Husband first. Hard worker second.

I'm Abdimalik Mohamud, most people call me Malik. Before any title or license, I'm a husband. That's the order I keep my life in, and it's the same care I bring into every building I'm responsible for.

One of my first jobs was at Right Track, an organization serving troubled and under-resourced youth in the Saint Paul ghetto. As an underprivileged kid raised in that same neighborhood, Right Track is where I learned the professional skills I had never been taught at home, how to show up, how to communicate, how to carry myself in a workplace. It taught me early that people don't need to be talked down to, they need someone who shows up and does the work with them.

Right Track is also how I got my first professional job. At 16, through that program, I landed at the Minnesota Department of Health in the Home Care and Assisted Living Program (HCALP). I went out on state surveys, did clerical work, scanned licenses, tracked fees, shadowed every person in the department, and handled the little things licensors were too busy to do. I've been absorbing this industry ever since.

I went on to the University of Minnesota and earned a Bachelor of Applied Science in Healthcare Management, with a minor in Public Health and an applied business certificate. I took the Long-Term Services and Supports coursework and was grandfathered in as a Licensed Assisted Living Director based on my combination of experience and education.

For the past six years I've been a manager at Hammer Residences, overseeing multiple group homes, intermediate care facilities, and a waivered 245D apartment program. I still work there while running my own business and helping other operators start theirs.

I consult because I still operate. Every conversation I have with a client is informed by a building I'm actually responsible for. That's the difference between advice from a binder and advice from someone who's lived through your week.