(Mini-Series) Episode 1: Introduction to Kingdom Marketing Mindset

Hey, hit splits, friends. I wanted to share that we have recently published a brand new YouVersion devotional plan for free and it's called Kingdom Marketing Mindset for Authors. And I will put the link in the show notes for you. And when we were doing this, I thought, you know, why not also format this for Kindle so that way if you prefer getting this on Kindle, you can get it over there. It's just 99 cents, but we it's the same information.

So you can just get it for.

Free on youversion if you want. But either way, we would love for you to get a hold of this content and leave us a review on YouVersion or on Amazon about the book. And it's short, it's sweet, it's to.

The point, but just contains some marketing.

Mindset things that I think is just good to be reminded of, especially when we're wanting to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then knowing all these things will be added unto us. So one of the things that we did with our most recent conference, the Courageous Writer Conference, it was about marketing your book and selling more books through collaborations, is I did a little miniseries on this same topic, so I thought I'd share it here as well. You're going to be hearing me talk in these audios about the conference and joining and signing up and all of.

That, but I just didn't want to.

Want you to miss out on this little miniseries as well. So you can listen to the miniseries here. Like I said, this is content that came from our conference. If you have the conference all access pass, then you have access to this as well in your member area and and the private podcast for the conference. But in the show notes you'll also find links to the free youversion plan. So you can get ahold of that and CJ has written that from the same content and then you can also get the Kindle ebook.

So either way, whatever you want.

If you just want to listen here, if you want to get the youversion plan, if you want to also get the Kindle book, whatever you want you we have these different options available for you. We're not able to make it for free on Kindle because it is available free on YouVersion, it's the same content. So if you're getting it on youversion, no need to get it on the Kindle app. But if you prefer reading on Kindle.

That option is there for you as well.

So I'm gonna go ahead and let you listen to the first episode of this Kingdom marketing mindset series. And I hope that you enjoy this.

I thought it would be fun to do a little mini series. So this mini series is the Kingdom marketing mindset for authors. And I know many of us have little issues with or big issues with marketing. Maybe you feel overwhelmed by it all, maybe you feel like it's sleazy and slimy, or maybe you're worried about what other people are going to think, that they're going to think you're greedy or prideful and maybe you just don't even know where to start or you know, you have tried things in the past and they haven't worked and you feel discouraged. Wherever you're at today, we want to encourage you that God can be a central part of your marketing. So when it comes to a Kingdom marketing mindset, that's basically what it means is seek first the kingdom of God and then all these things will be added unto you, right? That's Matthew 6:33. And yet so many times we seek strategies, we seek blueprints, we seek, you know, templates and all of those things are, are good and can, can, you know, can be useful in our process. But I really encourage you to, you know, learn a skill set. So during this conference, you're going to be learning different skill sets. You're going to be learning different strategies that you can apply to your marketing. And those skill sets are great. But to do exactly to the t what someone else has done may not always work. And if you haven't always had great success in the past, it may be that you're just trying to exactly replicate what worked for someone else. And so instead, what we recommend that you do is that you seek God and his wisdom. Right? James 1:5 says, Any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously without reproach, and it will be given him. Then Verse six goes on to say, but let him ask in faith with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea tossed to and fro. He is like a double minded man, unstable in all his ways. And so we need to seek God in faith for those book sales and not just for money in our pocket, not just for fame, you know, it is for God's glory. It is so that he can be glorified. It is so that people that need your book right now, they can find it and read it and be impacted and changed and transformed because they found out about your book. For instance, this conference, like I could create the most wonderful experience for you. We could have the most amazing speakers. But if you never found out about it, if you never knew it existed, you wouldn't be here. So we have to do marketing to let people know that your book even exists. And so one of the things we recommend around here is business meetings with God. And basically, it's just like a time of prayer and journaling. I really recommend that you do journal. And as a writer, you know, that's writing, but then you're praying and asking God for his wisdom as you're creating a plan. This has been something that has transformed my marketing when I've consistently put it into place. And, you know, it's really about stopping and listening.

It's so easy to just go, go, go, go, go, go, and social media and all the things. And, you know, it's just easy to not slow down and ask the Lord, like, what do you have for my book launch? What would be the best way to market my book? Or whatever it is that you're marketing? And so one of the things that really helps me is to write it out.

And I will tell you when I'm.

Journaling, sometimes I'll be. Let's just say I'm journaling for a Black Friday promotion for my books, and I'm writing out some ideas. And then, you know, I'll stop and I'll pray. I might even ask, you know, on the page, God, what do you think? Then I'll stop and I'll listen, and then I'll write down whatever I'm sensing, and then I'll just keep writing and I'll keep, you know, massaging and changing and editing. It's a process just like our books. And so what I find is that over time, as I just begin writing it out and getting going and working with the Lord, then he gives me even a better plan than what I started with. But if I'd never even written it down, if I never even took the time, I might not have gotten to the place that I got to at the end. Does that make sense? Sometimes it's not a formal thing for me. One time there was a day where I had all my plans set out for that day, and I had a prompting which I believe was from the Holy Spirit. Say, you know, write out this email, send it to this person, and reach out and see if they would be interested in purchasing your books. And it was an opportunity that I heard about from another author to sell books to a subscription box company. I didn't want to change my plans that day. I'll just be honest. But I did. And when I did, I reached out. That one email has literally resulted in hundreds of thousands of sales of copies of our books because it developed a relationship over time. Now, will that happen every time? Absolutely not. I mean, I don't have those moments all the time, but I really believe in just in being sensitive to what God has for me, what he has for you, that he's going to be leading you and guiding you. So I could talk for a long time on this, but I just wanted to kind of get you thinking about this Kingdom marketing mindset as we go into the conference. You're going to be learning a lot of strategies, a lot of skill sets, a lot of tips and tools and things. And let's all take a deep breath and say, God, what is it you have for me now next? You know, and in implementation day, we're going to be doing some things to help you really find that clarity and decide what is the one thing that I'm going to implement from this conference. And so let me pray for you. So, God, thank you so much for every Kingdom writer joining us for this conference. I pray right now you would infuse them with your holy spirit that they would begin, even right now, to see, to feel a shift and a change in their mindset, to have a kingdom marketing mindset, to be able to be fixed on you, to seek first the kingdom of God even, and most importantly in their marketing, that they would, yes, learn skill sets, learn strategies, learn things that can help them in their marketing. We all need to continue to learn and grow. But they wouldn't depend on man for the book sales and the results, that the outcome, that they would know the outcome comes from you. They would press in and ask you for God ideas. I even pray right now that there might be God ideas coming to these authors as they go through this conference and even, maybe even right now as they're listening, that not just a good marketing idea, but a God idea. So we thank you, Lord, for what you're doing and all of the lives you're going to impact as a result of each one of us taking those courageous steps of faith to put ourselves out there to market our books, but not for our glory, not for our fame, not for our pocketbooks, but for your glory, Lord. And we thank you in Jesus powerful name, Amen.