#357: Writing Well: Lessons Learned and Changes for 2023

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.

Hey, Kingdom Writers, it's Shelly Hits here. And can you believe it is 2023? Where did 2022 go? Oh my goodness. Happy New Year to all of you. And I just love the new year. It just feels like a time for new beginnings, a fresh start, just a time to really plan with God and to hear from Him. And I just wanted to share in today's episode some lessons that I learned in 2022 and and some changes moving forward for 2023. And so this is more of a recap type of podcast, but I encourage you to do some reflection like this as well. What did you learn from 2022 regarding your writing, publishing and marketing? And what is it that you're going to do differently for 2023? Is there something that God is leading you to do differently? So I encourage you to have a business meeting with God and just brainstorm with him, plan with him and see what is in store for you in 2023. So there were two big lessons that I learned in 2022. The first is realize that nothing is guaranteed forever. You know, this life is but a mist. There are so many things that come and go. And yet the Bible tells us Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. So he is our foundation, he rock in our lives. That never changes. But pretty much everything else is up for grabs. Can I get an amen?

And if you've been listening to my private podcast, Hits Blitz, which if you haven't subscribed yet, it's free and you can get access@trainingauthors.com Hitsblitz I've been sharing some of what we've walked through in 2022. So some of you already know this, but but we had a big contract with a subscription box company, God's Glory Box. We had been partners with them for about five years. It was such a blessing. Thousands and thousands of our books went out to so many people and actually I added it up and over that five year contract we were able to sell 105,190 books. So that is over 100,000 people that have been able to be impacted by buy our books because of that partnership. It was such a blessing and we were able to really be used by God. In that way and earn income. So it was such a blessing. But 2022 brought a change to that and God's glory box went out of business. And it was almost like if you have a two income family, it was almost like losing one income. I mean, it was a significant loss of income for us in 2022. And yet God is, he has provided and we're just pressing in and learning in even a greater way how he sometimes even just goes in advance of our circumstances to provide for us, you know, and you, like I said, you can listen to this even more in our on the Hit Splits private podcast. But I mean, it was definitely a lesson that we learned is that nothing is guaranteed forever. And we really had to ask the Lord, okay, we what do we do now? And that's where, you know, the last probably year and a half or so couple years, we've really been focusing on growing Christian Book Academy and you know, also hosting events, hosting live workshops. And then we launched our book marketing shop in the fall of 2022. And so God is just leading and guiding us every step of the way. But it was just a reminder that nothing is guaranteed by forever and to put our trust completely in the Lord. So my friend Shay Bines from Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur, she says that God is our source. Everything else is a resource. So one of those resources was deleted in 2022 for our business. But God is our source, so we're not putting all of our, you know, trust and security in that resource. It was still hard. I'm not gonna lie, it was still hard. But that was a lesson that we learned in 2022. The other thing is when something really big happens that is stressful, you know, it's an opportunity to ask, what can I learn from this and how can we do it differently? So the other big thing that happened for us in 2022 was we had turnover of our team. The end of 2021. Our main assistant that had been with us almost five years was having health issues and had to step down. So I hired someone new and then that just didn't end up working out. She actually left and formed her own business. And I bless and released both of them. But when your main assistant, a full time assistant.

