The episode begins with an introduction to Kerri Schlotman, an accomplished writer whose latest novel, “Tell Me One Thing,” has garnered critical acclaim. Beverly emphasizes literary fiction’s crucial role in shaping cultural narratives and fostering empathy. Kerri’s passion for the arts and dedication to educating future generations in arts administration at NYU are highlighted, setting the stage for a deep dive into her multifaceted career.
Kerri’s Journey: From Marketing to Arts and Writing
Much of the episode is dedicated to exploring Kerri’s unique journey from working in marketing to fully immersing herself in the arts and writing. The conversation reveals her early inclinations towards entrepreneurship and creativity, illustrated by her childhood endeavors in bookmaking and her later ventures, such as starting a pie business and renovating dog parks in NYC. Kerri’s move to New York City and her transition towards working for art museums are discussed, shedding light on the experiences that shaped her path towards becoming a writer and an advocate for the arts.
Advocacy for the Arts and the Importance of Supporting Creative Endeavors
Kerri’s role as an advocate for the arts and her efforts to support fellow artists, performers, and writers are highlighted. The discussion covers the challenges and opportunities within the arts sector, emphasizing the need for a supportive community that values and promotes creative work. Kerri’s contributions to arts administration and her impact on nurturing the creative visions of others are explored, showcasing her commitment to enriching the cultural landscape.
The Future of Literary Fiction and the Arts
The conversation also touches on the challenges of technological advancements and the importance of preserving the human element in creative expression. Kerri shares her hopes for a more inclusive and supportive literary community that continues to push boundaries and inspire empathy through storytelling.
Read Kerri’s Favorite Book:
Marketing For Entrepreneurs – Beverly Cornell
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https://www.kerrischlottman.com/
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Transcript:Â
Beverly:Â
Did you know that literary fiction novels like those crafted by our guest today, Kerri play a crucial role in shaping cultural narratives and fostering empathy. According to a study by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, reading literary fiction can increase a person’s ability to understand and empathize with others. Join us as we delve into the world of literary fiction with Kerri, an accomplished writer whose latest novel. Tell me one thing has garnered critical claim and recognition beyond her literary achievements. Kerri has also distinguished herself as a passionate advocate for the arts and as an educator in arts administration. Over two decades of experience supporting artists, performers, and writers, and bringing their creative visions to life. Currently serving as an adjunct professor at NYU Kerri brings a wealth of knowledge and insight to our conversation today. Welcome, Kerri.
Kerri:Â
Thank you, Beverly. I’m so happy to be here with you.
Beverly:Â
I’m so excited that you’re here. Now I’m gonna give full disclosure. I have known you since. 1998. I know that’s a long time. 25 years, essentially. Oh wow. Yeah. We met at my first job out of college at what was then called Ross Roy Communications and has now been scooped up by BBDNO
Kerri:Â
I don’t even know what it’s anymore.
Beverly:Â
So I spent many a time waiting for proofreading in your cube is all I’m gonna say. Goodness. For that. And we became fast friends. And I love it that over 25 years you and I have stayed in touch and I’ve also enjoyed watching you. Go your own path, like away from marketing a little bit and more towards the arts. You moved to New York City, you became a big city girl, and you worked for several art museums. And then now you landed in this new space, which is great. You, you’ve been writing for a while, but this new book came out about a year ago and now you’re an adjunct professor. So let’s dive in and discover a little bit of the sparks that kind of helped you along the way of this very unique path. Can you share a bit about your journey into writing and then I guess, most people don’t think of writers as entrepreneurs, but they truly are entrepreneurs and how it all began for you.
