Alexander Hickman Of Yah’ki Awakened On The Book That Changed His Life (2024)

Make sure you pay yourself first and invest in yourself and your business, before you move money anywhere else. You are the CEO. You are the entrepreneur. You come FIRST. If you are sowing the seed, you have to be the one to harvest the fruits.

Books have the power to shape, influence, and change our lives. Why is that so? What goes into a book that can shape lives? To address this we are interviewing people who can share a story about a book that changed their life, and why. As a part of our series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Yah’ki.

Yah’ki, also known as Alexander Hickman, is a Master Herbalist, Holistic Teacher, Crystal Healer, Detoxification Specialist, Reiki Healer, Motivational Speaker, and community activist. His main goal is to promote unity, love, peace, self-awareness, to all but especially to Africans globally. Yah’ki Awakened is a black-owned holistic health and wellness company focusing on cellular regeneration, DNA repair, and intracellular detoxification using a high energetic diet, powerful alkaline botanicals, and natural herbs.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory” and how you grew up?

I was born in Illinois, I had very humble beginnings being raised by my maternal grandmother in a house with 17 family members. When I was young, I moved to St. Louis with my mother and siblings in hope of accessing better opportunities and a safer environment.

As a child, I took a special interest in music, astrology, and excelled in math and science. During my adolescent years, my interest shifted from music, science, and math to gang affiliation and street life. My newfound interest in street life hindered my success in school, which led me down a rocky path from my adolescent years to incarceration in 2009.

While in prison, my mother gave me a preacher’s bible. The more I studied and understood teachings of the bible, the more I realized how morally deficient my way of thinking and living was, which was my first awakening. I was released from prison at the end of 2009 and further developed and pursued my music career. My music career was prosperous and I became affiliated with artists and record labels such as G Unit Records and DefJam. My debut album “Rebirth” gained notoriety locally and in the south. I also participated in a coast-to-coast mixtape and collaborated with Jim Stone, and J Tec. My single “Melanin” was featured in the instrumental version on a Netflix Series titled “Insatiable.”

Then, my health began to deteriorate due to unhealthy eating habits and recreational drug use. I suffered from diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and heart disease. After experiencing a minor heart attack, I was scared straight and decided to change my life. I immediately stopped using drugs and began researching various diets. Through this process, I feel that I was divinely led to Dr. Sebi, a Honduran self-proclaimed herbalist healer. Through Dr. Sebi’s teachings and research, I discovered that any disease can be reversed given the proper environment, diet, and mindset. This led me to develop a deep passion in researching holistic healing — which ultimately changed and saved my life.

My holistic journey began after I healed myself from the symptoms of illnesses and ailments including diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. I then began to treat my close family and friends, teaching them about the natural healing modalities of holistic medicine and herbalism. My experience in overcoming these adversities ignited a passion to pursue spiritual and mystical practices as well including rituals and meditation.

I spent just as much time teaching spiritual lessons of the bible as I did on my music career. I began teaching myself the Hebrew alphabet in 48 hours. I used my unique skill of merging biblical and ancient mystical principles into a scientific perspective to educate many. Me, along with other brothers of the faith, taught weekly spiritual lessons to a congregation in St. Louis and worldwide via YouTube. I have been inspired by many greats such as Dr. Sebi, Dr. Afrika, Elder Moreh Shaleem, Dr. Ben Clark, Dr. Amos N. Wilson and a host of others.

Let’s talk about what you are doing now, and how you achieved the success that you currently enjoy. Can you tell our readers a bit about the work you are doing?

What brought me to this career — and ultimately this life-changing path — as a Master Herbalist and Natural Healer was my desire to live.

I became a serial entrepreneur. Soon people from my community started to notice the changes in me and began asking for holistic wellness advice, diet recommendations and herbal blends for their own ailments. It was then that I realized my purpose and that I could inspire others — especially little Black boys who look like me — and help change lives.

In 2016, I started my Herbal Company “Yah’ki Awakened LLC.” It quickly became a multi-million-dollar business and I have helped thousands of individuals worldwide on their natural health journey — including celebrities and athletes — through diet, meditation, herbs, and more. Yah’ki Awakened is now the umbrella corporation to Eye of Lotus Research Institute, Eye of Lotus Botanicals, Risen Black Messiah Coalition, Yah’ki Detoxification Home, and Go Organics.

I realized the condition of my people [the Black Community] was due to hard bondage, malnutrition, unhealthy diets, and lack of spiritual guidance. This inspired me to create a community foundation called the “Black Messiah Project,” with a goal to communicate healing among the youth.

I’m also currently on a mission to help inspire and educate the Black Community on the benefits of holistic and natural remedies as well as detoxing. I’m on a 16-city tour to spread messages of healing and empowerment in the Black Community.

