Now keep in mind, this is before Hip

It just fell in line and the books released doing hip Hop fifty.

So I said, I'm gonna create a hip hop series that's going to teach kids about the legends and the history of hip hop, but through education. So once I started creating it, I said, she said, you got to create it where like the education part is very fluid, you know what I mean. Through it's books, teaching you how to count, teaching your numbers, Biggie as the opposites. So we're teaching them about these hip hop legends lives. But while they're learning how to count and the alphabets

Wow.

And now didn't now you you at this point are you pitching the actual book or are you pitching the concept?

I'm pitching the concept. I'm pitching the concept. But she was like, this concept is so big. She was like, this is not a one off. She's like, this is a series. She was like, if the Tupac one is good the manuscript, I give you a deal for four. We turned into Tupac one.

She saw.

She said, we want to sign the deal for four. Pick what other three three you want now?

And you didn't pick jay Z. Just want to point that out one more time.

But I had the pie.

I know, I know. Why explain to the listeners why you did not go with jay Z because I think your explanation was made a lot of sense, even though I'm a hater because you don't have jay Z. But go ahead, explain to everyone why you chose who you chose for the books.

Okay, So I chose pacbecause Pocket is my favorite hip hop artist of all time. He always won't be number one for me, just from his music, from his movies, just his personality, who he was.

It's just who he was. He was just like the realist rapper ever.

So I chose Pac them Mama my favorite song of all time. When I chose Pac, I said, I have to choose Biggie because their lives go together. You can't talk about Pac without talking about Biggie as far as what they went through on the street level and the music. So that's why I picked Biggie because they go together. I'm like, if you have Pac, you can't tell the story of Tupac and don't tell the story of Biggie the kids because their lives go together.

So I picked them too.

And then they was like, you gotta pick a woman because we need a woman and enough women in pot and I'm like, of course. So they gave me different options to choose. They gave me Queen Latifa, they gave me Missy Elliott, they gave me em c Light, Laurren Hill, Salt and Pepper shout out to Sartin Pepper my Homegirl Mannered Salt, and they want to do a book too.

But wait the books, dybody.

Yeah, So I picked Queen Latifah because Miss Queen Latifah Unity is my favor a female empowerment.

Record of all time.

And then they was like for the last one, I'm like, for the last one, I want to pick a group. I'm like, kidd and plays my favorite group of all time, House Party so I said, yeah, that comes out later this year, the Kid and Play joint. Now, keep in mind, I'm the story, the story about to get even. But at the same time, I'm working with one of the top female music artists in Africa. I'm working with one of the top female music artists in the Caribbean. Her

So I said, I want to bring them in and get them deals. So mss V.

She has a big song called natural Girl. It's about teaching black girls how to embrace theirself in their natural skin and who they are.

So I created the book title.

Natural Me, Me and My Partner, and it's a spin off of her song.

And that's what HarperCollins as well.

Nyla Blackman's book is about Carnival and Soca called Love La La, where he's teaching her the sights and sounds of Carnival. Why he's teaching her Soca all this was going on doing my hip hop series. I got all them deals within the same month.

Wow. And then just curious for all listeners out there that are wanting to get into becoming an author. When you're doing a book on a tupole of Queen Latifa, is there some kind of clearing of rights? How does that whole part of the deal work?

Thankfully, when you sign to them big companies, the legal department take you all that. I'm not responsible for any of that. They legal team get all those rights and whatever needs to be done legally. That's the pros of working with a big publisher. Wow, they do all of that.

When you got your publishing deal off concept, what did that moment feel like for you?

It was a crazy moment for me, as I never forget. It was April twenty twenty one and I had got six book deals within the same week. We had been pitching them since like January, and when the deals all came in, they all came in at the same time. I got six book deals. My agent called me within the same week.

How did you backtrack? How did you have an agent to begin with?

My partner. I was telling you about Kara Patrick.

She was your partner agent.

Yeah, she's a big agent in the publishing industry, so she's my agent.

But she was the one that also pitched you to write books. So what were you doing to have an agent prior?

Oh, you mean to have her?

No, she just she asked me if I wanted to get into the children's books and what I thought about it, and she and I said, she said, we're gonna need an agent. She said, I'll represent you because she's a big agent and represent a lot of authors.

So she was like a friend slash partners.

No, she won friend we had at the time. Obviously she's a friend now.

But at the time we had met and it was like like business from the about the books?