Kerri:Â
absolutely. So I’ve been writing my whole life and in fact I’ve been a little entrepreneur my whole life too. When I would think about it, I started writing. I was really little. I used to make these handmade books at home that make no sense. Now I look at them and I’m like, I don’t even know what I was doing, but they’re really cute. But I would write these stories, I would find these little books. I would find scrap paper and stuff to make covers. And I had my little publishing press that I would make at these books. At such an early age, I was already thinking like in this very entrepreneurial way, which is fun to look back on. But I’ve been writing forever. And just recently had a novel come out with an independent traditional publisher. But before that I worked with a really small team to publish five other novels, which was also very entrepreneurial because, we did all the design work, all the copy editing, but it was really exciting and fun. And at my heart, I’m a really creative person and so I like to do things. I like to be hands on doing things. And it was actually one of the. Most interesting things about publishing with the more traditional publishers that I didn’t get to do any of those things. Like they handle your, they decide your cover, they decide they do all of the layout, they do all the things that I think are really fun to do in addition to writing the story that I like to create, the way it also visually looks. So it’s been fascinating, but I’ve also, in the past I started a pie business for a while. I had a social enterprise pie business called The Pie Social. I started a organization to renovate dog parks in New York City. I did. I’ve just always had this, interest in just doing a lot of things. And I think when you’re, when you’re a person who just has a ton of curiosity and a lot of ideas,
Beverly:Â
I didn’t even know about some of those things. Like I know you have a history with Greenpeace and you just have a, such an interesting tapestry of a life that is so fascinating to me. But what, how did you, what drives your passion to continue to write? I feel unless you’re like JK Rowling or some really big author, you are running for the love of writing. You’re not writing because you’re going be famous what drives your passion for craft, crafting the stories and sharing them with people?
Kerri:Â
I think it’s just what you are. If you are it, if this is what you do, you can’t not do it. It’s the same when I’ve worked with artists my whole career as well, and they’ll say the same thing. They can’t not make artwork, whether anybody ever gets to see it. Hopefully people will get to see it. And the same with writing. Hopefully people will read it, but I have manuscripts sitting on my computer that, I’m not ready to publish it. I’m not even ready to think about publishing, but I had to write the stories. So I think for me, I’ve always been a storyteller, even as a little kid, I can remember walking around in my mom’s backyard making up stories about the trees and I would pretend the trees were the last trees on earth. It was a little morbid when I think about it now, but I had all these narratives constantly running through my head and I was telling stories from a very young age and I think that’s just who I am,
Beverly:Â
With your extensive background in the arts, what are some key lessons you’ve learned about business and
Kerri:Â
life? Oh I think the most important thing, and I think you touched on it when we first started talking, is that you have to have a business mind. If you’re creative person. And this is it’s at odds’cause it doesn’t necessarily, feel like those two things are joined. And you certainly, the way that education, creative education is designed does not bring those two things together. But it doesn’t matter if you’re a writer, a performer, an artist, a filmmaker, you’re creating, we don’t like to think about it this way, but we’re creating a product, we’re creating a thing. And it needs to get out into the world. And so the way to do that is by, having a business mind around it, thinking about, what it means to bring it out into the world. Thinking about, just thinking a little differently about it. It’s also, like we have to survive off of our creative work. There’s a, we’re living in a capitalist society. There’s a real economic, reality. Even if you’re really creative, you have to be able to afford your rent and afford to eat and et cetera. You have to think like a business for sure. If you’re a creative person,. It doesn’t have to dominate things. And I think that we can think about things. When I think about things like marketing for instance, I think about that as, building your community, finding your community. Building your, getting your people together, that kind of thing. Versus some of the more, entrepr or some of the more ways that, enterprise thinks about it, or, big businesses think about it, but we’re all participating in this system together. So we have to really think about, what our role as creative people are in it.
Beverly:Â
I think not only do you have a product, but you are a brand.
Kerri:Â
You, you are a brand. You are a brand. Yeah. And it’s interesting, I was thinking about this in preparation for talking with you about. What creative sectors really have no problem with this. And like fashion. Fashion has no problem with this. Fashion is all about the brand. Yes. All about promoting, and it’s very creative, but but they have fully embraced, the business side of things. And I think, it hasn’t really, not that, artists and writers can do that, or should, although there’s a lot of trends right now of artists, who are collaborating with brands and who are, and I have mixed feelings about some of these things. I think that, there, there should be some separation between some of this kind of, the way that brands position themselves and the way that artists position themselves. But, at the end of the day a lot of marketing is about creativity. A lot of brand design is about creativity. So it makes sense that these two worlds begin to intersect, and I. How we really think about and navigate that, I think is a bigger question.
Beverly:Â
I just wrote, a blog post, for my website about the Grammys and how the Grammys, the artists that go there, the musicians that go there, it’s a huge marketing opportunity for them and how they capitalize on it by the clothes they wear to be, how they’re talked about in the media. It’s a really significant moment for them. Every year to be able to get out there in front of people in pop culture, and they do it really well. So I don’t think that artists, I think artists in general just need to think of themselves that way. How do you put yourself out there? How do you get noticed? And it’s hard’cause I think some, especially writers, I feel are more introverted. So it’s like how do you put yourself out there on a consistent basis? That space.
