Meet Karen Stuth of Satiama Publishing

Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Stuth.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Karen. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My sister Susan and I founded Satiama in 2008 as a blog that would offer the ‘many pathways’ to whatever might be transcendent for another. We wanted to offer a website that contained blogs, meditations, articles, even music that would invite spiritual seekers to find the path that felt true for them. We have always had a two-pronged test for including content at Satiama: that the content we or someone else offered came from a space of love and respect, and that it was not exclusionary — that the author or creator did not believe their way or ideology was the only way. We don’t believe there is any one path to whatever is transcendent for someone else; our website was intended for spiritual exploration.

Several years later, we were presented with multiple opportunities to publish new works. I had a significant background in publishing and thought it might be a delightful adventure! We chose as our initial offerings a guided meditation set by Cherokee Medicine Elder Eva Black Tail Swan called Come to Walk With Me; then a set of wisdom cards called Children’s Spirit Animal Cards by internationally renowned author Dr. Steven Farmer, then a song CD for people in times of transition called Safe Passage by Trina Brunk. From there, we received continuous offers of properties from authors and just took off as a publishing company. Today we are a company with 73 national awards and honors, we also offer a publishing consultancy called Satiama Writers Resource, and I am the president of the Coalition of Visionary Resources, the trade association for the mind-body-spirit industry.

Although my sister is less involved in the company now, I have surged forward and am glad I followed the path that keeps opening in front of me.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
We had some very significant early problems with our contract technical support, which cost us time, money, and effort. We hadn’t initially planned to monetize our website, so retooling our efforts multiple times as our business objectives morphed presented us with challenges but also the ability to learn what we needed to learn! It was — and is — really an exciting adventure.

It is also difficult for small publishers to significantly compete in the publishing industry against the industry giants — it’s a bit of a David and Goliath situation — but we have successfully found our niche. We are now primarily a wholesale publishing business, selling through a number of channels to retail customers and bookstores as well as in several online venues.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Satiama Publishing story. Tell us more about the business.
Satiama Publishing publishes books, card decks, audiobooks, children’s books, music and meditation CDs, and even a board game — all intended to spark the Divine within anyone and to help them find what they are seeking, in any form. Our catalogue of Mind*Body*Spirit titles is growing, and we are scheduled to add 16 new titles in 2020 as we grow like Topsy.

We are known in our industry for offering a curated collection of titles of very high quality, but our customers also know us for our customer service and willingness to help people get what they need or to help them find what they are looking for — even if we don’t offer it ourselves. Our product quality is reflected in the many awards we have received for our publications as well as for our company itself. We love authors and product developers and also love serving the information needs of those who consume our titles. Our passion for their work truly shines through in everything we bring forward.

I am most proud of our consistent commitment to follow the unfolding path in front of us rather than feeling confined by the four corners of a stated business plan. That might feel uncomfortable to some, but we enjoyed taking advantage of what we were being offered, always knowing there were no accidents there.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
We believe that we are primarily responsible for our life experience, in conjunction with the Divine guidance we receive, and which supports every minute of our lives. Life can often feel like a mad wind rushing past us, but our experience of it is also entirely within our control. We are neither a victim nor a bystander, which sometimes the idea of good or bad luck can suggest. We set our intention at the beginning to create a company or entity that would help others to find deeper meaning in their lives through exploring ‘the many pathways.’ That intention still burns very brightly; our good luck emanates from that purpose.

Bad luck is often just decision-making without the foundation of perspective or experience. We always forgive ourselves for any decisions that seemed to be “bad;” later it often turns out that they were not so bad after all!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.satiamapublishing.com and www.satiamawritersresource.com
• Phone: 719-487-0424
• Email: karen@satiama.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/satiamaforlife/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/satiamaforlife
• Twitter: @satiamaforlife

Image Credit:
Photography by Adriana Carlson; graphics by Robin A.F. Olson

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