We’re looking forward to introducing you to Mecca Williams-Muhammad . Check out our conversation below.
Hi Mecca, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What is a normal day like for you right now?
I love that you ask this question. I am in my season of discipline. I wake up every morning about 4:50 am. I make up my bed. I wash up, and then I pray. After prayer, I set my intention for my day. I write down my goals for my day. I make myself a cup of tea or coffee. Then, I go to my home office, get on the computer, and get to work. I work for myself. I am the owner of Los Angeles based boutique entertainment company, 5 Oceans Booking. I am a proud entrepreneur. I check emails, and make my business calls to the East Coast. Once I have completed those calls, I make my son’s breakfast. Then, I take him to school. I am a stay at home mom; I drive my son to school every morning. Once he’s dropped off at school, I drive to the beach for my morning walk. Once I finished with my walk, I go home to take my shower, and get dressed for the day. Once dressed, I go back to my home office, and I continue to work on my business. For example, I complete projects I started in the morning, and make my calls for business on the West Coast. By that time, it’s time to pick my son up from school. I make sure to ask my son how his day was at school, and we converse about his day. When we get home, I make him a snack, and he starts his homework. He goes to the backyard to practice his basketball, or I take him to basketball practice. Yes, I am a basketball mom, and I am very proud of that. My son is playing at an elite and high level of basketball at his age. Once he is finished with his basketball practice, we come home. I make my son’s dinner. I make sure that his homework is complete, and that he prepares for bed. Once he’s in bed, I read. I will read on our patio, in my home office, or in bed. Then I am sleep. It is very important that I keep and maintain my routine in this stage of my life. That is the day in the life of me, Mecca.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Yes, thank you for asking, and giving me the opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Mecca Williams- Muhammad. I am a Los Angeles, CA native. I am a Mother; I have an amazing son. I am an entrepreneur. I am the owner of Los Angeles based boutique entertainment company, 5 Oceans Booking. My company is a consulting company for the entertainment industry. My company also hosts events, and focuses on management. I am a singer and songwriter. I started my career as an artist at a very young age, professionally singing with Grammy Award winning producers, songwriters, and artists. I have written, sang background vocals, and toured with some of the most successful artists in the world. I signed my first record deal with Sony Urban Music. I am very thankful for that amazing opportunity to be an artist. After being signed to a major record label, I started working for The Michael Jackson Company. I was offered this once in a lifetime opportunity from my brother Michael Amir. He was the Chief of Staff for Mr. Michael Jackson, and The Michael Jackson Company. Working with The Michael Jackson Company gave me the unique and priceless opportunity to network with the best in the entertainment industry. This amazing experience inspired me to start my own entertainment company, 5 Oceans Booking. After my success in the entertainment industry, I made many investments. I invested in real estate, and I also invested in different Apps. I was given the opportunity to appear on television as myself. I have made special appearances on VH1 on their successful reality television show “Basketball Wives”, as seen on VH1 and BET networks. With my company, 5 Oceans Booking, I have given back to my community by hosting Annual “Women Entrepreneur Summits”. These Women Entrepreneur Summits are not exclusive to only women, everyone is welcome to come network and showcase their business. These events are extremely important to me as a black woman entrepreneur. My brand is very unique, because I was an actual artist for many years, and I am still a musical artist. I still write, sing, and play the piano. Many owners of entertainment companies do not know the complexities of being an Artist. They come into spaces of entertainment, management, and PR with no understanding of being an actual artist because they were never artists. That makes me unique because I understand the entertainment industry from the artist’s perspective, and as a successful business woman in the entertainment industry. I am very proud of that distinction! My company 5 Oceans Booking has recently became an official business vendor for Los Angeles County. I am looking forward to working on future entertainment and consulting projects with the County of Los Angeles.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I love this question. A moment that shaped how I see the world was giving birth to my son, and meeting him for the first time. That moment changed my life. Becoming a Mother has been my most purposeful, and inspirational moment in my life. Before becoming a Mother, I have traveled the world to over 40 countries, I fulfilled my dream of becoming a full time musical Artist. BUT, there has been no other life event, or experience that gives me the fulfillment, joy, and life purpose of being a Mother. My labor was difficult, I literally felt like I was going to die. But once I met my son, that moment shaped my life’s purpose forever. All of the physical pain that I endured of labor for over 22 hours magically disappeared. I have never felt a love, a commitment, or greater purpose (outside of God) that I have for my son. Words can never express the moment that I met my son. It was priceless. That moment was, and still is the best moment of my life. I thank Allah (God) for giving me the opportunity to give birth, and become a Mother. I have to give praise and honor to MY MOTHER. Without her love, guidance, support, and overall being by my side every step of the way from my pregnancy to the delivery of my son; I would NOT have had such a pleasant experience of pregnancy and childbirth. By far, the best experiences, lessons, and joys of my life are from being a Mother. I now see the world through the lens of unconditional love, compassion, kindness, hope, awareness, and pure joy.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