Kerri:Â
I think you and I have had conversations about this and I think you had some great insights around this when you helped me think so more expansively about this, because this, we have to put ourselves out there as writers, we have to do events. We, when your book launches you are, you have to be out in the public doing things, but. You can also extend the, the storytelling of your book. You can, create thematic ideas around the topics in your book. There’s ways that you can also create and find community and, build audience for your book without it having to be you personally. So I think there’s a lot of creative ways to do both. So if you are a person who’s more introverted, you don’t necessarily have to be. The most, you know the person who’s showing up to every single thing who’s doing all these like public appearances, but maybe you’re using some of the platforms where you can hide a little bit behind the content of your book, and you’re thinking about creative ways to surface, ideas in your book that’s gonna connect with people who are, are eager to think about the same things you are.
Beverly:Â
If one thing Covid did is it made everything remote and virtual. So I feel like there’s so many more opportunities for introverts to participate now than there ever have been. The one thing that I thought was interesting when you and I have talked before was, it was to think of your, to think of yourself as part of your story. Like you are, you’re the main character of your story, and what story do you want to share with your readers and what journey do they wanna have with you? And even how to create experiences for your readers within your stories. How can they experience your story to some degree with the book club and some of the fun stuff you’ve done with that. And I think that, it is about that. How do you make that connection with the reader? And how do you, I think everyone’s about experiences right now
Kerri:Â
it’s so important. And and it’s not just in writing, but I’ll come back to that. I teach arts administration at NYU, and again, my career has mostly been working with artists in galleries and museums in New York City and in Detroit, where I’m from, and this is we talk about this all the time in class, the experiential culture. And you see this museums do it really well. The Brooklyn Museum just had a really big party this week, and Swizz Beats and Alicia Keys were highlighted and like they really understand how to do this. I think. For writers it’s really important, particularly because you do need to find your people, the literary community, and I’m saying that broadly, like people who read, people who pick up books or listen to books. That community is massive and people have, they usually find their genre or their area of interest, and they stick a bit with it, one of the worst things that can happen as a writer is that, you’re, you connect with the wrong audience and then they don’t get your, what you’re doing and then you get bad review. You really have to think about how to find the people who are gonna support you and who understand what you’re doing and who appreciate it and are excited by it and are gonna support, support your work as it’s coming out. And that means you have to tell the right story. You have to tell the story, you want to tell, you have to control the way that’s coming out. And it’s fully dependent on the author. Most publishing houses don’t help much with this at all. Especially the independent ones. They don’t have budget to help every author do this. Even the big five publishers, they have their whole marketing engines, but you still have to, assert yourself in that process and really be a vital participant in it. Otherwise, you’ll just get washed over for sure.
Beverly:Â
You’re talking about understanding your reader, which is essentially in the marketing space, understanding your customer persona or your target market or your demographic. Understanding the psychographics, understanding what motivates them, how is this gonna help them? In some way, shape, or form. Maybe it’s to escape.
Kerri:Â
The thing that’s exciting for authors is that if you spend all that time writing that book like then. You are your audience. You know what I mean? Like I am, like, I’m writing the kind of things that I wanna read, and the person who wrote the books that you’re finding is into it just as much as you are, if not more. This is the thing I tell other authors, like it’s a very natural thing. Again, you’re not trying to push against, like you’re not going against the grain here. You’re looking for your people and the way that you talk about yourself and you talk about the book, like they’re gonna come, you’re gonna find them that way, and I don’t write those kinds of books that you’re talking about, so it doesn’t make sense for me to try to, I think that you’re also a reader who crosses over into things. Yeah. But you’re not, you wouldn’t be the first person that I would, create, my plan around because I know that’s not exactly what you’re. Gravitating towards first. There’s plenty of community out there for anything that’s being written for most anything, actually pretty much everything. It’s really about you gotta go a little deep on yourself too, right? You gotta know who you are and why you did what you did. And sometimes people. That can be a little uncomfortable as well, but it’s an important part of the process.
