Author Q&A With Sheri Fink

Sheri Fink is an inspirational speaker and the number one best-selling author of the award-winning children’s books Magenta, The Little Unicorn, The Little Monster, The Little Rose, and more. She and her husband, author Derek Taylor Kent, created the Whimsical World brand to inspire, delight, and educate kids of all ages while planting seeds of self-esteem and high achievement. Sheri and Derek live a whimsical life in Southern California with their magical children and their mischievous dog. Meet Sheri:

You are an author, but is it your day job? If not, what fills your days? I’m a full-time authorpreneur, president of Whimsical World, and mom of two toddlers. I work from home alongside my husband (best-selling author Derek Taylor Kent), our children, and our Italian Greyhound. My days are filled with creativity (writing) and chaos (children) in the best possible way. I’m always doing my best to balance business planning, event appearances, media interviews, writing, product creation, and marketing with family time and self-care.

Did you always want to be an author? For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer, a teacher, a mother, a princess, and a mermaid. I feel deeply blessed to have the perfect career as a children’s author, one that lets me live my childhood dreams every day. I embarked on this journey reluctantly after climbing the corporate ladder for 12+ years. I was inspired to write my first children’s book, The Little Rose, after being bullied in the workplace. The book about a rose who grows up in a weed bed and, because she’s different, believes she’s a weed, became a #1 best-seller in its category on Amazon within two weeks of release and stayed at #1 for over 60 weeks. It showed me what was possible when I was brave and stepped forward in faith, with the intention of helping kids believe in themselves. Everything good in my life today, including founding my business, writing and publishing 19 books, meeting my husband, and starting our family, came from having the courage to pull that little story out of a drawer and share it with the world fifteen years ago.

Through the magic of his imagination, he journeys through outer space in search of what to say. After a series of heartwarming experiences and out-of-this-world encounters, he overcomes obstacles. He discovers ways to express love and friendship through helping, spending time together, giving, and the touch of love. Aflac reached out to me about writing a book to support families by providing tools for kids facing health challenges. Their passion for this vital mission inspired me to unleash my creativity and make a positive difference in the world through Beyond Words. 

How do you hope your book uplifts those who read it? Beyond Words empowers readers of all ages to be kind, loving, and compassionate with themselves and others. Kids will learn coping and comforting skills, as well as ways to take action to help friends and communicate love and support beyond words. 

What are you most excited about with this book? The best thing about Beyond Words is that 100% of the net proceeds from the sale of the book go directly to childhood cancer and blood disorder research and treatment. It was an honor to bring Aflac’s vision to life and to help families when they need it the most. 

Being an author today is like running a business. How do you manage your publicity and social media and maintain engagement with readers? My husband, best-selling author Derek Taylor Kent, and I co-founded Whimsical World and share in the day-to-day business strategy and activities to make our author business a success. I manage our social media accounts and media bookings. I love connecting with readers, both in person at events and online. It can be very time-consuming to create all the social media graphics, write authentic posts that inspire action, and respond to all the messages while being a present mom, running a household, writing new books, marketing our business, and touring at author events, but it’s also gratifying. It’s powerful to know that my presence and perspective influence readers beyond my books. I genuinely care about my readers, and I do my best to honor them. 

How do you hold yourself accountable and achieve the goals that you set forth? It’s incredibly challenging to set boundaries around my time and shift gears between marketing and business and creativity and product development, and back again. I set ambitious goals for myself and my business. I visualize the result and how I want to feel when I’ve finished writing the book, creating the plush, delivering the speech, etc. Then I work backward, setting the timeline based on the actions I need to take and the timing required for them to unfold. I set up mini rewards (a cookie, a mani-pedi, a call with a friend, etc.) for meeting milestones along the way, and one big, juicy reward for completing the entire project (usually a trip to somewhere I’m excited to go). I have two of the most adorable distractions (my young children) bopping around my home and office most of the time, so I try to give myself a lot of grace and be flexible with my timing. At the end of the day, I’m highly motivated to finish things, enjoy my vacations, celebrate with my family, and know I did everything I set out to do

Discover more at SheriFink.com.