#257: God Uses Underdogs and Our Weakness for His Glory

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelley Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters.

I'm going to share today from the Beatitudes, and this is a very familiar scripture. Let me just read this to you. It's Matthew 5, 3:12. God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the kingdom of heaven is the theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. God blesses those who are merciful, for they are shown mercy. God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. And when I read it this time recently.

Just, you know, a couple weeks ago, I put the little dates in there too. And if any of you don't do this yet, I highly recommend, like, get a journaling Bible or something that you can write in. Put the little date there. It can end up being something that you pass down to your children or your family and almost be something that, you know, like we talk about in Christian Book Academy. You're writing words that outlive you. This Bible will be something that one day my nieces can read or someone else can read and see what God was speaking to me about. And I just think that's so powerful. So I was just. What was sticking out to me this time is, you know, verses three and five, three again it says, God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. And it just was reminding me that spirit of humility is always greater than pride, right? And I think when we talk about marketing in a God honoring way and we talk about sharing our message and we talk about all of these things and it's so easy for the enemy to want to bring in that pride, right? And yet it's not about us. It's about God. It's about the message he's given us. It's about the abilities he's given us. It's about the things he's shown us or that we've learned over time or the gifts that we have to write. And it says, God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him. And I wrote, we are blessed when we realize and embrace our places of weakness and our places of brokenness where we need God. Where do you feel weak in the area of marketing your book?

We all have those areas, right? Where do you feel weak? And just go ahead. If you're here live, go ahead and post that in the comments. I know for me, an area that I have felt weak and where I just. I'm like, I need you. God is copywriting. And that's when you write in order to sell. Like, I love teaching. I could teach all day. I could talk about something all day. I can give you free content all day. But when it comes to. To actually writing the copy to emails or whatever, that's where I definitely feel a little bit weaker. And I have taken extra training, and this is something God continues to teach me and he continues to show me. Liana says, yes, definitely copywriting. Deborah says, I struggle with strategy and tracking success of what marketing I am doing. Yeah, yeah. You know, something that I was reading recently.

They were talking about, it was information for coaches, and they were talking about that one of the biggest skills that we need as business owners is to know how to prioritize. And I think that's a little bit what you're talking about, Deborah, that strategy. And I really believe that is one of the things that. That has made me successful. Even though I'm weak in many areas, God has taught me the skill of strategizing and being able to have strategy for what to do today. So this week I just came back from vacation, bombarded with emails with all sorts of things that I need to do. And right now my inbox is still full because I had to prioritize. I'm prioritizing what things need to get done today and what things can wait. And I think that when you choose those top three things, what are the top, most powerful three things you could do to market your book today? And when you start looking at it that way, not just what are three things I can do to market my book, but what are the most powerful, the biggest bang for my buck? And it may not be spending time on social media today. It may actually be spending time in prayer. It might be writing that email you've been putting off. It might be contacting that strategic partner that you've been putting off. Right. Usually the things that we put off are the things that tend to be the most powerful. Lisa says Writing in general and believing in myself to do so. Yes, that believing. And I think that's where even just this is just a reminder of our need for him. We have a need for God. Blessed are those who are poor and realize their need for Him. Right now, each one of you are typing out, you're acknowledging your need for God in some area. And because of that, like, you're blessed. You're blessed when you have a need, when you are humble, when you are weak, he is strong. You know, the Bible, it's just all throughout the Bible, God uses underdogs, Right?

He uses underdogs. And so, you know, he is in the. He is in that process of using our weaknesses for his strength and his glory and.

Yeah. So, but thank you for sharing that. Deanne says organizing and marketing. Yeah. So organizing is a little bit. That same thing I was talking about with prioritizing. So when we prioritize and organize, then we have that plan and we can say, okay, God, what is it that you want me to work on today? What is it that's going to be the biggest bang for my buck today? What is it that's most important for me to finish today? Sometimes it's being still and not doing anything.