Beverly:Â
I think that authenticity is more valued today than ever, and even that uncomfortable vulnerability is really respected in the space. And I think if you are truly authentic in that, it’s very much. Honored. Yeah. I think now more than ever, there’s a lot of opportunity. I think authenticity was like the word of 2023. And if you’re not authentic to your writing or yourself in that journey, you’re doing a disservice to everybody, yourself your reader.
Kerri:Â
I also, I have seen authors try to reach everybody and I’m like, you can’t do that. You’re gonna go crazy trying to like. Just blank it out to everybody. Not that you can’t try to reach other people who might not be your obvious readers later on, but don’t start there. Start with the most obvious things first, because there’s plenty, again, there’s plenty of community out there for what you’re doing
Beverly:Â
well, that’s just like with any business. You can’t like spray and pray. You need to know your niche and you need to understand who you’re serving and what problems you’re solving for them in a business sense, whether it’s a product or service. Or a book, you need to understand that. And if you don’t, I you’re gonna fail.’cause you cannot be everything to everyone. Exactly. And that’s not authentic in any way, shape, or form. So yes, definitely. How do you balance your love for making art? And. Making money like that. You live in New York City, you live outside New York City, one of the most expensive places in the world to live. How do you balance that? Because you have to, as an artist, you have to eat right? You have to have a place to live.
Kerri:Â
I feel really fortunate in this because I’ve worked in the art world as my way of survival. I have, I’ve held very high important roles in arts administration in different institutions. I. And, that has paid the bills. When I’m really immersed in the administrative side of my life which is what I call it, the part that makes the money I feel like it’s all, it all comes together really well for me. I curated it that way. I specifically chose when I left advertising way back in the day or when we first met, I moved into working in the art field and knew that I wanted to be able to join these two parts of my brain together. And then for me, I just carve out time to write when I feel like writing. The other thing is, a lot of people say you have to write every day. That’s just ridiculous. I don’t know why anyone thinks that you cannot. Just do it when you wanna do it. I do not believe in doing things. That don’t feel right to do at that time. When I start to write though, like I usually get into a flow and it’s nobody bother me for until I’m done with this. That’s also part of my process. And that’s also that process has evolved and grown up around the need to work a full-time job. Now I actually do consulting work, so I work with several arts organizations and my time is my own, I have things I have to get done, but I can start them at whatever point in the day I wanna do that. I. Just have to make sure I’m meeting the deadlines
Beverly:Â
sometimes it’s three o’clock in the morning or. When you’re waking up and brushing your teeth and I think as a marketer, like my brain never stops.’cause I’m always trying to stay creative. And it your process is very similar to mine, but it’s just a different avenue that you’ve chosen. Yeah. Which is amazing. You’re in arts administration, what do you see as the trends and opportunities that are coming in the arts? What, where do you see things are going in the space?
Kerri:Â
It’s, I don’t know that it’s something that’s identifiable. I think right now. It’s an interesting question because I feel like creativity, the essence of creativity is that you can’t really pinpoint it right? You don’t necessarily even know what’s happening until some time has passed and you can reflect back on it. I think that some of the things that are happening on the writing side of things and the creative writing side of things that are really exciting to me are just new voices, right? New voices coming out, new perspectives. Much more diversity than there has been in the past. Like every other, everything in the world, the literature world was incredibly white dominated for a very long time, and that’s starting to change. It’s a slow change, but I’m seeing it and I’m excited about it, and that same in the art world. The art world is also going through a massive shift in that way over the past few years now, and I think that it’s just. Enriching culture in such a critical and important way. And I’m really excited about that. Keep that going.
