#329: Marketing Minute: Are You Stuck in the "Have To" Mindset Related to Book Marketing?

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 Shelli 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.

Hey authors, are you stuck in have to related to your marketing? A feeling of dread, almost like I have to do this or that. It's like a burden to you. If so, I hope that this episode encourages you and inspires you to move forward. My name is Shelly Hitz and I'm so excited that you're here. If you haven't gotten access to it yet, I want to tell you about a free resource we have for you on marketing. This is our Marketing Minute episode and we have created a PDF, but it's also a Google Doc that you can edit full of 27 book marketing ideas. And so this is completely free. You know, you've finally written and published your book. Now it's time to market it, promote it, and reach more people. And so go ahead and download this for free@trainingauthors.com ideas. This is going to give you 27 book marketing ideas. And so excited for you to get your hands on that resource. But if you've been stuck in this mindset of have to like the big sigh I could, I just felt myself like sighing, like, oh, I have to do this, this burden, this, you know, just feeling of pressure, then I want to encourage you to take a step back. What was it that caused you to write and publish your book in the first place? What was the reason that you were inspired to do it? Was it your love for writing? Maybe you're a novelist and you just love to share stories and tell stories. Was it your own transformation and testimony that you wanted to share? Was it something that you wanted to teach? Was it a way to grow your business or a ministry that you've had? I mean, what was it that initially excited you about this book? And then ask the Lord to bring back that excitement, right? Bring back that first feelings, those first feelings that you've had. But the other thing is feelings are feeling fleeting. Feelings are just feelings. And sometimes we need to move forward despite our feelings. And I just encourage you, instead of saying, I have to market my book, what about I get to. I get to share my book. I get to have the opportunity to influence lives through words that will outlive me, through books that can impact lives in ways that I may not even know until I. I get to heaven, I get to do this. Can you hear the. The change in my voice? I mean, I could feel the change as I started saying those things. And so maybe you even just need to write out some of those sentences, go back and re. Listen to what I just said and write it out. Like, I get to do this. Like, even 10, 20 years ago, we didn't have all the technology that we have today for self publishing, for print on demand, for online marketing. I don't know if C.J. and I would even have this business if all of these things weren't available. But my goodness, we have so much to be grateful for. So I get to do this instead of I have to do this is a little mindset shift that can make a huge difference. The other thing is just to go into gratitude. So think about three things that you're grateful for related to your marketing. Did somebody go comment on your social media post today? Did somebody reply to an email? Did you notice you got a new subscriber to your email list? Did you sell a book? I mean, what is something that you can be grateful for today? And it could be teeny, teeny, tiny, small little thing that you're starting to see some response, some progress, or it could be a big win that God has brought into your life. But I encourage you to write down three things that you're grateful for related to your marketing today as well. And so these are just small, little mindset shifts. And I have to admit, I'm in it with you. I get to that point too. And the other thing is, if you're in this place of, oh, I have to market my book, like, feeling like it's a strain, a drain, a dread, I, um, it might be time to take a little rest. So once a year I try to take. And, and I'm, I've been very intentional about it since 2017. Um, if you've heard my story, you know that I'm a recovering, or I say a redeemed workaholic. And 2017, I really hit that wall and really changed a lot of things in my working and patterns and all of that. And one of the things that I changed was since that time, about once, at least once a year, I try to take seven days completely off from social media, email, all the things I didn't think it was possible, honestly, having an online business. But, you know, I have a team now, and I have great members inside Christian Book Academy. And I'm getting ready here soon to take one of those breaks. It's Been an intense month, and in May, we launched a Kingdom Writers Conference. Count the cost edition if you're a part of that. It was amazing. Launch on my updated version of Procrastination of Publication Workshop. We launched Christian Book Academy and enrollment is open. And so there was just a lot of stuff going on. And so I'm getting ready to take my break. And so sometimes you may just need to take a break. And when I say break, I mean break. Like you need to give your brain a break from all the online stuff, the computer, the cell phone. The first time I took