This question really resonates with me. I grew up in many cities in Los Angeles County. I grew up in gang culture. Gang culture also included drug culture. Many of my friends have lost their lives, or are currently in prison serving prison sentences of over 20 years. I am also a child of an incarcerated parent, my Father served time in prisons, appropriately 30 years altogether in the federal penitentiary system. I have endured and experienced so much pain firsthand from experiencing gang and drug culture. It consumed my life for many years. I would find myself in dangerous situations because of loved ones who were submerged in gang and drug dealing culture. For years, I kept this pain to myself. It was difficult navigating this period of my life from witnessing years of violence. I would never disclose the pain that I witnessed and endured. I stopped hiding my pain, and turned it into power by writing my first e-Book “Diaries of a Dope Girl”. A fictional set of diaries of a young girl who grew up in South Central, Los Angeles navigating gang and drug culture. I was able to release a lot of my pain into my e-book. I aligned myself with charities that focuses on children of incarcerated parents to give back to my community. Being a child of an incarcerated parent is very difficult. I understand those struggles firsthand, and became an advocate for women in gangs, and an advocate for children of incarcerated parents. I released my first e-Book under my entertainment company 5 Oceans Booking. Meaning I published my e-Book with my own company 5 Oceans Booking. I am very proud of this accomplishment!
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
This is a very complex question, but I will do my best to articulate my thoughts on this subject. The industry that I have worked in as a professional since I was a teenager is the music business. Also known as the entertainment industry. I love the entertainment industry. The entertainment industry has allotted priceless experiences and opportunities for me! I have been able to live out my dreams, monetarily provide for my family, travel the world, and provide outlets for my musical talents for the majority of my life. Success looks very different to many. For me, I consider myself successful in the entertainment industry because of the following. I have been able to start my own entertainment business, and provide a lifestyle for my family that I am proud of. Solely from the success of my entertainment business that I own. I was able to work for some of the most successful artists in the world including my experience of working for The Michael Jackson Company. Traveling the world with famous artists for tours, making money doing what I love which is music, is a dream come true for me. But I worked very hard for my success. I started in the music business as a teenager. I went to school for music at Chapman University. A very prestigious school for music; I am extremely educated in music. However, I had to own my own entertainment company, and do business on my own terms to have the successes that I have personally accomplished. The entertainment industry, in my personal experiences and observations, give the illusion for many people in the general public to believe that this is an easy business to become successful in. That is furthest from the truth. It is very difficult to become successful in the entertainment industry. The biggest lies the industry tells itself is that their artists are as successful as they portray them to be to the general public. In my opinion, the entertainment industry (specifically major record labels) spend a lot of funds to inflate numbers and create facades to the general public. They “trick” music consumers and even their own artists with these inflated numbers for their artists to appear more successful than they actually are. In my personal opinion, these inflation practices have more harmful results to the artists than good results. There are many labels that fund the facade of “success” so that the artist can have a better opportunity to sell more units in music. This is a great investment for the record labels, but the artist usually have to pay the record labels for “recoupment” of the label’s investment to the artists’ musical projects and albums. Leaving many artists in debt to the record labels. This is a controversial topic within the music communities. However, many music insiders and music executives (once they leave the major record labels) have acknowledged the inflation practices of the music business. Another example of inflating numbers to keep up a facade is the funding of an artist’s social media presence. For example, an artist’s label may buy followers to inflate the popularity of the artist. Since the popularity is bought and not organic, the artists and music consumers are confused when the artists do not have successful sales in their tours or records sales. The music industry is a business, and will exhaust all options to receive a profitable return on investment (ROI) on their artists. I have witnessed this firsthand. So I say the industry lies to itself, because many of these artists are not aware of some of these “inflation of numbers” practices of the entertainment industry until many years later.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. When have you had to bet the company?