Beverly:Â
I love the idea of more diversity, different voices, different perspectives. I think we can all learn from that. And like the empathy side of things that I talked about at the beginning of the show, if you read other stories and you connect with them, it makes you more empathetic to. The real people in your lives, right? So
Kerri:Â
yeah, that’s the power of storytelling. It’s also, unfortunately, why we’re seeing so much book banning and all these promises of, I’m gonna burn books, all this junk that that, it’s not unanticipated. Like I think that we in the literature world know that’s coming anytime that it’s just it’s what happens. But it is, again, a testament to the power of how important books are and how critical storytelling is. And I do believe at the end of the day that’s a minority. Of people who who want to ban books and wanna silence people’s perspectives. But every time they do that, I’ll tell you what, those authors sell a whole lot more books. Keep going, fine, go ahead. Your kids are gonna find these things elsewhere anyhow. And they’re gonna go, they’re going on the internet and finding way worse things than any of these books,
Beverly:Â
that’s where in the PR world we say negative press can be positive press for you, so use it to your advantage. So I have a question that’s not on the list that I prepared for you, but came to my mind when you were talking. I’m self-published. I did not use a publisher and I feel like the ease of self publishing is becoming also an equalizer because you’re able to do it yourself and not have to. Submit manuscript after manuscript, and obviously there’s some support services that come with a publisher. However the self-publishing world has allowed much more opportunity for, people like me to put a book out quickly. I did it within seven days. I wrote and published it within seven days, but it was sitting in there for 20 some years. Just, I had the time and I focused and I made it happen. But also things like AI are changing the writing world. So like this technology is just changing so quickly. How do you see that kind of playing out with what you’re doing with arts administration and some of that?’cause even from the photography side of it, it’s all there’s a lot of ethical questions at play right now. What is, where is this gonna go and what’s it gonna mean for everyone? I,
Kerri:Â
it’s, I think it’s, with that sort of thing, I feel like it’s a consumer question. People are not gonna stop cr stop making art. They’re not gonna stop writing. It’s about who’s consuming it and what their expectation of the quality of it is. The process of writing, I’m gonna write no matter what I’m gonna write, even if nobody publishes what I write, because it’s just important to me to tell stories, but for myself, it’s important. So I think that I. The people again. And for artists too, they’re just making, if that’s your passion and that’s what you’re doing, like that comes through in the work and there’s no way that a robot or AI or a technology can ever replicate the human feeling of creating something. There’s all these sayings like creating something brings you as, as close to your own creation as you can possibly get. And it’s a true thing, you just made a book how proud you feel when you actually have it’s something like that. There is nothing like that in the world, and nobody can take that away from us. There’s so much content and junk in the world as it is that more AI generated junk is, I don’t think that’s gonna do anything besides just be more junk in the world. I think the quality the artistry, the humanity behind creative,
Beverly:Â
the personal connection.
Kerri:Â
Yeah. My worry is more about, how do we keep, especially,’cause it is a hard thing to be an artist or a writer or performer or any creative thing. And like you say, make a living like I am more concerned about can we create systems for funding these things and create like other countries, do they fund their artists than their writers and their creators in such, deeper ways than the United States does. That’s what I’d rather have the focus of the conversation beyond, like how do we continue to make sure that there are people doing this?’cause we need creative intelligence. We are gonna get more than ever with all the problems that this world is facing coming up or in right now and coming up and my worry is that. People are not enrolling in literature programs at universities at the rate that they had been. It’s really dramatically down. And that, that, that’s the stuff that worries me more than AI does because I think we don’t, we need critical thinkers and we need creative thinkers. And the same way we need scientists. We need all these people’s brains together to really create the rich society that we have. And I don’t wanna lose that part of
Beverly:Â
I think you’re right. We do use it as an agency to help with maybe initial ideation or outlines, and then we take it and we run with it, make it ours. But I think for some, sometimes you have writer’s block or things like that, it can trigger something for you, but I don’t think it should be the basis, the sole basis of your end product. So it’s to be very careful with that going forward with any of your writings or marketing. Yeah, so share a marketing tactic or is it storytelling or how have you, obviously story telling stories is what you do. How do you connect with your audience? How do you find the people that are your people?
Kerri:Â
I wish there was like some simple answer
Beverly:Â
to that. A magic. A magic, right?
