Meet Dominique Burleson

We were lucky to catch up with Dominique Burleson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dominique, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
In tracing the roots of my resilience, my thoughts instinctively turn to my ancestors, a source of unwavering strength and determination. As an Indigenous woman, there’s a belief that I hold that a resilient spirit is deeply woven into my very DNA. The journey of running a modest bookstore amid the daunting competition posed by one of the world’s largest corporations may cast shadows of self-doubt, yet I persist with the confidence instilled by the courage of my tribal ancestors here in NC. Their endurance through colonization serves as a powerful motivator, a testament to the human spirit’s capacity to overcome adversity. I wanna be like them.

So, why did I star Paperbacks & Frybread Co.? The answer is straightforward. Reflecting on my own upbringing, I found a lack of narratives about my own people, replaced by tales of Thanksgiving and Squanto that failed to capture the the truth of my heritage. This fueled my determination to create a space where the upcoming generation of Indigenous children could see themselves as heroes, moving beyond stereotypical portrayals.

In the face of challenges, my decision to keep going is a mix of respecting the past and wanting to honor the future. My ancestors laid the groundwork, and I’m just making sure the story keeps going for the ones coming up next.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m from the Lumbee tribe here in NC. I’ve been married to my ginger husband for almost 16 years and we have 6 kids together. We’ve been homeschooling for over a decade. When our older kids began learning US history, I was working with various homeschool curriculum companies doing reviews and UGC for their social media while also creating content for my blog. One of the glaring red flags among every company I worked with was their lack of diversity in the books they recommended. NONE of the companies used Indigenous written content when teaching about Native history. Having Indigenous children this was a huge problem for me.

Fast forward a few years and I woke up one day knowing I needed to open a bookstore. I had some failed businesses in the past thanks to a lack of direction and undiagnosed ADHD. However, writing and owning a bookstore have been passions since I in the first grade.

Nicole, the owner of Bettie’s Pages, a famous bookstore on social media-told me I shouldn’t wait to open my store and that she thought it would be so cool for my kids to grow up with a store and all those books. And that was all the permission I needed.

We opened in 2022. (And by “we” I mean my husband and I. Although he works fulltime, he does help with packages and setting up at book fairs and powwows.) We started small and did a few book fairs and sold a few books in an online store. But after a book fair where no one showed up and I made a silly video about it on TikTok-we went viral. Another friend who had a huge following on the app did a video and we blew up.

Our message has always centered around the idea of helping people, “decolonize their bookshelves”. This wasn’t just about reading books from different cultures but building empathy and humanizing people we barely learned about in school. It’s about honoring our histories and stories, rich with culture that many times are watered down to simple stereotypes.

The books we sell are hand picked by me, where I try incredibly hard to ensure that these are stories told from the perspectives of the communities written about. Although Indigenous stories were what drove me to open the shop, we have stories from Asian, Black, Latine/LatinX, Muslim, LGBTQ+, disabled communities and more. We also don’t just carry books from big publishers but smaller imprints like Heartdrum, indie publishers like Rowhouse, and even self-published books.

The majority of our suppliers consist of fellow small businesses owned by women with marginalized identities. This deliberate choice is aimed at fostering an economy within the store that uplifts multiple small businesses instead of contributing to larger corporations. It represents another avenue through which we strive to decolonize, embedded in the very fabric of our business model.

Kids (the big ones and small ones!) deserve to see themselves in books. And since the US has been going hard on book banning it makes our shop that much more necessary to get diverse and inclusive books in as many homes as possible.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Opening up a bookstore took a ton of research. I look back and really don’t know how I did it! It feels like a blur. However, one of the things I did well was understand my brand as a whole. I knew what message I wanted to get across. I knew who I wanted to serve. I knew the vibe I wanted my visuals to have. My brand was solid before I ever posted a single product. To this day I have had people send in their resumes after college because they want to work for me. But the thing is, P&F has just been me (and the brawn of my husband). However, having all the aspects of my brand worked out from the beginning made it feel like a professional brand.

Another thing that has been super useful has been building community. The message of my shop could not have reached the people it did without choosing community over competition and typical “dude bro” capitalism. Building relationships via social media instead of a “selling” focus has brought many opportunities I could have never of dreamed of.

Lastly-the willingness to fail. I have had multiple failed businesses since I was 22 years old. But every single one of those businesses brought me a new skill that Paperbacks & Frybread is built upon. I learned branding because I used to be a book blogger. I worked with authors and PR teams and paid attention to all that they did to market and brand these books. I later on turned into a brand consultant speaking at conferences all over my state and working with small business and high profile clients. I learned ecommerce because my very first business was an Etsy shop where I sold jewelry. I learned relationship marketing (and all the things you shouldn’t do) through direst sales and the terrible experience of multi-level marketing.

All of these skills made creating this businesses a heck of a lot easier than starting from scratch!

Building upon your knowledge and giving yourself is good medicine to help you get to where you dream of being.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I am always looking for businesses and individuals with similar philosophies! May it be helping to get books into the hands of kids, sponsoring tribal schools to give them access to more books, speaking or writing opportunities. I am all for it. I don’t want Paperbacks & Frybread Co. to simply be a shop that sells things but a movement that helps reshape the lens in which society sees these marginalized groups.

I also love hearing from authors, publishers, etc. who are looking for help promoting books from marginalized authors. I’m always open to hearing of new stories that my shop could possibly carry.

If anyone has any desire to collab with me they can reach out to me via Instagram @paperbacks_n_frybread or through email, hello@paperbacksandfrybread.com

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Tory Bae

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