Margaret says, my greatest weakness is believing that others want or need what I write. The Lord has and is speaking to me about this. My head knows better, but emotionally, I'm still dealing with it. Yeah. And that's where getting our mission. We talked about this in August, staying on mission. You know, the disciples were like, jesus, everyone's looking for you. Come, we have to go. You know, we have to go to the people. And Jesus said, no, it's time for me to move on. I have to go to the other towns as well, because that is what I came to do. And right before that, he said it says he got up early, he went and met with God in prayer in a secluded place. He knew his purpose. He met with God in prayer. And so he didn't get sidetracked with all the things. But when you know what God's called you to do, when you just have that confirmation that this is a message he's given you to share, then you have that confidence to step out. Will you still feel the fear? Will you still have the butterflies in your stomach? Of course. Especially when you're doing something new. You know, I'm doing some new things right now myself. And. And so, you know, it's. It's scary, but it's exciting too. Right. Nancy says it's the believing that others will pay for what I have to offer. You know, that's a similar thought. And again, God keeps reminding me, Shelly, success is obedience. And when I'm obedient to him, he'll provide. And right now, he's providing in ways that I wouldn't have expected. Expected or that I, you know, I wouldn't have wanted or, you know, not necessarily wanted, but, like, I have a plan. Right. Do you guys do that? You have a plan in your mind of how you want things to work out or what your budgets are going to be or how the money's going to come in. And God, a lot of times does it differently. Right. Especially when you're a full time entrepreneur. And so, you know, but God keeps reminding me, Shelley, I will provide, and I am providing. It just may not be coming in the ways that you expect. And so I just encourage you just to keep following his voice. Success is obedience.

Myrna says it's the technical stuff, like setting up websites and landing pages. Yeah. And that's where we have some people that can help you. But if you need help with some of those technical things, and that's something that we can help you get connected with the right people.

Yeah. Liana says, yay, go underdog. Right. Amen. Dan says, I so need him. I can tell right away when I'm out of the flow. His presence is my flow. Yeah. Rosalynn says not to procrastinate. Writing a blog to go with my book. Yeah. And, you know, a lot of times when I have a task like that, so I try to identify the top three tasks in a day that I want to get done, and then if I've gotten those done, it's a success. Or the top three tasks that have to get done. You know, sometimes you're on deadlines. I have a deadline right now with a contract that we have for our books. And so I had to get some things done today. But a lot of times I will turn on my timer for 25 minutes, the Pomodoro and I will get to work. And so. Oh, it's hard. But we also have the accountability partners in cba. So, Rosalind, I'm not sure if you have an accountability partner, but I would reach out to them, I would email them or message them or however you are communicating and say, hey, I need to finish this blog post. Can you pray for me right now and just keep me accountable for finishing it today?

Okay. Dan says, I struggle with having my business meetings. Honestly, I tend to go straight to work. It isn't about my. Do I need prayer for this? Yeah. You know, I struggled with this for years. I'm, I'm a doer. So like I jump in and on the strength finders test, I'm an activator achiever. And so if I don't have that time with God in the morning, typically it's not going to happen. And so for so many years I would just jump in to start working right away because there's always a million things to do. Right. And it's just been in the last probably four years that I've really developed a good routine and I had to set very strict boundaries, you know, with my computer and my phone and you know, the, you know, not getting online on my phone to check email or you know, to check things before I have that time. Sometimes I still do, you know, but.

It'S so much different now and you just have to find what works best for you. And so maybe it's not every day, maybe it's one day a week and it's just a special time and you light a candle and you have your special tea. I know you're a tea drinker and you just look forward to those times because it's a time for soul care. Right. We talk about self care, but it's a time for soul care of meeting with God.

Lisa says my biggest setback is selling. I'm not great at the copywriting and systems. Yeah. And that is a skill that we can learn. I'm continuing to learn that as well. Lucille says building a social media platform.