Kerri:Â
I did, I counted it recently. It was something like 13 or 14 events around my book launch. And those are in-person events. So I went to, and it was something in seven states. So I went everywhere. I got on the road and showed up and talked about my book and. Did it in conversation with other authors who were in, writing similar things. That also just helps to, it’s like you build the conditions and the community will come, which most of the places that they did, sometimes events, you can be hit or miss. But getting out there for me, I think is really important. Again, if you’re an author who just can’t do that, fine, find other ways, but I don’t, even as a sort of shy person, like I don’t mind doing events. I think it’s really important and I, it’s really exciting to actually talk to people who are buying the book and are gonna read it and. Connect with them that way. And it’s also how you can make connections with bookstores, which is a really important thing to do as an author. You need those relationships. It creates, it kinda does a few things, creates a relationship with the bookstore, gets your book sold, get your book Kerrid in the bookstore, which can also be a really hard thing to do. And allows you to directly connect with, with different writers and also with the audiences. So that for me was probably the biggest thing. And then, doing things like. My book is, starts in 1980s New York City. Creating an eighties themed book club page on my website with this inspiration of things that people could wear to emulate the characters and thinking about, I had collaborated we had a playlist for the book. Just things like that to bring it to life a little bit differently and. I also do things like on my website I have an author’s corner. I learned so much publishing this book about what to do and not to do when it comes to working with publishers. So I thought I should share this information. So I, first of all, I make myself readily available to any other author who just want, who wants help looking at their contract, who isn’t sure about, what they’re doing with their publisher. All the things that I went through and then all the resources I found, putting those on my site as well and just trying to help other authors.’cause I feel like that’s another way to just build community and other authors are your readers too. So that’s been a really positive way that that I’ve found to, market the book or think about, building community around it.
Beverly:Â
I think when you’re generous, there’s this law of reciprocity, right? When you do something good for the world, it comes back to you in unexpected ways. And so I think just putting, being generous and putting out there things that can help others, I think creates good juju and eventually that good juju comes back to you. That’s a very scientific term, the good juju. But I also think the idea, I think a lot of business owners forget about the grassroots. Side of things, like just hitting the pavement. Yeah. And I think the fact that you did a road trip and and you shook hands and you held the babies and you did all the things that, that is the way you truly connect with people that aren’t necessarily gonna know about you unless you get in front of’em. I think when you and I know that there were, I saw pictures, so I could only imagine how the audience was for some of these but it seemed pretty intimate to me the way that things were set up, how the questioning happened, how you were, it’s not like this big speech you’re giving. It’s really a nice. Interview and just chat about the characters and the development and people asking questions. And I feel like that’s a very organic and lovely way to share your kind of journey on this particular book. Anyway.
Kerri:Â
Yeah, that was exactly it. Usually it’s a conversation and conversation with someone or with each other, depending on if you both launched books and you talk about your books, you talk about the process. You have a, q and a with the audience. You do a little bit of reading, have a little reception afterwards that you can really, hang out and talk with people. It’s really nice. It’s a format that a lot of. It’s a traditional format and actually I’ve been working with a couple of friends. We’re gonna launch something a little like to shake up that format a little bit. We’re working on a. An author’s spelling bee for adults that’ll, that we think is gonna be in a little pop-up book fair. Taking some of the things from our childhood that were really fun around literature and creating a kind of regular occurring event around it that we can bring authors and again, bring a handful of them together to debut their books, talk about their books very briefly, but then do something really fun like this spelling bee game. And then. People can buy their books and hang out with them. there’s a lot of ways to do fun stuff. It doesn’t have to be super serious either.
Beverly:Â
So what’s been the most unexpected thing that’s happened to you because of writing the book?
Kerri:Â
Oh my gosh. The most unexpected thing. I think it is actually that, just how entrepreneurial you do have to be in the process. When I again, I had, worked with this very small group to publish five books before this one came out this year. And when I was gonna work with a more traditional publisher, I thought, all right they’re gonna do all this. For me. Amazing. And again, they did do a lot, they did a lot of the creative stuff that I actually really enjoy doing. But I was surprised, and this is not every publisher, but it is the one that I just chose to work with. They didn’t know this at the time, they did almost no. Publicity and marketing and promotion. So when I realized that was all gonna fall on me, I thought, okay, that, that was a big surprise. And’cause I thought you should be doing that so that you can get sales do promotions and marketing. I hadn’t really done that with my other books and they sold decently. And there’s still people who write to me about them. I still get royalties on them and it makes me happy. But, now that I have, working with an actual publishing house, they have different expectations and I am still learning, this book has been out over a year and there are things that come up like probably once a week that I’m like, oh, I could do this. Like just things that I didn’t know. So I’m trying to, this is another resource I’m trying to help create for other authors is, and I wanna build out on my website, is a page about how you do the publicity and marketing and promotion. Because there’s just, and there’s so many of these paid services and things that you can end up like really sinking yourself into. But there’s again, a ton of DIY. Things, creative things that you can do on your own that aren’t gonna break your bank too.
