We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tonee Shelton a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tonee, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
In 2020, during the pandemic and working remotely for several months, I had time to think. What I realized is that I had all of these poems inside of me, in random notebooks, in my notes app on my phone, etc. I decided that if the world ever returned to a slight sense of normalcy, I was going to do something that I had pushed to the recesses of my mind and priority list; I was going to compile poems, add new ones and self-publish my first book. This was risky for several reasons. One of the main reasons that publishing was risky was because of the content. I self-published a book that discussed racism at length during a time when the media was really highlighting police brutality and the numerous deaths of black people at the hands of people committed to serve and protect the people. Further, it was risky because I had just started a new full-time job, and I did not know how the impact of my poems would impact my job, whether negatively or positively. Finally, it is always a risk as a creator when you share your art with other eyes. You battle with insecurities about how people feel, will they receive your message, will people actually purchase a book of poems in the year of 2021? Anyway, it was the best risk that I could ever take as it opened my eyes to the possibilities of helping and healing people through poetry. Since then, I’ve written 2 poetry books, 1 chapbook and my latest book of prose “No one is coming to save you.” There is no growth without risk.
Tonee, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a poet, author, and spoken word artist, who to date, has successfully completed 108 live poetry reading since 2021. I have self-published four books, and spoken, presented and keynoted at numerous venues, from Baylor University to EY. I have always had a fondness for books, as I started reading for pleasure at the age of 8. From there, I realized that I actually enjoyed reading things out loud and took any opportunity to read things at school, to perform in theater plays, and even to compete in prose. After attending college, I started attending open mics, reading my work and putting it out on my social media.
Like most poets, most of my material comes from the world around me. I started writing about breaks ups, love, racism, being a girl or whatever was on my mind and heart. Writing is how I am able to make sense of the world around me, and also how I can craft the world and bend it to my imagination. Once I self-published my first book in 2021, I wrote my second volume of poetry in 2022, Identity Crisis, put myself on a coffee shop local book tour to engage interest, created some Canva images, shared them on IG and FB and started doing live readings. Identity Crisis was the volume of poetry that launched my career as a true spoken word artist, as I landed a live reading during a belonging conference, submitted an article in a magazine about the importance and influence of the black barbershop (a poem in Identity Crisis) and went on to open plays, facilitate poetry workshops, keynote at a university and the rest is history.
People know me for my career, as I am a social worker that works for a nonprofit that assists kids achieve in life, and they know me as a poet, someone who often uses their poetry to speak truth to power. If you are someone navigating life and need constant encouragement, or a voracious reader and desire to build a life around reading and hearing poetry, you will find my work attractive.
All in all, I am most proud of myself for finally taking charge of my life and saying yes to the poems in my head. I have always known that people need the arts. Culture is cultivated through the artists, and art has honestly saved my life. It sounds corny, and probably a bit unhealthy, but I’m very unhappy when I’m not writing, talking, or finalizing a book or a new talk. I leverage my social media to share tips, tricks, and random insight that I have about life and that satiates my daily appetite to give. I know that God created us with a unique purpose, and I am confident that he created me to use my words, whether written or spoken to help and heal people. I am a social worker because I enjoy holistically helping people, but I am an artist out of necessity. My poetry heals me and I hope that it does the same for others. You can access my work at www.bettawatchyatone.com.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I learned that you have to invest in yourself and be confident in talking about your work. When I first started, I was insecure about drawing attention to my work for fear of rejection so I would use my energy and words to amplify others. This is kind, and I still encourage others and highlight their achievements, but I started to notice that people would then focus on what I was talking about, not my art. I learned that it is okay to showcase your art, to talk about your art, and to negotiate things for yourself. As a natural helper, and someone that was insecure, I let my insecurities anchor my success. As artists, we have to be confident and secure so that we can also get the exposure that we need for more opportunities. It is okay to advocate for yourself, especially when you are just starting your journey. Insecurity for an artist can be detrimental to success, so start correcting it as early as possible. I check my insecurities by reminding myself that God has me on earth for a reason. I also remind myself of past accomplishments to affirm that I am capable of great things. And if you don’t take anything away from what I’ve said, always remember this, you are worthy of creating great art and receiving recognition for your work. Be brave and talk about your work and stand on business about your prices! Anything free consistently starts being devalued. As uncomfortable as it can be to negotiate price points, it is a requirement. Artists need funds and quality work deserves quality pay.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Social media is currency for your business. As much as I love the idea of not always having to create content for entertainment purposes, social media is how I was able to market my book and share progress of poetry readings and talks that I give. I invested in a social media course from a popular influencer and took extensive notes. I chose to invest in this influencer because they had a strong follower base, they created interesting content and I wanted to model my page similarly to theirs. I share this to say that it’s okay to pay to learn more tips and tricks. Invest in learning from other people! I also watched youtube videos about growing followers and asked personal questions of friends about how they viewed my page and what type of content from me was really engaging. I have yet to master growing my followers, but I consistently post content on a daily and weekly basis, and I try to build real relationships in real life. The key to my success as a poet has been showing myself friendly in real life, preparing well for my speaking engagements, having business cards on me to share after a talk, taking my books with me to events, and following and engaging with others’ content. Like and comment on other people’s content and yours will grow. In the end, if you are doing what you are supposed to in real life, your social media will be a recruiting tool, but word of mouth tactics is still the most effective way to grow your level of exposure and business. And finally, I create the content that I want to see. When you are just starting out, create content that centers your interests and be consistent. Challenge yourself to pre-create content and post on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bettawatchyatone.com
- Instagram: @Toneebshelton
- Facebook: Tonee B. Shelton
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonee-b-shelton-lmsw-067964236/
- Twitter: @bettawatchyatone
Image Credits
Christopher Winston, ab.stractphotography, Deon Parker, Questvizi, Kenneth Coleman Photography