A Day with Erica Sharlette

Winter 2010 saw the birth of EricaSharlette Promotion Ltd. and a result of a growing demand for a full service provision from the company’s namesake.

Taking time out of her ever increasing and manic schedule, Erica met with me in a vibrant Tottenham court road restaurant on a wet Tuesday afternoon. Upon arrival, despite having attended a previous interview and fighting her way across Town, she arrived looking calm and collected. Having handed her a hot chocolate, which she describes as her nectar, we begin our conversation.

Erica began her career as an event PA where she joined the full work force in 1999 and started working for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office of FCO. Her job was more on the admin side and after a few years she started a role in marketing and a bit of PA work where she got an idea of what she wanted to do.

‘I got into an events PA role when I was doing a temp contract for a charity sector and I got a three day temp role sorting out admin, going away on events and that was my first proper taste of what I wanted to do.’

Unfortunately for Erica, as soon as she was able to get into the events side of things. Tragedy struck and she had to have double knee surgery and learn to walk again. Erica was unable to work full time after that. She decided to go into the part time sector, but it wasn’t along the lines of event organization, it was more of Policy & Communications PA work. Purely by chance, Erica saw a Tweet from a friend advertising a job in Fashion and a Web and Graphic Design and got in touch with her and started working on her non paid work day. Then a call came through from an online magazine.  

 ‘I got on the radar of a webzine, who was monitoring my work. They rang me up one day and asked what exactly I was doing? They proceeded to ask me if I had considered to CRM (Client Relationship Management) I hadn’t but they were looking for someone so I decided to give it ago and they gave me a bit of a trial.’

The magazine editor told Erica that she was going to go to New York two weeks later for four days and that Erica needed to set up interviews and meetings with Artists and showcase what she could do, by the time the Editor got back. If Erica was able to pull it off, she would have the job.

‘I put the phone down and lost my natural born mind. Immediately I sat down and had a think about it and how I go about it. I started booking in all these meetings and Lekhem got in touch with me and said that he was interested. I listened to his (Lekhem) mix tape and completely fell in love with it. Unfortunately it turned out he wasn’t going to be able to do anything for that particular type of job I had been assigned, but, in the meantime-and as we built up a really good report just talking to each other and staying in touch- we connected instantly. I wanted to work with him. He had really good qualities and sounds, but just no direction of where to go with it.’

Erica started to help Lekhem and the magazine. At this time she was also working with Sherii Ven Dyer, helping with the web design and fashion job, doing the part time office work and by some inner goddess strength she was a part time carer for her mother who sadly became ill when Erica was just 15 years old.

Erica had the opportunity to do an events review as the person who was meant to do the write up was unable to make it as they did not live in London. Having never written a review before, she hesitated but in the end she received great praise and feedback and was asked to take on more.

‘The only problem was that the editor didn’t like my writing so he wanted me to change my style. I tried to take myself out of it, which essentially is what he wanted.  I remember now to this day he said, “When I read about an event, I want to read the facts; what actually happened. I don't want to read about the chair in the corner with the flowers on it, and how the lights hit them.”

After much debate about going into too much detail in her writing, Erica was brought on as a concert promoter for the only European date booked by Leela James, a Neo Soul songstress, but she was unsure of how she would fit all the other commitments in. She decided to leave the magazine and focus solely on what is now ES Promotion.   

After a friendly exchange of words and being in awe of how she managed to juggle her life we moved on to the advice section.

BOTS: What do you believe are the fundamental steps of developing your brand as an artist?

‘First thing I would say is that you have to build a solid foundation and streamline it, you can’t have 20 different user names and different accounts, people won’t remember that. If you are an artist and you get off stage and someone asks you where they can get all your information from or where they can find you, you have to make it easy for them. I always prefer having one website where they can get everything from. However, that’s not how social media feeds work today. You have to be on all of them, provided they are tailored to that specific avenue you are going down on. You have to make sure people can find you.’

‘You must also have examples of your work online. It might seem so obvious, but if you are a musician or any other creative you need to have your music online.  You would be so surprised at how many times I run into that.’

‘The response I have gotten from an artists has been that they don’t like to put themselves out there like that, so my question is, well how am I going to find you or buy your product if you are not online?’

‘Now days with people being able to download your work for free, I completely understand reluctance, as it is your work of art. But saying to me that you are an artist, but you don't want to make yourself that readily accessible to people online, doesn't make sense to me. I think that you are in the wrong industry then and you’re not looking at the bigger picture’

‘You should always present your best side. Don’t tell people what you can’t do. You always have to find a way to turn a negative into a positive. That’s not just with marketing that question always comes up, what are your best qualities and what are the worst?  Well I find that if you make them one and the same, but show how you can resolve the issue, that shows that you are a problem solver.’