Beverly:Â
Yeah. And I think it needs to be accessible to them to understand and in their language, not this like fancy business. It can be really approachable and easy to do. It doesn’t have to be that hard. So I loved giving the presentation to your group because it was. It was a different take. It was a fun way to talk about marketing in a different way. Yeah. I had thought about it, but when we started talking, I was like, oh, you could totally do this and you could do this. And you were like, wait, you gotta do it. You gotta do a presentation. This is amazing. But I really was, I was excited about it.’cause it is a unique path. It’s different and I think the way that you reframed it for me too, that artists and all that have to have marketing as well. It it spurred the Grammy blog post because I was like, yeah, they’re artists. They need to have their own brands and. Why don’t we think like that? We should be thinking like that. I know there are people that focus on that, publicists and things like that. The focus on those types of industries. But marketing is, everybody needs to be in marketing themselves in some way, shape or form. Everybody in marketing and,
Kerri:Â
and a publicist is an important thing. I did hire a publicist to help me because I did not know media people. And you do need to get reviews. I got, I ended up getting three really glowing trade reviews. Which are really important. And I had a friend working at the book distributor who was working with my publisher at the time, and he literally could track that every time I had one of those reviews come out, that my sales would increase. There’s some mechanisms that you could, if you have people in the right places who can tell you that these things are working. But I couldn’t have got those on my own, these people didn’t know me, but they knew my publicist and trust her. When she said, this is a really good book. You should take a look at it. That was a little outta my control. I knew I was gonna need help there. But with the marketing stuff, and again, like you unlocked a lot of my thinking around that. We, had formed this group with a handful of other authors who are local in New York City and New Jersey, who are all publishing around the same time with the same publisher and all in that critical moment that I was in of oh gosh, they’re not gonna do anything to help us. We have to really figure this out. And so this group has been. Phenomenal and just coming up with all these creative ways to work together and supporting each other and testing out different things and letting us know, letting each other know how it works out. So I’m really grateful for that group and I’m so grateful that you came and talked to us.’cause I think that you unlocked all these doors and I’m watching everybody do all this really exciting stuff.
Beverly:Â
Awesome. That’s exciting. I love your new book club section and all the things you’re doing with that. It’s super fun.
Kerri:Â
We need some book clubs to test out in eighties.
Beverly:Â
Yes. If you want a fun book club idea, this is would be a great book. And if you love the eighties, the characters are very compelling. I think I told you I didn’t want the book to end because I wanted to get to know them more. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to them yet when the book ended. But the, growing up in the eighties, I have a fondness of the eighties, so if you like those kinds of things, this would be a great book for you for sure. I have the lightning round, which I ask you seven questions that are just rapid fire. Are you ready to, oh, just made me get a little sweaty. Everybody does this when I say that. It’s not that hard, I promise.
Kerri:Â
Okay. Do I get a pass? Like I can just say pass.
Beverly:Â
You if you really want to, but I think you can do it. I have faith. Okay. What’s your favorite way to connect and network?
Kerri:Â
Definitely the in-person events.
Beverly:Â
What’s your favorite business or marketing book?
Kerri:Â
Yours.
Beverly:Â
Oh, thank you. You were kind of part of it, so just to be full exposure who, what’s your favorite podcast?
Kerri:Â
Oh, I love one called I have a reason why I know this is rapid fire, but I do have a reason why I am a very, I’m a very process minded person. I like to know how to do everything myself. So I’d rather understand how to do something than understand how to use something that’s gonna do something for me, which I know sounds crazy and I’m probably waste a lot of my time learning how to do things that I only need to use once. I don’t tend to use apps like that.
Beverly:Â
What’s your favorite marketing tactic?
Kerri:Â
Marketing tactic? I like the book club stuff. I like the, themes like continuing to tell the story outside the book in some kind of way and extending the lifespan of the book. That’s, I dunno if that’s answering your rapid question.
Beverly:Â
Totally. Is, totally is. What’s your favorite source of inspiration?
Kerri:Â
My favorite source of inspiration. Art, for sure. Art and music. I find most of the things I’ve written have a little have go back someplace to art and music, whether it’s a song lyric, whether it’s an image I saw, something like that.
Beverly:Â
An image inspired, tell me one thing, right? So it does come from that. Who is your favorite entrepreneur to follow?
Kerri:Â
Okay. Oprah and I’m gonna say, I know Oprah doesn’t sound like an entrepreneur anymore,
Beverly:Â
but Totally is an entrepreneur.
