Today we’d like to introduce you to Katy Lemieux.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Talking Animals Books is co-owned by Valerie Walizadeh and Katy Lemieux.
Katy and her husband are very involved in theater and the arts, and she had always talked about opening a theater company of her own. As she thought more about it and wondered if now was the right time to open one, she realized she wanted to do something that was more than a theater company.
In the summer of 2022, she visited friends in Brooklyn, N.Y. There seemed to be a bookstore on every corner, and she found herself wondering why that wasn’t the case in Grapevine. During a week of brainstorming, it started to come alive. Lemieux knew she wanted to open a bookstore that had one foot in the theater and arts world as well as one that could be a home base for the community.
In the fall, Lemieux met Walizadeh through a close mutual friend, who brought the two together over lunch. Initially, Walizadeh was hesitant to reach out, but after some encouragement, she did, and the rest is history. A blind date that became a marriage overnight.
Last fall Lemieux launched a Kickstarter campaign to help her and Walizadeh open the bookstore. They raised more than $54,000 from 345 backers.
Talking Animals, now open as of February 7, offers a wide selection of new and used books, including children’s literature, modern fiction, true crime, cookbooks, foreign-language titles, and art books, as well as local authors. The store features monthly author events and weekly children’s story time.
Our name comes from C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, a subcategory of Narnia’s inhabitants, the sentient animals who can speak to humans.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Lemieux and Walizadeh went looking for a bank loan. And they were declined. So, the two put some of their start-up costs on their credit cards. Lemieux called this “doing it the irresponsible way.” There were contractors ghosting them, a shady rental broker trying to oversell the space they’d been eyeing and a weeks-long battle with publishing companies and delivery drivers over sending inventory–hundreds of books back to the warehouses. And then an ice storm hit, Lemieux got Covid, and the ribbon-cutting had to be delayed. But all of these “bumps” ended up propelling them in directions that were ultimately the right choices. The contractor who went MIA lead to meeting a new one, Pablo Rodriguez, who owns My Remodel Guys; the shady broker encouraged Lemieux and Walizadeh to contact a realtor who got them the Main St space. Lemieux’s Covid was unfortunate but timed so perfectly it seems planned. She tested positive on a Wednesday, just as the ice was starting to come down in DFW. Friends rushed to the store to keep assembling shelves as everything began to shut down. The ribbon cutting (planned for the next day) was happily postponed for three weeks. Lemieux was grateful for this bump, as it meant she would be well and non-contagious by the official opening. This interim time worked as a soft open, and they used it to work out all the beginnings of owning and operating a small business.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Talking Animals is co-owned Valerie Walizadeh and Katy Lemieux, an award-winning national arts and culture writer for the New York Times, Texas Monthly, Esquire, and American Theatre, and regionally as the theatre correspondent for the Dallas Observer and D Magazine. This is her first venture as a bookseller. Katy brings her knowledge as a decades-long small business owner with her family business, which sold in 2021, and nearly ten years of writing, reporting, and working in non-profit performing arts and events. Talking Animals is 100% woman-owned but supported by Justin Lemieux, a Texas educator, actor, and monologist. Katy her husband are award-winning theater producers and have presented literary and theatrical events within Dallas-Fort Worth and New York City.
Talking Animals is 100% woman-owned, and Walizadeh started her career in retail right out of high school. There she worked her way up to Store Manager and Manager positions. For twelve years, Walizadeh spent the majority of her retail career at Blockbuster Video and Starbucks Coffee Company. As a manager, she was responsible for every aspect of the store; Store profitability, labor, scheduling, inventory, and customer service. She opened many brand-new stores for both companies and received many achievement awards during that period. In 2007, she had her first child and was blessed enough to stay home with her. She received her BA in Early Childhood Education while eight months pregnant with her second kiddo!
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Find the people who are successfully doing what you want to be doing and ask for their advice. Ask them for coffee or a block on their schedule for a quick phone call. Most people are happy to share and talk about their careers. You don’t know it all, so listen to the people who have lived it. And be willing to collaborate. With any and everyone. In all phases. Ask your accountant friend to check your budgets, ask your attorney pal how to form the LLC or whatever it is that you need to know. Speak up and ask for what you want. No one is going to give you something that you don’t work toward.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.talkinganimalsbooks.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkinganimalsbooks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/talkinganimalsbooksGV
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/_talkinganimals
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkinganimalsbooks
Image Credits
Yony Kim
