- Hi, everyone!
How are you?
Our executive producer, our main man, Jason Kurtz,
has this saying, "all the feels."
Did everyone have all the feels this holiday?
(audience applauding) All the feels!
I thought about opening up the show at one point like this.
I felt so many things this holiday, I really did.
But ultimately it was a good one
and hopefully a safe one and a happy one.
And everybody here, the best crew in the world.
(applauding and cheering)
All I kept thinking was nobody have people from out of town.
We wanna keep doing the show.
(laughs)
I know, I was like solo by myself in a body condom,
it was amazing.
(laughs)
One thing that did happen that I'm so excited about
is that this holiday season, I was inspired
to try and do a gift guide.
So I looked around and I had my little yellow book
that I do every week.
I love sharing stuff, as if we need more stuff,
but I'm just like stuff, stuff,
stuff that helps us in our lives,
stuff that's delightful, beautiful, progressive.
Things that actually work is all I ever wanna share.
So I was trying to put together a gift guide
and then I was like, why am I doing this,
what's important here?
And I realized that small business
was what I wanted to focus on.
So we put out a thing on Instagram.
We got all of these submissions back, 70,000.
We are narrowing it down.
We launched with five.
We're gonna come out with five more this week.
It takes a lot to go into it.
Legally, you have to go through all this stuff.
I found out Oprah starts doing her gift guide in January.
I now see why.
And I mean, January the year before.
So now we officially have launched this little,
it's Drew's Little Book of Small Business Gift Guide.
And it features small businesses from across the country.
I have video and footage I'll show
of me going through each and every one.
It took teams of people
and now we're gonna launch our next five.
So we'll have 10, probably 15 or 20
by the time we're done with the year.
And we're gonna carry it through.
There's Valentine's Day, there's birthdays, there's all
of these things where we need to promote these businesses.
So our five are up and at the beginning of our list of five
that are gonna come out this week are the owners featured.
And they are in Boston,
they are the first black owned bookstore
in Boston, Frugal Bookstore.
Please welcome husband and wife duo Leonard and Clarrissa.
Hello!
- Hi. - Hi, Drew, hi everyone!
- Oh my goodness, I'm so happy to meet you.
We talked about you on the show
when we were kicking this off.
This has been such an important conversation.
It's been so eye opening, so intention opening, so expansive
to the horizons of my own small little life,
how important this conversation is
and how much it sparked people around the country.
And why did you begin a small business?
You love books, you're a husband and wife,
how did Frugal Bookstores come about?
- Yeah, so Leonard and I both we grew up in the area
and we are both avid readers.
And we've always had a love of reading
and we knew that books can take you anywhere
and so we knew that at some point
books would be in our future.
- My love for books came from when I was younger,
my mother was going to college at night
and she didn't have any childcare
so she used to tag me along with her.
And the only thing that kept me quiet was
to put a book in my hand.
That's how I started reading.
- Well, my goodness, she was a good mom taking you with her
to work and it's true, you can go anywhere with books.
They're the most empowering tool
I feel like humans have created.
I mean they're historical,
geographical, fantastical, literary.
There's nothing you can't really get
from a book, transportive.
That's a wonderful story.
I really relate to that.
I think books were my personal education.
When I was 14, I realized,
oh my God, I've gotta go to school.
I didn't go to school, I was working on movies
and books were my way in to self-education.
And may I ask you what makes you the most proud
of your bookstore?
- Well, it started out in a niche of another store,
a furniture store and now it became a stand alone bookstore
and 98% of the books are by authors of color.
When you walk in, it's just so colorful and beautiful.
It's amazing to see
that many black and brown faces on books.
- Right, and our bookstore is a place of gathering,
it's a place for culture and community.
Our customers come here to network.
They run into each other.
We've seen children grow up in our bookstore.
Just this past weekend, we had someone say,
"I remember when I was a child
"my parents brought me to your bookstore."
So to see young people grow up and who grew up
in our bookstore reading our books is just an awesome thing.
It truly is a blessing.
- Well, there's the full circle of life.
From you being a child, Leonard, and growing up with books
and now children are in your and Clarrissa's store
growing up themselves.
And for more information on Frugal Bookstore
and our entire Little Book of Small Businesses Gift Guide,
head over to TheDrewBarrymoreShow.com.
Leonard and Clarrissa,
I'm honored to kick this week off with you
and thank you so much for coming to the show
and telling us everything you just did.
(audience applauding)
- Thanks for having us.
And Drew, I just wanted to say
I grew up with you on the screen.
So thank you, I love you.
You're awesome. - Well, thank you so much.
And I'm actually gonna be purchasing some books
from your store because I'm now also gonna buy all
of my Christmas presents from all the businesses
that we've discovered.
And so that's another way I can participate.
So I look forward to making some purchases
with you this month as gifts for other people.
So thank you.
- And don't forget today is Cyber Monday.
- Oh, don't I know it.
Believe me, I've been like I've got a whole plan
and so everybody go to Frugal Bookstores
and go Boston, by the way.
So thank you, Leonard and Clarrissa.
We will see you soon.
(upbeat music)