#395: Marketing Minute: Action Information

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.

Foreign.

Hey, Kingdom Writers, It's Shelli Hitz, one of your hosts here in the Kingdom Writers Podcast. And in this episode, we're going to talk about action being greater than information. So this has been something that has been on my heart for a little while, and I'm a content creator. I'm very prolific and I love to teach, I love to create content for. But I've had my Academy now for over eight and a half years. It's crazy. Where has the time gone? And what I've noticed is that many times, you know, I'll create things for Christian Book Academy, but then people aren't actually doing it. And so we are moving into a season in Christian Book Academy where I've created, like, all the trainings. You know, I mean, there's so many, so much in there that we're now going to be focusing on taking action and helping you make progress rather than just having you consume more information. So I am working with an instructional designer and a customer success specialist right now, and I'm completely reorganizing the member area and our, especially our core content to really help you to move through it in an easier way, less overwhelming, less confusing, and, and having milestones and action steps. And it is going to be incredible. I mean, I'm putting so much time and energy. We're investing thousands of dollars in making this update, but it is for you, so that you can take that step of faith and finally finish your book so that God can use your message to impact lives. And so in this episode, I just wanted to talk about this. Like, first of all, number one, I want you just to reflect on this. Are you consuming content more than creating it? This is a pretty. A pretty sensitive topic. I know I'm stepping on some toes right now because most of us, myself included, it's easy to consume more content than actually creating content. Not saying that consuming content is wrong. Like, there are things that sometimes you just need to learn and you need to consume it. And we have trainings for you, like I said in Christian Book Academy, and we're making them even, you know, easier for you to implement. But there are going to be things that you need to watch that video or you need to download that PDF and follow the steps in the PDF and there's going to be those moments. But I want you to just look or, you know, reflect. Over the last month, would you say you've been consuming content more or creating it? Now, in Christian Book Academy, we have set up different things to really help you focus on creating new content, whether you're writing your book, you're writing blog posts, writing social media posts. And one of the things we do every month is our 15 minute writing challenge. I first started these challenges way back, like when it was right after we launched the academy, so eight years ago. And they have not gone out of style. They work amazing every time. And all we do is we have you. We challenge you to write at least 15 minutes a day, five days for the week and just one week out of the month. And one of our members, Heather Erdman, said she gets so much done during that week because it's just motivating and she's setting aside that intentional time. Other members will say, you know, they start for 15 minutes, but then they just keep going. How many of you know, many times the hardest part of writing is just getting started. So we have our 15 minute writing challenge that's once a month. We have our two day virtual writing retreat where we meet on Zoom. It's like a group writing session. We use the pomodoro technique and CJ and I kick it off with some amazing encouragement and prayer. And then.

Our host, virtual writing retreat host, Deb Butterfield, leads you. And it is amazing, like if you set aside time to show up for these virtual writing retreats, how much you will get done. And then we just launched this summer our very first unlock your writing program. It's a four week program really focused on helping you make progress and get writing done. And we loved hearing the testimonials from that. One of our members, Robin, she was completely stunning, stuck and writing her book. And that program got her unstuck. You know, some of the strategies we shared in that program were really instrumental in helping her to turn that faucet on of those words. Right. But she had written so much by the end of the month and it was just so incredible and so many other members had similar results. And we're planning on doing hosting that at least twice a year. We'll just see how it goes. But it was definitely a great, a great response and it's just helping you make progress versus just consume more information.

So the first thing is, are you consuming content more than creating it? So number two.