I currently hold a Master Herbalist Certification from Heart of Herbs, a Detoxification Specialist Certificate from the International School of Regenerative Detoxification, and Certificate of Attunement to Reiki “Usui System” from the Center for Transformation.

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

The first characteristic that was instrumental to my success was getting out of the “employee/technician mindset.” When I first started my company, I didn’t want anyone working for me. I wanted to be very hands on with my work to the point where I spread myself very thin. I wanted to grind the herbs, package the herbs, take them to the post office, and everything in between. By the time I turned around, my whole day was spent doing that, because I was treating myself as a technician. I wasn’t allowing myself to capitalize off of my products, because I was in that mindset of being an employee, rather than the founder, entrepreneur, and CEO. I finally realized that I needed help. I began to hire employees who then allowed me to be the CEO and think of ways to promote and sell more of my product, and reach more consumers.

The second was consistency. This played a huge role in my success. When I first started my business, it was all about promotion through social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I began to realize I wasn’t making many sales by having a business promoted through social media, and I needed to figure out how to change that. So, I stayed consistent and chose two days out of the week, Tuesday and Thursday, to review the analytics of each of my social media platforms and website to see when people were most likely online. I stayed consistent with these algorithms and within 6 months, I started getting hits, and within a year I started making more per month. Fast forward to 8 years later, now we’re making the most we’ve ever made by staying consistent with these algorithms. This was all because I stayed consistent with choosing two days out of my week to monitor and analyze the algorithms of my website and social media followers. I noticed when I skipped a week of this, my sales dropped, which proved to me that consistency is key.

Third was becoming an alchemist. I had to seize every opportunity I had in order to be successful. For instance, we had a problem with the time it took for the herbs to get to us from Africa, before even getting to the customer. It put me in the alchemist mindset of “What can I do to get these to me quicker? How can I make the customer happy?” I had to either calm the customer down and have them be patient, or figure out a way to get the herbs to them quicker. I knew I couldn’t get the herbs to them quicker to preserve quality, and fundamentally, we could not get herbs from Africa to the USA that quickly. That being said, we created a “waiting protocol” during that 30-day wait time on how to prepare your body before you receive your herbs, including changing your diet and having the customer begin journaling. If it wasn’t for this situation, I wouldn’t have came up with this protocol, and now all customers are excited to receive their herbs and prepare their body beforehand.

What’s the WHY behind the work that you do? Please share a story about this if you can.

I’ve seen how cleansing my body of my traumatic experiences has changed my outlook on life. It all made me love myself more and others.

After suffering from that minor heart attack, I changed my perspective on life. I never wanted to feel that way again. Knowing how I felt in that moment, made me want to help others change their lives, as well.

As mentioned before, I realized my purpose and that I could inspire others — especially little Black boys who look like me — and help change lives.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Kawah is an incredible human being who I am forever grateful for. I wouldn’t be where I am without her. We went into business together and she quit her job as a special-ed teacher to do so. She believed in me so much that she quit her entire profession and used her 401k to invest in my business. With this money, we bought new equipment, expanded the business, made new herbal contracts with global trades and more. Because of her contribution, I was able to expand this business exponentially.

Awesome! Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. I’m an author and I believe that books have the power to change lives. Can you please tell our readers about “The Book That Changed Your Life”? Can you share a story about how it impacted you?

The book that changed my life was The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber. This book is about the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. He walks you through the steps in the life of a business — from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed — and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether it is a franchise or not. Finally, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business. After you have read The E-Myth Revisited, you will truly be able to grow your business in a predictable and productive way.

This book specifically impacted me because going back to what I mentioned before, it helped me get out of the employee/technician mindset and into the CEO mindset. He made me realize that I was working for my business and it was no different than me working as an employee at Walmart. I was draining myself of all my energy and resources, by my own company. The book explained to me certain identification markers to bring me back into the entrepreneurial mindset.

One of these markers noted in the book was “Are you making money while you sleep?” To that, I answered to myself, “no.” I was only making money while I was working.

Another was “If I got up and left my business, would it fail? Do you have systems in place that can run your business while you are gone?” I didn’t have any systems in place. When I went away for a period of time, my whole business was paused. I had to hire employees to run the systems that I put in place.

Lastly, the book asked me “Were you counting the cost?” I had to ask myself “Was I counting the inventory?” and “Was I counting the cost of paying my employees?”. That put me in the mindset to realize that I wasn’t making millions yet and I still had a long way to go. It showed me the difference between gross and net profit.

With these pillars, I realized I had to make a change.

What was the moment or series of events that made you decide that you wanted to take a specific course of action based on the inspiration from the book? Can you share a story about that?

