Handling Critics, Dream Podcast Guests, and Booking Writing: Ask Me Anything with Amani and Mandi

We’ve got another fun Ask Me Anything episode of Adventures in Business today! Amani and Mandi are answering your questions and telling you what’s going on in their business, classrooms, and everything in between.

Mandi on Customer Service in the Hotel Industry

Amani kicked things off by asking Mandi: what are the biggest recurring challenges she’s seeing when working with hotels lately?

The answer? Customer service.

Mandi shared that over the past few weeks, she’s had to handle six or seven different mishaps with various hotels. And while mistakes happen (especially in 24-hour operations like hotels, hospitals, or airlines), it’s the way those mistakes are handled that makes all the difference.

She’s noticed a pattern — hotels reacting quickly, trying to slap on a quick fix without slowing down to think strategically. Whether it’s double-booking event space or making decisions without asking key questions, the lack of pause and empathy has made what should be simple recoveries turn into week-long headaches.

Mandi’s biggest wish is that hotels would take a breath before reacting, apologize and empathize genuinely, and think creatively about recovery solutions. 

Amani’s Classroom: Creativity and Storytelling

After Mandi’s hotel tales, it was her turn to put Amani on the spot. She asked, “What’s going on with your students right now?”

Amani shared that it’s mid-semester and his students are in full project mode. Here’s what they’re up to:

Music Business Class: Students are acting as music supervisors, tasked with pairing new music to four scenes from movies, TV shows, or motivational videos.

Entertainment Operations Class: In this class, students are channeling their inner producers by taking a piece of intellectual property (like a game or brand) and turning it into a movie or TV show. Think Barbie or Super Mario Brothers but with their own spin.

Strategic Business Seminar: The focus here? Storytelling. Amani’s students are working on final projects that involve analyzing major brands like Ulta, Ben & Jerry’s, Netflix, and Sony. But the twist is — they’re required to tell three compelling stories about the company in their presentation.

And because storytelling is such a key skill (whether you’re pitching, presenting, or interviewing), Amani’s giving them improv-style challenges to sharpen those skills on the fly.

Amani on How to Handle Critics and Protect Your Creative Space

During the episode, Amani shared a story about a recent book talk he gave, where he was asked an interesting question by a student podcaster: Did anyone around you not support you while you were writing your book?

Amani explained that yes, there was someone close to him — a person he had been dating — who wasn’t supportive of his project. In fact, their negativity stifled his creativity and made it difficult for him to make progress. Their discouragement left him feeling stuck for nearly a year, unsure how to move forward.

So Amani recognized how much influence this person had on his creative process and made the decision to distance himself, heal, and refocus on his goal. One of the pivotal moments came when he took himself on a solo writing retreat, giving himself the space and freedom to finally finish the book on his terms.

Amani’s advice after experiencing this is to treat yourself like a house. Be very careful who you allow inside. You can answer the door and have polite conversations on the front porch, but only let people into your inner space if you trust that they’ll support and protect what you’re building.

Dream Podcast Guests: Who’s on the Hit List?

Mandi and Amani took a fun detour to talk about their podcast "hit list" — the ultimate dream guests they'd love to interview.

Amani’s top pick? Babyface. He even joked that he'd be fully prepped and ready the moment they could get him on. Other guests on his wishlist include motivational speaker Les Brown, self-development guru Ed Mylett, and Spanx founder Sarah Blakely.

Mandi’s list featured some heavy hitters: Jesse Itzler, Sarah Blakely, jewelry entrepreneur Kendra Scott (whose autobiography Born to Shine really left an impression), and, of course, Oprah.

Book Lessons & Launch Strategies: Learning from Experience

Amani asked Mandi what lessons she learned from writing her first book and how that experience would shape her next one.

For Mandi, two big takeaways stood out:

Ask for help earlier: During her first book launch, she was humbled by how many people showed up when she asked for help. That inspired her to keep paying it forward and support others.

It’s okay to outsource: She handled all the marketing herself the first time, which helped her learn exactly what it takes to become a bestseller. But next time? She’s outsourcing! Now that she knows how it works, she can invest confidently and hold her team accountable.

She also loved the idea of building a “book army” — a strategy Amani used. He created a crew of supporters who had everything they needed (graphics, talk tracks, social assets) to spread the word and champion his book. Mandi’s already planning her own version of that for her next release.

Where Book Ideas Come From

Wrapping up, they answered a listener question: How do you find inspiration for writing a book? Is it something you've always known, or does it evolve over time?

Amani explained that his DJ book was about becoming a thought leader in the creative space. His second book, The Quiet Storm, evolved from his grad school thesis — he realized it had the potential to become a full-fledged book, even if the process felt daunting at first.

Mandi chimed in, sharing how much she loves writing books — comparing it to how some people feel about having babies! For her, the process is something she'll happily keep doing as long as she can.