Leaves the company, oh my goodness, that was a lot. Because not only then am I having to do all of their work, which is a 40 hour a week job, then I'm trying to do my work and trying to hire someone and train them. It was a lot. And I will just tell you that the Lord did it because it was too much for Shelly Hits. But the Lord did it. And the lesson in this is, you know, this, this was something big and stressful. And yet I asked the Lord, especially after the second time, what do I need to do differently? What can I learn from this? And God gave me wisdom. You know, I could have just survived, you know, survival mode and gotten through it, but I chose to say, okay, Lord, I want to learn from this. You know, this is an opportunity for me to grow and for our company to grow and what can we do differently? And you know, the Lord never fails. He gave me wisdom as the CEO of our business. You know, he gave me wisdom on who to hire next and how to move forward. And one of the things he showed me is that instead of hiring one main person to do everything, to hire two part time people, one person to focus on customer support, community management, that sort of thing, another person to focus more on the tech, you know, side of things, all of the behind the scenes things, you know, that go on in a business like this. And then to really hire someone instead of someone who is a generalist and can do a little bit of everything, hire someone who is really specialized in that particular role. So I was able to hire Stacy and Eric. They're part of our team and Stacy has 10 plus years of customer service experience and she is awesome. She really was able to learn it quickly and now she's just doing great and she's answering our members and our customers in ways that I would want her too. And I'm just really pleased with her work. And then Eric, he really has done an amazing job and I even just recently promoted him to executive va, Executive Virtual Assistant and hired another virtual assistant underneath him to do some of the day to day tasks. So he is now helping to oversee everyone. But can you see how this was just God's wisdom? Because I had went through a turnover twice in less than a year and it was hard and stressful. Now if there's any turnover of my team, it won't affect me quite as much. You know what I mean? Like it'll be half of the job instead of the whole job. The other thing that we're doing is Eric is getting cross trained into customer support. So in his role he will know all the different roles and then if needed, if we do have some sort of turnover, then he can help out in the process as well. And then the other thing was just setting up better systems and a better training system. Better, just better systems with everything for our team. I I changed project management tools and I'm using Nifty pm. And to be honest, I got it because it was a lifetime deal on AppSumo. I kind of love my lifetime deals because there's no ongoing subscription, but you can use any project management tool. But what we did was we created a section in there that is the manager's manual. So there's standard operating procedures, there's really detailed checklists. And then I broke out things that my main tech VA was doing by week. So week one, you're going to do all of these tasks. Week two, all of these three and four. And so that way when you get. When they get in a flow of doing the work, they're in that flow and less mistakes will be made. Because that's what I was noticing previously is that was easy when you know, you're switching between all these different tasks every week, it's just easier to make mistakes. So those are the two big lessons I learned. Number one, realize that nothing is guaranteed forever. And number two, when something big happens, that's especially when it's stressful. Ask the Lord. You know, this is an opportunity for me to learn. You know, what is it that I need to learn? And how can we do this differently moving forward? It really has just made the difference for us, for our company. And although we went through a lot of hardships and a lot of hard times, in 2022, we are a much stronger business company. You know, all the things, it has made us stronger. And I actually memorized James 1, James, Chapter 1 during all of this because I needed to learn to count it all joy, you know, when you face trials of all kinds. And so that was some of the lessons. Now some of the changes for 2023, we're getting to a place with our membership and Christian Book Academy that I just, I just realized I want it to always be open. And so instead of opening, closing, opening and closing, you know, when. And having these big launches, those things, those big launches exhaust me. And I just want to not only make it easier for you to join when you're ready to join, but easier for me with the marketing of it. And so we have some new ideas for marketing in 2023, and I'm just excited to see what God does. You know, it's always an experiment. I always tell CBA members, Christian Book Academy members, test, track and tweak. You know, you don't know sometimes until you do it and then you can tweak it. So there's going to be some changes that you're going to notice in 2023. But one of the things that I'm really excited about for Christian Book Academy in particular is we are adding a day of Voxer office hours for our members so they'll be able to ask one specific question that's private to me on Voxer. And this is really a great way for me. I'm an introvert, I'm highly sensitive, I'm an empath, you know, all the things. And so doing too many zoom calls, doing too many live videos, it just drains me. Whereas Voxer, I recently was able to experience this being part of a group program to, you know, I was just able to ask my question quickly and then get a direct answer. I didn't have to wait on an hour long zoom call. I didn't have to, you know, figure things out, you know, on a group or whatever. It was just like in and out. It was low energy, high impact. So that's what I'm really excited about offering to Christian Book Academy. We'll see how it goes. It's always an experiment. We always just want to see if this is really adding value for our members because that's what we want to offer. And then we want to just offer better segmentation to our main email list. So if you're listening, you're probably on our email list. And the last few years we've just sent every email to just about every person. And that's really not the best marketing technique. But I was just so busy doing all the things that I just decided to keep it simple. So this year I want to take it to a new level and, you know, really just be able to identify who is in the stage of writing their book, who's in the stage of publishing, and who's in the stage of marketing their book. And then I can be able to send you emails that just apply if you're in that stage. And we'll see how it goes. I mean, it, it can get really complicated. But, you know, if you are able to do a segment of your list, like if you have different segments, that's always the best way to go because you're giving them the right message at the right time to the right person. And so that way those of you that are still writing your book, you won't be getting emails of like, here, buy this marketing thing, right? Because you don't need it yet. And so I'm hoping that that really goes well. And Also new for 2023, we launched two new podcasts. Can you believe it? We now have three podcasts specifically for writers. And we have this one, obviously, Kingdom Writers. And then like I mentioned earlier, I started a new private podcast called Hit Splits Wisdom for Writers. This is more of just a behind the scenes, more in real time. And it's shorter, so sometimes the episodes may only be two or three minutes, sometimes 10. I try to really keep them less than 10, but definitely recommend getting on that list at training authors.com forward slash, hit splits because I've just been getting some great feedback from those that are listening and subscribing so far. They really enjoy it. It's very high value and it's low commitment. You can get started really easily. And then we also decided to start a podcast called the Christian Writer Success Stories. And this is a podcast where you can get featured in. And we are starting off with our Christian Book Academy members and all of that, but we also want to feature you. And so you can subscribe to the podcast@bookmarketing shop.com pages podcast. And so that just gives you the link or you can search for it on any podcast player that you have. Just search for Christian writer success stories. But this is a chance to really allow you to get featured, to get experience having podcast interviews. And then we have a toolkit in the shop and it's also available in Christian Book Academy if you're a member, called the Get Booked on Podcast Toolkit. This is just an amazing resource. And when I was actually, when I was creating it, I thought, man, I wish I had a way to feature our authors on a podcast. Give them, you know, a link they can share with future hosts of an example of what they've done. And, and yeah, it just, it takes so much time and energy to meet on Zoom or wherever to record them. So I'm trying something new for this podcast and it's called Asynchronous Recording. I'm using a tool called Rumble Studio, but so far it's working great. C.J. and I prepared the questions in advance. And anyways, my team is able to just take this and run with it. It took me a lot of time to really set it up and to get everything ready. But now that it's ready, we really have the capacity to host really unlimited numbers of Christian writers. So your book does not have to be a Christian book, but you yourself do need to be a follower of Christ to be featured on this podcast. So if you're interested, just email us. So supportrainingauthors.com about that opportunity to get featured and we can send you more information but that was a lot for today. I hope this little recap was at least helpful for you and just getting you thinking of your own writing, publishing and marketing. What is it that you learned from 2022 and what are some changes that you want to make for 2023? Thank you so much for listening today and we will 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 participate 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.

Sam.