I never had to bet my company with any legal disputes or high-stakes litigation with regard to my company; I am very thankful for that. I did, however, had to recently make a very difficult business decision that drastically affected my business. I felt this recent business decision affected my business so drastically because the outcome was detrimental to the core of my business. The core of my business is a popular service that I provide which is hosting events. I was approached by a club venue in Los Angeles to host a weekly “party”. The weekly party would have brought business to the club venue, and my company’s trajectory to make a profit was very high. I accepted the opportunity to host the weekly events with my company. After the business details and contracts were agreed upon, I started to promote the new weekly party nights via my personal and business social media accounts. I sought after the hottest Dj, club promoters, professional athletes, models, and party goers to curate an amazing weekly night for my company, 5 Oceans Booking. I was extremely excited. However, after a business meeting with the club venue and my team, I realized that there were not many reservations for VIP sections and tables. The projection of section and table sales were extremely low. Lower than I have ever experienced for my company. Once I realized the sales projections were extremely low, I reached out to my personal friends who were professional athletes, Dj’s, models, promoters etc. These people are the “heartbeats” of the club scene. These are the people who make the club scene successful. I asked them their reasons for not going out to clubs as they used to. Their answers shocked me. Many did not feel safe, and wanted more exclusive settings not a club venue. Many didn’t see the value of buying bottles and paying for club VIP sections anymore. Many felt that the club scene in Los Angeles overall had “died”. Their opinions seemed very valid and accurate based on the low sales of VIP sections and bottles. I ultimately had to make the humiliating decision of canceling my weekly nights that my company were to host AFTER I had already promoted my new weekly events on my social media accounts. This decision was extremely difficult, I even cried. My business has been successful because of my company’s reputation. Canceling events is detrimental to a company’s reputation that thrives off of successful events. I felt very defeated. Ultimately, it was the best decision for my business. As a business owner, I would have lost tens of thousands of dollars. In the club venue business, the host(s) of the events have to invest a large deposit to cover “the bar” of that venue. I was lucky that the club venue gave me deposit back. Otherwise, I would have lost tens of thousands of dollars. Even though it was a humiliating experience, having to cancel my club weekly nights. It was the best decision for my business. The nightlife experience in Los Angeles has drastically changed after the Worldwide pandemic of COVID 19. I ultimately learned that in order to be successful, I have to curate spaces for my clients that makes sense for me as a business owner, and overall give my clients a high level, enjoyable experience from my company. That was a difficult decision, but I am glad that I made that decision for my business. Timing is everything; it wasn’t the right time for my company to host these weekly events. Within the time period of my decision, the LA County fires of 2025 devastated Los Angeles County. I would not have been able to have my events anyway because of the fires. So I ultimately made the best decision for my business, and learned a very valuable lesson.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Mecca_Goddess @5OceansBooking
Image Credits
Credits : 5 Oceans Booking LLC
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