So were you pitching her the books? Because I'm missing something, Okay, So she was. She was on the phone with you and she was like, have you ever thought about publishing? What were you guys doing for her or even what kind of business were you doing.

We had met on LinkedIn.

We had met on LinkedIn and when we met on LinkedIn, it was about the toy business for one of my for one of my clients at the time because she had she was a she used to be a VP at a big toy company, so she was That's when she was like, have you ever thought about doing books?

But you keep saying your client at the time, what were you doing to have these types of clients?

Oh, just music, sports. I was doing a lot of stuff came for my parties.

But that's what I'm saying. What were you doing for these people for them to be your clients? Were you managing them?

Okay, okay, I was producing music, I was managing them. I was doing pr from them. I was doing a lot of different things. So for the client of the time, Brooklyn, I was producing music own her. I was doing PR WAE for different networks and companies and stuff like that. So we were doing a lot same thing. For Nyla and ms V, I was producing music. We was doing a lot of different things. So I was like, what you think about children's books?

So this makes a lot more sense going back to why you got off social media. No matter what, clients were always hitting your phone or opportunities were always coming to you.

All the time. Almost done cooking, I'm almost done.

We got we're gonna, We're gonna We're gonna end the episode with absolutely shout outs to pin Bin for this mail. So now that So go back to April twenty first, you said, yeah, you have six published book deals, and why did you choose a publishing offers? Why did you choose Harper Collins and don't you could obviously it could also be the money, but why did you choose them?

I chose them and then my other one through Penguin Random House. I chose HarperCollins because.

Oh, you have two publishing deals at the same time, House and HarperCollins. Would you tell them up front?

So when the offers came in, we decided, like who we want to go with and HarperCollins. So Luana that gave me my deal for that. She comes from producing Lebron James children's book Wayne, all these big children's books about the culture. So I'm like, for hip hop series, this is the right this is the right one to go and then shout out Sackston More.

He is the illustrator of Legends of.

Hip Hop Amazing, illustration amazing, three time.

Three time Emmy director from Nickelodeon Cartoon That with.

The Guys Amazing, his first book.

He's been doing things.

His artwork is absolutely stunning. Continue sorry, continue with your story. So why did you choose Random House? What publishing deals does Random House have with you?

The love La La not a Blackman's book because the editor that gave me that deal is big in the Caribbean culture, and I wanted the book to I wanted the book to be authentic. So I remember one day, me and my business partner, we was writing it. We was sitting up all night thinking of like their language. We was like looking at the dictionary like in Trinidad

That's how the children's books are. So we had to study all of that.

Like I'm a real nerd when it comes to being great and having a vision and doing something like I really study this.

Now. What did your daughter say when she first saw your bucks?

She couldn't believe it was me. She she couldn't believe it. She was like, you wrote these. She was like, I inspired you to get into this. I said, babe, you inspire you changed my life. You inspired me to and shout out to my daughter's birthday today. Happy ninth birthday to my daughter Gianna.

But she was shocked. She couldn't believe that I had did that. And for her to learn.

About people that we grew up off of that was pretty pretty different from me.

Now, just this is sidebar. Since you had your internship opportunity with pimping.

And oak play potatoes with these.

Play potatoes, I am genuinely curious here burme. Does it make you look at women differently when you are dating them versus like just dating for looks or cuteness or what have you. I don't know why I have so many on my plate. Hold on, hold up, I'm already. I'm already big. You're gonna eat somebody.

Okay, okay, okay, come see.

It, watch it taste great?

Oh huh, you may need some of this. Now.

Let's see why you didn't put seasons on. I did.

I did love it more.

All right, guys, pull a chair up or pretty much at the end of the episode, which kind of sucks because I have so much more. So turn off that stove. You you don't cook at home, do you?

I don't.

Okay, come closer, come closer. This will be your mic. Okay, so let's try. Oh did you answer my question? Do you look at women differently since no one pimping?

Absolutely?

So like where you date? Do you date for more than just looks?

And absolutely?

And I like dating just educated women and women that have goals and it's always bigger than looks for me.

Oh no, I'm good on the potato right there.

Yeah, No, it gotta you gotta have. You gotta have goals, you gotta have morals, you gotta have just a mindset that that you want to be great and you're looking for more. He taught me that shark women. I love shark women. Nothing is sexy than a shark woman. Yes, I don't date women that look for dudes.

To be tricks.

