We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarah Puckett and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Sarah, what do you attribute your success to?
Communication and Community. We work in a very personal field, the Authors put their blood, sweat and tears into these stories and the Narrators often connect with them on a very personal level as well. After years of working solo with Authors and Narrators on individual projects, the one thing that stuck with me is, this is a partnership. Yes, we all need to make money and pay the bills, but this work goes deeper than that. Solid communication with my clients was my first priority. Educating them on the process, keeping them informed as we went, and making sure they kept excited about this step in their career. Because audiobooks are supposed to be fun!
Next, was building a strong community for the narrators working for us. As a narrator myself, I knew I wanted to provide a comfortable working environment for my narrators. One where they have the tools they need to do the job, feel valued, and overall feel part of something. Because of this care and love I’ve given to the people working for me, I’ve been able to provide over 300 Narrators with work!
It’s all about how you treat people, and I choose to treat people with respect, always.
Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I started PFP in 2020 because I was producing audio on my own through multiple clients. One day I just thought “well, I guess I could start a real company that helps authors find narrators”. We called it Pink Flamingo because I one time decided to not wear black and bought a flamingo skirt for business photos. Everyone started sending me flamingo gifts, and it just made sense. I worked very closely with a marketing team, Audiobooks Obsession. One thing I kept hearing was that authors knew how to produce audio, but not how to market them. I decided that we needed to incorporate a marketing package with our production services to help their new releases have higher visibility.
We did this for a few months, producing audio only, until a narrator reached out asking if we would publish an audiobook they were working on. Thanks to Kelli Tager, our publishing track was born and we have since published over 200 titles!
There were so many challenges. I don’t have a business background, or accounting, or management, or marketing and PR, or publishing, So, we had many, many growing pains at first. Because our company basically went from nothing to over 150 titles in just the first year and a half, figuring out how to manage that and keep it organized was my biggest struggle. But, I have a pretty great team surrounding me and I rely on their input to make decisions.
From there, we expanded our divisions, bringing in other production companies that specialized in genres outside of romance. Fireside Audio and Northern Lake Audio have been a great addition. We are still working on expanding the work in those divisions, but we are excited to be working with them.
And, because I’m always looking for ways to diversify….we create Flock Distribution. Which is an aggregator/distribution service that helps authors distribute their audiobooks to retailers worldwide.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Krystyn Stefanu- She is my VP and has been an amazing support through the development of PFP. I’d also say my Flock Narrators as I wouldn’t be here without their amazing work!
Website: https://www.pinkflamingoproductions.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pinkflamingo_productions/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PFPAudiobooks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pinkflamingoaudiobooks