In Chapter 9 of this book, there is a story about a woman who owned a cooking and baking shop. She was the owner of her business, but also the only employee. One time, she went away and she had to completely shut down her business because it was not operational without her. This story made me realize I was doing the exact same thing at Yah’ki Awakened. As I mentioned before, I wanted to be fully hands-on with my business in the beginning and not hire any other employees, to the point where I would have to fully shut down my business if I went away. Her story made me come to the understanding that I needed to be the CEO and I needed to have employees work for me, in order for my business to function without me. After all, that’s how business works.

Can you articulate why you think books in particular have the power to create movements, revolutions, and true change?

To put it simply, words are powerful. Written words give you something to look back to and continue to reference, in order to program your mind to think differently.

Words hold certain vibration frequencies that change the state of your mind. Books are full of information that allow you to expand your consciousness. With that, knowledge becomes power. Power allows you to do anything you set your mind to, whether that is movements, revolutions, and change beyond belief.

A book has many aspects, of course. For example, you have the writing style, the narrative tense, the topic, the genre, the design, the cover, the size, etc. In your opinion, what are the main, essential ingredients needed to create a book that can change lives?

To create an incredible book, the author must be able to create a narrative people can identify with. Maybe not everyone will identify with it, but there needs to be a strong message that a group of people can identify with, in order to create a powerful message and book. The only way for an author to do that, is if the author was once the audience. The author must incorporate his/her own personal experiences and lessons they have learned, in order to educate us, as the audience. If the author experienced this topic himself/herself, it makes the audience relate to the message even more.

Additionally, using simplistic, easy to understand language is extremely important in writing a book. I completely comprehended everything Gerber was saying in his book, because he made everything clear, direct, and to the point. The more simple the words are — free of jargon — the easier it is to understand and more enjoyable it is to read.

Lastly, books that are smaller, have minimal pages, are more intriguing and digestible to read in my eyes. With The E-Myth Revisited, it was short, so I felt like I saw the finish line of the book, before even starting it. I didn’t feel overwhelmed and truly enjoyed reading the book.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started My Career” and why?

The number one thing I wish someone told me before starting my career was never spend your own money. I made the mistake of spending my own money on inventory and paying my employees. I was taking loans out which put me in debt. I changed this by fixing my credit and finding ways to pay the company a little at a time for the herbs, rather than all at once.

Number two, put your money where the banks put their money, which is in insurance policies. When you borrow loans, this is where you accumulate interest, too. It is also tax-free. If you die, your money is protected and you’re able to help provide for your family after you are gone.

Number three, hire employees and pay them well. Pay and compensate your employees for what they are worth. It makes them work harder and gives them something to look forward to. When employees don’t feel valued or compensated fairly, they do half of the work, and we cannot have that happening in a health and wellness focused business. We need to take care of our employees.

Number four, make sure you pay yourself first and invest in yourself and your business, before you move money anywhere else. You are the CEO. You are the entrepreneur. You come FIRST. If you are sowing the seed, you have to be the one to harvest the fruits.

Lastly, find a great marketing and promotions representative for your business. Personally, I took that initiative and studied marketing to be successful in my business. Again, once I started studying those analytics on Tuesdays and Thursdays, that’s when I found my business thriving. There is a whole financial psychology around marketing that’s crucial to businesses.

The world, of course, needs progress in many areas. What movement do you hope someone (or you!) starts next? Can you explain why that is so important?

I feel lucky in my position to actually be in the middle of two movements that I’ve dreamed of starting: healing the Black Community and the new Agricultural Heirloom Seed Program.

My mission to heal the Black Community is an ongoing movement of mine to express the importance of holistic healing. My goal is to help them heal physically, spiritually and mentally, through food and herbology. I’m on a 16-city tour to spread this message and to inspire and educate the Black Community on the benefits of holistic and natural remedies as well as detoxing.

Additionally, the Agricultural Organic Heirloom Seed Program has launched with the mission of allowing everyone to have access to organic, pesticide-free foods, grown right in their own backyards. I created this program for anyone looking to grow and harvest their food naturally, those who live in food deserts have easy access to whole, healthy foods, and others that are organic and pesticide free. I started this program with Makeda Cheatom, Executive Director and Founder of World Beat Cancer. The purpose of this was to create a seed bank trade program where people would be able to farm, crop, plant, sow, and harvest their own organic food, herbicides-free, pesticides-free, and insecticides-free. Before receiving the seeds, one must complete the program in order to thoroughly and properly practice agriculture.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

· Instagram: @yahkiawakened

· YouTube: Yahki Awakened

· Facebook: @YahkiEl

Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us and our readers. We know that it will make a tremendous difference and impact thousands of lives. We are excited to connect further and we wish you so much joy in your next success.