Yes. And it takes time. I'm starting this whole new thing of alive and active wellness and God just led me to focus on Instagram. So starting from zero all over again, it's so hard. Like it's like oh my goodness. But it's possible. You know, you just have to get started and one follower at a time, one interaction at a time. I was listening to a training this week and she was talking about social media and that one of the biggest things to do with social media is to engage. And so if you're not getting people commenting on your post or interacting with you, a great thing to do is start engaging with others and start commenting on their post. On Facebook when you comment, there should be a little drop down box when you're commenting and you should be able to comment either as your personal profile or as your page. And you can then change that to comment as your page on different posts and then people will see your page name. You know, whether that's in a Group. I think with a group you have to maybe join as the page and some groups don't allow that. But, but anyways, you know, and then Instagram, you know, you're just, they'll obviously just see what your, you know, your name is on Twitter, that sort of thing. But you know, to start engaging with others and then asking people what they want to hear from you, what do they want to learn from you and start offering that free content to bless people. And that quality content is greater than quantity content. So if you have one really good post a week, that's better than trying to pump out five posts that are subpar. And so quality content. And then engagement always reply. I always try to do the love button on comments. Unless it doesn't, you know, or the like, the like or the love. And then I try to comment and try to reply. That will also boost engagement as well. So you know, it's, it's definitely, it definitely takes time. But you don't need a huge platform to be successful. There's a concept called 1000 fans and they say that if you have 1000 true fans that will follow you and will buy everything that you have to offer, you can earn a full time income as an artist, as an author, you know, as a creative. And so I mean for some of you, a thousand still sounds like a lot. But you don't need 100,000 followers on Instagram. You don't need, you know what I mean? Like you don't need these huge amounts of people. You just need to just start building quality relationships with people little by little. And you know, it will come faster if you reach out to strategic partners, if you get featured on bigger podcasts or blog bigger blogs. So there's ways to speed that up. But definitely think about the quality of your content and then engaging. So if you're not getting the engagement, start reaching out and engaging message. Your followers say, hey, I saw that you followed our page. I'm so excited to get connected with you. And I was just curious like what kind of content would you would bet would bless you the most or would benefit you the most? Or I mean you can ask anything but maybe just start reaching out and see what happens. I've been doing that on Instagram and I'll just say, hey, you know, this is Shelly. CJ and I both post here, but it's mostly me. And so we're in Colorado Springs. Where are you from? Then when they reply, then I'll send an audio message. And in Instagram messages you can do like I think Facebook too, you can do like a one minute audio message. People will be shocked that you took the time to send an audio message, which really doesn't take much longer than typing something out. So those are just a few little tips for you and just encouragement for you. Lana says. Is anyone familiar with Facebook business suite and using it to post to Facebook and Instagram at the same time? Yeah, so actually my virtual assistant Eileen was telling me about this recently that there is the ability if you have a business Instagram account and a business Facebook page, you can connect them and then within your Facebook page you can go in, I think it might be called the Creator Studio. And you have the ability then to schedule posts to, to Instagram. That's really the main way I recommend scheduling posts to Instagram. I did it through a tool previously that wasn't approved by Instagram and totally started getting decreased engagement. All of these things and what, what people were saying last the last couple years, shadow band or whatever. So I definitely don't recommend using other scheduling tools for Instagram. But, but that is a way to do it. And that's what my assistant helps me do with my account, your Creative Adventure. And she's the one that actually told me that it's available.

But you can choose when you post to post it to both. I personally like to schedule something to Instagram with all the hashtags and everything and then a separate post to Facebook with maybe one or two hashtags, but not the whole list of them. So I still have, you know, have them scheduled separately because they're different platforms and you want to, you know, you want to be aware of that when you're posting to both. And so that's something to definitely consider. Nancy says, I remember you sending us a prayer video. What did you use? Yeah, so this Bonjoro and.