You know, we want to Help you just get things done. And in our culture right now, there are so many distractions. There are so many things vying for our attention and it's so easy to, to sabotage our efforts to write a book, to finish our first draft. We have just worked with so many writers over the years and so many just never even finished their first draft. And part of it is the self doubt or the fear, but part of it is the time and the distractions. And so we are also working to help you, like, just to get something done and not just to add more to your plate of like, okay, here's another piece of content. Here's another thing, another thing, another workshop, another thing, you know, but to help you use what we've already created. And so one of the ways we're doing this in Christian Book Academy is we have started what I'm calling Take Action Weeks. And right now we're actually, at the time of recording this, we're in the middle of our first Take Action week. And this week I'm challenging our members to set up their prayer team and send their first update. It is amazing to me because some of the people that are commenting, they have been members for a long time. They've heard us talk about prayer teams for a long time, and yet they're just now setting it up. Or maybe they had abandoned their prayer team and they're reviving it again. And it just gets me so excited seeing them get this done because I know this one thing could make a huge difference in the trajectory of their writing career, of just depending on God through prayer. It is just powerful. So we will see how it goes. And I always say plan and pencil and allow God to direct. And so that's what we do in Christian Book Academy. But as far as right now, we would love to be able to host a Take Action Week once a quarter. So once a quarter, just pick one thing that we can help you get off your to do list that you can get done. And not only do you have the accountability and, you know, the group effect, but we have prizes. And then I will promote you to my email list if you're a Christian Book Academy member and you finish the task for that week. So that's something really fun that we're doing. And I just want to encourage you to have a system to get things done. And one of the best ways to do that is checklists. I love my checklist. But you can also do what I've talked about in previous episodes. You can work in sprints just like this Take Action Week. You could set aside a week and you could set a deadline for yourself and you could do this on your own. You don't have to be in Christian Book Academy to do something similar. But we'd love to have you join us. So if you're interested, join us@christianbookacademy.com and so number one was, are you consuming content more than you're creating it? Number two, develop a system to get things done done. And number three is get accountability. And we are always looking for ways to help you to do this in Christian Book Academy. Like I said, I've had the academy now for eight and a half years. I have searched high and low and I've tried probably five or six different ways of trying to connect you with accountability partners, host accountability calls, do all sorts of things because I know that this is so important. But recently I was introduced to an accountability expert that uses a proven process and works to help you reach your goals faster. And so I have invested into setting up these accountability groups for you. We're calling them progress pods and it's peer led accountability groups designed to help you take the very next tiny action. This is something that was developed by the person I'm working with. So we are excited that we're adding this. We're in the process of rolling this out and launching it to our members as we speak. So we would love to have you get involved and be able to be part of one of these progress pods, the accountability groups and just really learn to train yourself to figure out what is that very next tiny step that I need to take and, and then do it and get yourself in the habit of taking action. The person that I'm working with, he has seen so many people have incredible results with this. So I'm really excited and this is something that I've been wanting to do and implement and I have implemented in many different ways over the years. But I think this is going to really take it to the next level. So I'm really excited about that as well. And so, so action is greater than information. Are you, number one, consuming content more than you're creating it? Number two, develop a system to get things done. And number three, get some accountability. And we would love for you to join us inside ChristianBookAcademy.com you can go sign up, get involved. And we are here to help you. Not just to, you know, take in more information, but to be focused on taking more action. Something else that we have added, I'm adding new implementation tools. So these are tools help to help you implement what we've, you know, shared with you in the training. For instance, I have a tool that I've called Tidal Wave and I've recently updated this because I created this tool years ago, but have new system and new software to be able to roll out to you some new implementation tools. Basically, it uses my book topic formula. You enter in a few things in the space and it gives you 25 book topic ideas, 25 book title ideas, and subtitle ideas. It's just a fun brainstorming implementation tool. But more of these tools are coming. I've invested in a software that will help me to create these tools for you. And so you can see there's so many more things that I could talk about.

Of the things that we're doing in Christian Book Academy to help you to make progress, to make significant progress in writing your book so you can finish it, publish it, and then impact the world. Or if you're in the marketing phase, to get your marketing done and to move forward in what God has called you to do. So I encourage you this week, ask the Lord what is one small, tiny action you can take to move forward in in your call to write. And I will talk to you next time. Bye bye.

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 of Kingdom writers.

Sam.