And I don't associate with the type of women women that's looking for dudes for come ups and tricks and dudes flying girls around around the country and taking them shopping. And some type of girls can't get my attention on whatsoever?

Yeah, whatsoever?

Let's see what pimping? Do you lived on this in Oakland? I'm guessing yes, Yes, it's a great dish. It's a great dish. And mm hmm, I love that it's colorful. Shout outs to pimping for trajectory of your life. I love that this mentor played such a pivotal role, and

Like absolutely, so I could be like, oh, let's do it, let's get one on whole.

But this right here is spectacular.

Thank you.

I eat this from time to time just just to reflect. Time to time, I'll still I'm not a cooker. I don't cook, but from time to time I'll still do this just to remember, like where I came from and the struggle in the journey and persevering and life lessons that I learned while I was eating this dish.

This dish is really great, really great seasoning did a good job.

I appreciate it.

Thank you so much for responding to me, and you were right. But when it comes to your network, I saw you on LinkedIn. I was very like, Wow, this is amazing, legends of hip hop, unique black author. It's nice to see people of color in different industries. But I did, of course reach out to some other people. I try to see who you knew, and everyone came back saying really great stuff about you that I did.

Shout out to Haley.

Yeah, she has been on the show. She has her hair care products in all Walmarts. And I did ask her about like d I and how all that was affected her.

They're doing great and her daughter that they're great.

They're great when it comes to your book sales. I just have a couple of last questions. Is there any pressure to sell a certain quantity or market a certain quantity.

No, it's not pressure.

You know, when you sign deals with the publishers, they give you a real nice advance to do your thing, and there's no pressure because when they signed you because they love the product, and the books have been performing well, so I'm thankful for that they perform a real well. A lot of celebrities been doing things with them. One of the things that took me back about this book is when Ludacris shout out to Luda he's my favorite, one of my favorites all time.

And when he did it, when he.

Was talking about him and taking photos and stuff with him, that did it for me because he was He's like top three all time for me. So a lot of celebrities been taking pictures with the books, buying the books for their kids. It's been these books been circulating a lot in the celebrity world.

So it's humbling and now we know a lot of what you've shared, a lot of the knowledge that really helps you grow outside of that knowledge. For people like I have a girlfriend and I told you that's trying to get into writing children's books. What kind of advice would you give that person? You could say, right into that.

Camera, advice for getting to the children's book industry. Create Always make sure your story has depth to it. Have a beginning, have a middle, half an end, Have something that the character has to persevere through, have to learn from, and that that's what agents look for, that's what publishers look for. It's not just about writing a cool story,

It's just like these books.

It's yeah, we're teaching you about hip hop, but what else are we teaching you how to learn how to counter opposites? We teaching you things that you're going to learn in school, you know. So always start with a great story that has to beginning, a middle or end. You know, you have to have an agent if you want to get into the big publishers because theyre the ones that negotiates you get you the best deals.

You can't do this alone at all.

So it's create a great story, get an agent, and really just you know, put your foot on the gas. You got a network, You got to hustle. If you really want to get into the children's book industry, let it be known.

Yeah, let it be known. And then just from one parent, I don't know how you feel about when you read children's stories. After I had my daughter, I didn't. I'm very picky when it comes to children's books now. The books that have the most words like drive me nuts, especially at bed time. I love that you balance that in the book because there are people that will write like a whole novel and I'm like, lady, we're trying

Keep it simple, keep it simple.

And you did a really good job about that. And that's the only thing I would say. If you're gonna get into children's books, please not only have a great story, but please don't do too much with the work.

And then when you're doing like I did a lot of tours, like all over the country. So when you're doing stuff at libraries and schools and things like that, you want to keep it simple because the classrooms only have so much time before they got to get to the next one. So you want something that the kids can gather real quick when you're doing like tours especially helps.

Yeah, thank you so much. Penn can in the building appreciate you. Thank you so much for fitting us in your schedule. Shout outs to your baby girl. Happy birthday.

Yes, happy birthday, Gianna Kennedy Monroe. And once again, this is the dish that I was eating while I was bro From time to time I still come back to just to reflecting.

It's a great dish. I would eat this on a This will be a staple. And if you're a mom at Homi, you want to make something under twenty minutes that's hardy and feeling. This is absolutely superb and you can throw it with some chicken in your gut. Absolutely shout out to that, Yes, he's out, guys later for more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.