this sabbatical or, you know, detox technology, detox, I guess you could call it, in 2017. I remember, like, I. I took a hard, fast, cold break. I wasn't even really texting. I mean, I took a break. And I remember just all of a sudden, everything started coming alive to me in ways that I hadn't even noticed in, you know, in years, probably like just seeing flowers or enjoying music again or the taste of my tea. You know, all the things that were just blurring by me before, they were. It was becoming so much more. I was becoming so much more aware of the. The present moment, and that's so important. And also just giving my brain a break from the constant. So social media and all those things. And now I try to also just take a break once a week, have a Sabbath day once a week where I'm off of all of that. And so sometimes, you know, if you're in that place, you may just need a break, recharge, and come back refreshed. And I remember there was a moment years ago I told cj, I just feel so much pressure. And he said, shelly, what if instead of feeling the pressure, you see it as a privilege? And. And that's another small but mighty mindset shift, friends, what if we see this not as a pressure with marketing to have to sell so many books or to have to be successful in a certain way, have so many subscribers to our email list, followers on social media. What if we take all that pressure away and we just say, God, this is a privilege to be used by you in this way. And it is worth it for the one. It is worth it for the one. It is worth it for the 50. It is worth it for the hundreds or the thousands that end up being impacted by my book. It is worth it. Oh, friends, if I could just take that burden off of you right now, that pressure off of you, and just help you to open your eyes and see you have a resource which is called the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. If you are a follower of Christ, which if you're listening to this podcast, I assume you are. But if you, if you aren't, you can join us today by inviting Jesus into your life. But if you have him in your life, then you have access to this power that can give you the ideas you need to market your books. Yes, we have that PDF 27 book Marketing Ideas. But God has the best idea. So are you having business meetings with Him? Are you connecting with Him? Are you receiving from Him? He has the best ideas ideas. And so I hope that you're feeling a little bit more encouraged. And if you haven't yet, make sure to get our free resource on business meetings with God as well. It's at training authors.com businessmeeting it will transform the way that you market your books. If you begin to to apply this, I guarantee it. But let me just pray for you. So Lord, we thank you for every Kingdom writer listening right now. We thank you for all of their books, whether they're published already or they will be published in the future. We pray that you would give them that Kingdom perspective on marketing. Help them right now. Flip the switch Lord. Do it right now. Flip the switch in their minds from a have to to a get to mindset, Lord, from that feeling of dread and pressure to a gratitude attitude of gratitude. And Lord, we just thank you for this opportunity. We thank you, we get to partner with you. We thank you that you will give us the best ideas for marketing when we connect in with you, when we ask you, when we spend time with you. So I just pray God that you would be with each of these writers right now. Give them the next best idea for them, whatever that is for marketing their book. Maybe it's time taking a rest. Maybe they need to take a rest. Maybe it's reaching out to someone, whatever it is for them, Lord, help them to take that next step. And we pray this in Jesus powerful name. Amen. And friends, if you're wanting to use free organic marketing for your book, I have a workshop that you might might be interested in. It's called Mini Marketing Messages and this will help you get your social media content for the next month done in just 90 minutes so you can reach more readers with your book without being pushy or salesy. So we teach you some Kingdom mindset perspectives in this workshop as well. It's just $37 but you get our templates so you get an entire Google Doc or it's a PDF. But the Google Doc is awesome because you can just go right into the templates, edit them, and then you can just quickly schedule them and have your social media done. And the best thing without being pushy or salesy so you can find this workshop@manymarketingmessages.com and we just love being able to provide these resources for you to help you move forward in God's call to write, publish and market your books. And so thank you for joining me in this this episode. If you found it helpful and you think it would encourage another writer you know, please share this episode. And if you've been enjoying the podcast, we would love to hear from you. Take one minute, leave a quick review and let us know what you've been enjoying the most about this podcast. Again, my name is Shelly Hitz and I'll see you in the next episode.

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 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 Community of Kingdom Writers.