We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sheri Fink. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sheri below.

Alright, Sheri thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Our mission at Whimsical World is to inspire, delight, and educate children of all ages while planting seeds of self-esteem and high achievement. This mission is near and dear to my heart because I feel that nurturing children’s self-esteem from an early age can empower them to be their authentic selves, make stronger connections with their communities, make bigger contributions to the world, and to live happier, more fulfilling lives.

I was inspired to write my first book, The Little Rose, after being bullied in the workplace. I felt ill-equipped to deal with the overwhelming emotions from that experience and poured my energy into writing the book. I didn’t know it was a children’s book until I pulled the story from the drawer over a year later and decided to embark on this important mission.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am an inspirational speaker, #1 best-selling author, and president of Whimsical World. Whimsical World is an empowering brand I created with my husband, award-winning author Derek Taylor Kent. Whimsical World’s mission is to inspire, delight, and educate children of all ages while planting seeds of self-esteem and high achievement. We aim to make positive change through the power of whimsy and imagination.

Our catalog of award-winning, fun-to-read children’s books have social-emotional learning themes, including anti-bullying, being brave, asking for help, adapting to change, being authentic, and being a true friend. Our books expand children’s imaginations with whimsy and wonder from the depths of the ocean to the heights of the galaxy. Whimsical World brings joy, positivity, and wonder. We create magical live experiences and merchandise with a message. Discover more at www.WhimsicalWorldBooks.com.

I love to write (sixteen books so far!) and travel the world inspiring audiences of all ages to believe in themselves, dream bigger dreams, and take action to live their best lives.

My first children’s book, The Little Rose, is a powerful empowering story about a rose who grows up in a weed bed and because she is different, believes she’s a weed. She discovers that she’s a beautiful rose no matter what anyone else thinks of her and the value of finding friends who appreciate her for who she really is. The Little Rose was #1 on the Amazon Best-Seller List for over 60 weeks.

My books have been honored with multiple awards, including 3 gold medals in the Readers Favorite International Book Awards. I’m a recipient of the prestigious Gold Mom’s Choice Award honoring the best in family friendly entertainment. Discover more about me, my books, and my mission at www.SheriFink.com.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Derek Taylor Kent and I first met when we were both invited to an Authors Festival at a local elementary school. As children’s authors, we often visit schools, give presentations, sign books, and inspire the students. The school had set up the library as a behind-the-scenes place for the 22 authors to gather, eat lunch, and get to know each other.

Derek was funny, clever, humble, and fun. I had heard of him because he was the author of the very popular Scary School middle grade book series. Following the event, he friended me on Facebook and would occasionally text me marketing ideas of things that were working well for him that he thought would help me as an indie author.

We literally bumped into each other at San Diego Comic-Con a few months later and had a professional lunch. I liked his boundless creativity and openness to try new approaches in his writing and business. I also had a lot of fun and wanted to get to know him better.

A few months later, we reconnected at a celebration I hosted for all of my author and illustrator friends following a big children’s book festival. He sat next to me and made me laugh the whole night. When the evening came to an end and I was saying good-bye to all my friends, I felt energized even though I had worked so hard that day at the festival.

He asked me out shortly afterward. We got married in 2017 and decided to combine our individual brands and books into a larger business called Whimsical World. We’ve been working together to grow our business, reach more readers, expand our catalog and merchandise, and have even more fun ever since. Sometimes when you do what you love, you find the one you love.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

We sell our products everywhere we can that makes financial sense. As authors, there’s a great deal of credibility we get from selling on Amazon. Almost everyone in the world who’s buying books knows Amazon and they make it easy for customers to buy the various editions (hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook) all in one place. One of the cons with any distribution platform is that the business owner / author makes a considerably lower profit margin when selling on those sites. It’s worth it for us, but doesn’t make sense for every business.

We love selling directly to customers on our website (www.Whimsical-World.com) because we can autograph and personalize (for example, “To Nadja”) every book. We also include little bonus surprises with each purchase. We like having the relationship directly with the customers because we can send them offers, reward their loyalty with special gifts, and invite them to events near where they live.

We use Shopify for our E-commerce site and it connects to our various social media accounts (Facebook Page, Instagram Business Account, etc.) so it’s easy to tag our products in our posts and customers can shop directly from the social media platform.

One of the areas of our business that’s expanded in recent years is wholesale. We sell wholesale directly to other businesses who then can set the price for our products in their stores and sell them directly to their customers. You can find Whimsical World books in a variety of gift shops, aquariums, children’s museums, arboretums, children’s boutiques, and more throughout North America. The big advantage is reaching a broader audience than we might reach on our own.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.SheriFink.com
• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/Sheri_Fink
• Facebook: https://Facebook.com/SheriFinkFan
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherifink
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Sheri_Fink
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/WhimsicalWorldBooks
• Other: Whimsical World Shop: http://www.Whimsical-World.com