Kerri:Â
Yeah. Having grown up in the eighties when she was, like a, just was a talk show host and then just seeing the empire she has built I love her because she also has, speaking of the diversity in the literature field, she is one of the people who has really championed and pioneered that by, lifting up, writers of color and really giving them a platform through her book club. And I’m just in awe of everything she does.
Beverly:Â
She just produced the color purple and a musical. She does a lot of really interesting things. Her fingers are in everything. I feel like. Amazing. I love that. I love it. She has an empire. You’re right, there’s a whole empire. You survived the lightning round, Kerri?
Kerri:Â
Oh gosh. It’s done. That was fast, yeah.
Beverly:Â
Okay, good. Okay. So as we move forward, the biggest thing I think I wanna do with this podcast is I wanna inspire people who are either looking to start something an entrepreneurial type endeavor, or somebody who’s been in business for a while and maybe needs something that will. Give’em a little push or inspiration or something to take their business in a new direction or do something, tweak something to make it more magical, I feel like. What is one easy thing that you think a small business entrepreneur, that could be an artist, that could be anybody or just someone starting out could do today to spark their unique opportunity or ignite their marketing.
Kerri:Â
Oh my gosh. Just anything follow that thing as far as it’s gonna take you. I think people think you have to have money, you have to have all these, so you don’t have to have anything to get an idea going. You can start creating right now. You can start creating in your head. Just do it. Don’t limit yourself by expecting something out of yourself. Just go with it. I don’t think there’s a right answer. Other, there’s no right answer to this question, but I also don’t think that there’s a. Like one specific thing I would say besides just follow that little passion, that little thing in your head that’s saying, keep doing this thing. I.
Beverly:Â
That spark, right? Yeah, that’s spark. That’s one of the reasons why I call it the spark and ignite.’cause I feel like that little spark can lead to something really amazing. And if you nurture it, it becomes and I think that spark is what makes you unique too. And if we don’t honor that or listen to that, we’re doing a. diservice to the world. So it, I really encourage people to listen to that spark. And whether it’s writing it down and seeing where it goes with that, like maybe doing some kind of tree or something around it. All the ideas that come around it, but really explore it and try to find the thing that, and even Marie Kondo, she says, find the things that spark you joy. So do more of that
Kerri:Â
and exactly that. Make sure that you love it. If you love something, you’ll get other people to love it too.
Beverly:Â
I always say I’m such a big marketing nerd and I get really excited when I talk about marketing, but I think that is what people need when they wanna talk to a marketer, is somebody who really loves what they do. I think it is very important to find the joy,’cause that, I think that is the reason why we’re all here is to do the things that bring us joy. So I think this has been so fun. Kerri, tell me and tell all of our listeners where they can learn more about your books, your work, and keep tabs on your latest projects.
Kerri:Â
Yeah I I’ve come to my website. I’ve got a lot of things going on over there. It’s just my first and last name. And you can link to me on social media from there. I’m mostly on Instagram these days. I love Instagram because it’s very visual and I love visual things, I share a lot of what I’m gonna be doing on Instagram and sometimes a little bit on Twitter or X or whatever they’re calling it these days. But yeah, come to my website and, hopefully it’ll inspire some things. There’s a little bit of backstory about the book. There’s my other books that I’ve written there, there’s the author’s corner, there’s a bookshelf if you want some ideas of books that I think you might like to read. There’s all kinds of good stuff happening over there.
Beverly:Â
It’s come a long way. It’s amazing. I love it. It’s so fun. And I’ll just tell you personally, Kerri’s just an amazing person you want to get to know better. So check it out. I’ll put the link in the show notes so that you can access it directly from there. So thank you, Kerri. This has been fun. I was like spending time with you. As we wrap up this insightful conversation with Kerri Schlotman. We’re reminded of the profound impact that literary fiction has on our understanding of the world and each other Kerri’s dedication to her craft, coupled with her commitment to supporting fellow artists and writers. Serves as a testament to the transformative power of storytelling. We’re grateful to have had Kerri share her expertise and experiences with us today. Be sure to check out her latest novel. Tell me one thing and continue exploring the rich landscape of literary fiction. Thank you for joining us, and until next time, keep reading and embracing the stories that enrich our lives.
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