Let me see if I can grab the link. I think it's just bonjouro.com and you can send a video, a personalized video to people. And it is really incredible. It is a paid tool and we're not currently using it right now. But if you want to wow. Your, like if you have a course and, or you have a membership, actually there is a free. You can do 50 videos per month for free, one custom workflow and it has their brand. So yeah, you can use it for free. And let me just put that link in the chat box for those of you that are here live. But that's a really, really great tool. And then what I did for that is I just used the app on my phone and I had a little tripod and I just, you know, one day I just, I just recorded a bunch of videos for people and that, like there were videos, like welcome videos to cba we've done before. And then I did like prayer videos, like if people just sent me prayer requests. And that was really powerful as well. You can also do the same thing in a Facebook message, in an Instagram message, in a Twitter message. Just record your video on your phone and, and then send it through that platform. You just have to make sure it's not too long because you can only send certain amounts of things to there. So. But, so what I was wanting to share is this whole thing of realizing our need for God. And that word poor. God blesses those who are poor. It's the Greek word patochos, destitute, and it means destitute, beggar, helpless, powerless to accomplish an end. And if you ever feel powerless to market your books.

Powerless to accomplish an end, needy, lacking in anything. And it's the same word that Jesus used in Luke 4:18, where he's quoting Isaiah 61:1 where it says he had come to preach the gospel to the poor, poor, heal the brokenhearted and set the captives free. So that same word, poor, God blesses those who are poor. He's come to preach the gospel to the poor. He's come to preach and to help and to give and to do things for those who recognize their need for him. And we can wallow in self pity all day. We can say, oh, woe is me. I only have five followers. Oh, woe is me. I don't know the technology. Ah, I'm so overwhelmed. And yet we're not technically recognizing our need for God. We're just stuck in the pit. Have you ever been there?

I definitely have. And yet when we switch that. So it's a similar language, it's a similar thing, but we're saying, God, I only have five followers. I know you've given me this message. You know, I need you to help me. I need you to step in. I need you. I need your, your help, your strategy, your power. I need you to lead and to guide me. God, I don't know what to do with this technology. Like, I literally just had a tech problem before we started this. And I was like, I don't know how to fix it. And God was, I just felt like, God, say google it. Because that's why I always tell my mom.

Google it.

And I did. And there was the answer, and it fixed it. Like, literally within two minutes, I could have gotten myself all worked up. And it was like, you know, about this live video and recording it and all this. And I could have gotten so upset. But, you know, I just paused and said, God, I don't know what to do. This isn't working. And he led me to a solution. I've heard it said before, there are no problems in the kingdom of God, only possibilities. Have you thought about that before? Yes. You might have what looks like a problem or a weakness or a lack in an area, but when it comes to God, it's a possibility.

And so in the message version, Matthew 5, 3 says, you're blessed when. When you're at the end of your rope. Have you ever been at the end of your rope? You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you, there is more of God and His role. Less of me, more of you, God. And so I love the way the message says that as well. You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. I don't feel blessed when I'm at the end of my rope. Right.

Then, you know, verse five also says, blessed are those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. And so again, it's that whole concept of humility. And I think when we. When we just embrace our need, we embrace humility in our marketing, a blessing comes. God's going to show us something, A divine connection is going to come in, a strategic partnership, an opening for something, you know, increase in sales, a strategy that God gives us. And so I just wanted to encourage you with that. And I'm going to go ahead and pray, and then we'll have some time for just some Q and A if you have any specific questions. So, Lord, we thank you. We thank you for, for being our provider. We thank you that when we are at the end of our rope, you step in that you know what we need to market our books, to get the word out, to do the things that you've called us to do, and you know, what resources we have or don't have, you know, what followers we have or don't have, you know, just where we're at and the things that we feel weak in and the struggles that we have. And I just pray, God, that yout would just pray. Pour out a blessing right now over. Over each person that is listening, whether they're here live or on the replay. God, I just pray you would pour a blessing over them. A blessing that will just be able to help them have a breakthrough in the area where they feel weak, a breakthrough in finishing writing their book and publishing their book. A breakthrough in marketing their book. And Lord, we just pray that we would just continually just seek you and realize our need for you. And I just pray this in Jesus name, Amen.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you, as a Christian writer, have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven and to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy, where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom Writers.