What advantages do people get from a company like yours and what makes you stand out?

‘Well it’s just me, you get one to one, I repel cookie cutter types, and I never do the same for one person. There will be the same foundation but I always make sure I tailor specifically to the individual’s needs. I look into their personality and find the unique selling point. I think that’s why it’s great joining a company like Be On The Scene. By having a social network that is targeted towards a specific industry you are able to make it interpersonal. Trying to stick in a niche and find people that operate in the same field rather than trying to go the independent way. Personal is always best.

'Be very careful of how you present yourself on social networks. If you want to be on a site like Facebook, for personal reasons and for professional reasons, have separate accounts. One has to remember that you are a brand. You are representing your brand on these social media feeds and if you need to vent- and we are all guilty of this- it doesn’t give a good image to your brand unless it is directly linked to what you are representing. What you say and where you say it can get to the wrong people and it could destroy any potential opportunities. People buy people. Keep personal, but keep a portion of your personal issues out of your unleashing. You need to be willing to accept that when you enter the industry a bit of your personal life does disappear.’

“People are willing to pay for sanity; they are not paying for madness”

The bottom line is that you need to be careful at what you portray. In this day and age where social media rules, it is hard to differentiate what is personal and what is too personal. You need be able to separate the two. The life of the performer and the everyday.

‘An Artist has to be able to accept help and lose any arrogance they might have. Some believe that they are talented and that is all they need. To give you a perfect example of the iconic legend, Stevie Wonder who is an amazing Artist. However, he still has singing lessons. If he can be humble enough to still want to sit down and take guidance from anyone at all, then upcoming artists need to lose the arrogance, be honest and admit defeat. They also have to have enough courage to admit what they can, and what they can't do. If you are honest with people about your strengths and weaknesses, they will know how best to help you. That act alone goes back to what I was saying earlier about turning negatives into positives, because candor and humility will never go out of fashion. If you are honest with people about your strengths and weakness they will know how they can help you.’

As an artist promotion company, we cannot stress enough how important is it to be known as reliable in the industry. What are your thoughts or views on this?

‘It is critical to be reliable. I come from the mode of thought that you go, rather than you not go; at least you are showing your commitment and tenacity...Sure you have days where everything goes wrong and there is nothing anyone can do, but it's how you handle the bumps in the road that matter. Either your efforts or your nonchalance will be remembered come the end of the day, but you have a say in the impression you leave behind. When it comes to selecting people for events and putting them forward for work, you have an idea of their track record and if being unreliable is one of them, well you can tarnish your own future work opportunities...You don't know how fast word of mouth travels, only that you'll never be fast enough to catch it."

“Everything that you do is an audition for something else”

What is your take on musicians or other performers working for free? Others think it might be exploitation of talent, and then others believe that in order to get something you need to give something. What do you believe?

‘Working for free can be more important than the paid work. This is for everyone, not just artist. The commitment you show and the dedication you give to doing free work shows more of the person you can be when getting paid to do a job. If you give 2000% when you work and not being paid, it says a lot of your character.’

‘To tell you a great story, I had a friend who once did an internship for the directors of the entire Step Up films, and she was working for free. She turned up, did what she had to do, ran around doing everything for everyone and at one point a director turned to her and said, “there’s my chair, go and sit in it, you’re making me tired.” He mentioned that he had noticed everything she was doing that day and it was exhausting to watch. To make a long story short, she ended up a few years later, being hired by them for a music video. At the time, they didn’t know this and only during the final cut, she told them the story and they were like “You, we remember you!”  

what I am trying to get at is you have to be willing to do more for your free work as it will benefit you in the long run.  9/10 times nothing will come of it other than experience, but you never know who was watching you. They might take you on. It might not be the next job or the job after that, but for the most part, people remember those who make a real effort.’

Drinks are finished and our hour is up. The time spent with Erica Sharlette has made me realize that we do have good hearted people in the industry who look to help others and how important it is to have these people on your side. From her infectious laugh right down to her witty metaphors, Erica Sharlotte is someone that should be on your speed dial.

Remember, creativity belongs to those than can create, not to people who think they can make money from being created, for it is change that we live for, it is change that we wake up for and it is change that makes life meaningful to all of us.

The End.

By Romy Newman