#180: One Reason Christian Authors Resist Marketing

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message. Create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Hi. This is Shelly Hitz, the owner of Author Audience Academy. And in this training video, I want to talk about one reason I believe Christian authors resist marketing. This last weekend I was a keynote speaker and I led a workshop at Writers on the Rock conference for Christian writers. It was amazing. So fun. But in my workshop, it was I gave my workshop amplify your message. If you're interested in going through that workshop, you can get it at trainingauthors.com amplify well, anyways, I was in the middle of this presentation and I'm talking about this whole concept why Christian authors resist marketing. And all of a sudden something new came to my mind. I often talk about my key verses. My theme verses for my business come from Matthew 5, 14, 16. So I'm going to reread these to you right now. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. In those verses it talks about that we're not to hide our light, we're to let it shine. We're to let our good deeds. And that word, good deeds is the work of our hands. It's the things we create, the products, any products that we create. So those are the books, the things that we create. We're to let them shine so that people can praise us. Is that what it says?

So that people will do what? Praise our Heavenly Father in heaven. We are to let our good deeds shine. We're to do the marketing. We're to get the word out. We're to let people know our book even exists in order so that they can praise our Heavenly Father in heaven. But I was asking the authors in the workshop this last weekend, why do you think you resist marketing? Why do you think Christian authors resist marketing? If you're here live or watching the replay, I'd love for you to share your comments, but it was interesting. Both times it was the same answer. You know, we're afraid that we're going to be prideful, that all of a sudden the marketing is going to become all about us and that we're going to sin with pride and self centeredness or the other Thing that I heard from authors is that it's going to be all about greed and the money and what we can make. We're going to be in the center of it. And for sure we need to be aware of that. Because it is a big, big temptation whether or not to be drawn towards materialism and the money and the greedy or humanism, where you put yourself at the center. It is a huge temptation. And I talk about that in the workshop on Amplify youy Message. But we're not to hide either. That's not an excuse just to hide and publish a book and then never let anyone know it even exists. Never talk about our book, never mention it. We need to let our lights shine so that people will praise our Heavenly Father. What I realized though, as I was presenting this last weekend is it's not even just the fact that we're concerned that we're going to be led into pride or greed or self glorification. I really believe that. Part of the issue and the reason why so many Christian authors are hesitant to market their books and do the things God called us to do to get the message to more people, to reach more people with our testimonies, with the Gospel, is because they're afraid of what other people will think.

Ouch.

Because we're afraid that other people.

Are.

Going to assume are going to think that we're prideful. We're afraid that somebody's going to think that we're all about the money. We, because we're marketing it. We're afraid of what other people will think. And you know what? We are only responsible for our actions. We are only responsible for what we do. If somebody else. And I've had people. I've had people do this to me. They have actually come up to me and they said, shelly, I'm praying for you and I'm praying that you do not become prideful.

And I'm just thinking, you already think that, don't you?

You know what? They don't know my motives. They don't know my heart. They're judging me and that's on them. They're responsible for their thoughts, their actions, their judgments. I am only responsible for what God has given me to do. In Matthew 25, we read about the parable of the talents. Now that's a very familiar passage. If you've been in church any amount of time or read your Bible, what does it say that the person with one talent did? What did they do with that one talent? It says, I was afraid and so I hid.

I truly believe. And God gave me even deeper revelation of this, this last weekend. I truly believe that many Christian authors are afraid of what other people will think of them. And so they're hiding. You're hiding that gift, that light, that book that God has given to you because you're afraid of what other people will think. And yes, we need to guard our hearts. Yes, we need to make sure that we are staying plugged in with God, that we have prayer and accountability partners. And yes, we. We need to make sure that our hearts are right. I can tell you from experience, I've gotten pulled in a couple different directions, and the Lord's had to line me back up again. But you know what? That's life. Sometimes we overeat. You know what I mean? Sometimes we overspend. Sometimes we do stuff. We have sin that comes into our life every day. It's all about confessing that sin, getting right with the Lord and moving forward. But if we live our life in fear, if we live our life based on what we think other people are going to think of us. What is God going to say when we meet him face to face one day? I want him to say, well done, good and faithful servant. I gave you this many talents and you multiplied them. You multiplied them. You did the things that I gave you to do. Are you asking God? Are you seeking Him? I have a podcast all about one God idea, all about the idea that God can give you. He will give you the best marketing ideas. He will give you the plan. He will give you what he wants you to do. Maybe that doesn't mean you're going on live video like I do, but he will give you the ideas and the plans if you will just press in and ask Him. But so many times we are just so stuck in fear and we're hiding.

Someone right now is waiting for the message that you have to share. Will you stand up and say, no more? No more will I resist marketing. Marketing is about relationships. That is the foundation of marketing. The foundation of all of it is relationships. Getting to know people, sharing your story, getting to know theirs. It doesn't have to feel sleazy and slimy. If you want more information on this, I encourage you to sign up for my free training. It's the same workshop I just gave this last weekend. Amplify your message and you can sign up for free@trainingauthors.com Amplify. But I just want to encourage you if this is you, if you've been stuck and you've had that mindset that marketing is prideful or it's going to lead you to greed or that other people are going to think that that's what you're all about. I want you to be freed from that today because what happens is our thoughts lead to our actions. And if we have these thoughts that I don't want to market or I don't want to put myself out there, or I don't even want to publish my book, what will people think of me? Or I hate marketing. It's just sleazy and slimy and ah, if we're having these thoughts all the time of, you know, negative things about marketing, guess what our actions are going to do regarding marketing. We're probably not going to market our book. We're probably not going to click the publish button. We're probably not going to take those actions because our thoughts lead to our actions. Does that make sense? So it starts with renewing our minds. It starts with identifying what is the stinkin thinkin? What is the fear? What is the root? And I honestly truly believe a lot of us are stuck because we're afraid of what other people will think. You know what? That's on them. The only thing you are responsible for are your actions. If your heart's in the right place, let that light shine. Let it shine. Don't hold back. Be who God has created you to be. Let me just pray over you God. I just thank you so much for every author that is listening to this right now. I just pray Lord for a breakthrough for them in their mind in this stinking thinking. I command any fear to leave in Jesus name and I pray that you would help each one of us and show each one of us what it is you have for us. It's going to be different for every single one of us. How we market our books depending on our personality, our resources, our experience, it's going to look different for every single one of us. But Lord, show us what we can do. Give us the ideas. Give us the courage to let our light shine, to multiply the gifts and abilities you've given us and to be such a amazing force for the Kingdom of God. I just pray that you would work powerfully in each one of our lives. And I just pray this in Jesus name. Amen. All right, thank you so much for being here and if you found this helpful, please share it with other authors, with your friends, with even business owners and entrepreneurs. Please make sure to share this message and be an encouragement to someone else today. All right, I will see you next time. Bye Bye.

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