One of Our Biggest Obstacles as Writers

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message. Create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelley Hitz.

Today, I'm going to talk about one of our biggest obstacles as writers. Hi, my name is Shelly Hitz. I'm an author coach and the owner of Author Audience Academy. And I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's time to let your light shine. And now, in order to achieve the goal of publishing a book, finishing writing a book, there are many obstacles that come our way. I have overcome so much in order to write and publish over 40 books. It hasn't come easy. I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I had to overcome so much. And I know a of lot, a lot of what you're overcoming as well because of the authors I coach on a daily basis. And so the number one thing I really believe we have to overcome as writers is shame. I said it, and it's one of those things that most people will never talk about.

Brene Brown has written a book that I love. I've been reading it. It's called the Gifts of Imperfection. It's a great book if you haven't read it yet. And she says many times people are just appalled because she's a shame researcher and they don't really want her to come and speak on shame. It just seems weird. And yet in order to be able to become shame, resilient and overcome it, we have to start talking about it. So what is shame? Shame is the voice that says, you are not good enough or I'm not good enough. Who am I? I'm not qualified. I don't have the credentials. Who, who's going to listen to my story? I'm not good enough. And I had an experience this last weekend. I recently shared on my personal Facebook page as well as I sent an email. So you may have heard this story already, but it resonated with so many people that I wanted to share it with you. Here on my trainings, I recently taught my first in person art classes. I taught two of them in the library system here in Colorado Springs. It was four. Oh, my goodness. I have years and years of experience of teaching and speaking, but I've never taught art in person before. I've been teaching it on skillshare online. That's my comfort zone. But it was so fun and people came up to me afterwards and really thanked me and I could see some aha moments and the creativity. But in my second class, I had a woman say to me in the middle of the class, in front of everyone, she said to me, I can't believe you're teaching art without an art degree. Because I was sharing my story, I was sharing how I got into art and why I'm now teaching it. And she said that. She said, I can't believe you're teaching art without an art degree. Now I will say I don't think she meant to shame me or to cut me down. But immediately shame rose to the surface inside of me. I'm not good enough. Who am I? I don't have the credentials, I don't have the qualifications. Who am I to be doing this? And I could have let it stop me. And I'm not, I'm not letting that voice stop me. But so many times we hear these voices, whether it's our own voices or someone else's voices of who are you to write this book? You don't have a college degree and you don't have this, you don't have that. I don't have any reason that I should have 40 published books, that I should have sold hundreds of thousands of books. There's no credentials, no nothing. Somebody asked me, I was talking to someone from a really big national ministry and she was considering having me speak to her people, her tribe. And she says, what are your qualifications?

I said, I don't have any, except for my experience, but let's go back to the art class. I was standing in front of all of these students. She had just said, you know, I can't believe you're teaching art without an art degree. And I proceeded to share a story from my friend, Kimberly Darocco. I recently met Kimberly at a conference. Live events are powerful. If you're not attending them, choose one or two per year and attend them. That you'll meet the most amazing friends, business connections and so forth. But I met Kimberly and she told me her story. She said, shelly, I had a really rough, rough growing up and I dropped out of high school around ninth grade. So she's around a ninth grade dropout. And she said, and yet I have been in jobs in big companies and just kept rising through the ranks to where she was a manager of a huge department, managing college educated people. She should have never had a job like that without a college degree. She was a high school dropout and yet she was doing amazing things. And now she has gone on to speak all over. She has coached women to have six figure careers. I mean it is just incredible. Her life and her story and what she has done without even a high school education. So I shared her story and then I said, you know what? I have experience teaching and speaking. I'm gifted at teaching and I'm a beginner. I just started this journey 11 months ago. I know what it feels like to be a beginner. And so I feel that I'm able then to break it down and teach that to those who are also beginners. Now. I don't have to. God is showing me I don't have to defend myself. I don't have to say this or that. I mean, I get people that still. I'm 42 years old and they still think that I'm too young to be able to teach them anything. They just, you know, disrespect me because I look young. I've had that before. I've had other instances where I have not felt good enough. But what I want to tell you today is God was reminding me that it's not about credentials. It's not about having a certain degree or being qualified in a certain way to do something. If you're writing a book and you have a story to tell, allow God to write that story through your life. And my sister, I was talking to her even just a week before this art class, when I was teaching this art class, was texting her. And at that time, I was feeling these same things, like, who am I to be doing this stuff? And I'm really sensing God is taking my art into a new area and going to take me into places that I don't even know yet, But I'm just sensing it's going somewhere. I'm sitting here thinking, like, oh my goodness, like, who am I? What am I doing? I can't do this. And I was texting and asking for a prayer. And my sister reminded me this was the week before that this happened at the in person art workshop. And I think God was preparing me. He was preparing me so that that statement wouldn't crush me and wouldn't stop me. But she reminded me of the story of Moses. Do you remember when God came to Moses and asked him to. To lead the Israelites out of captivity, out of slavery, to go back to a place where he had run away from and to go back and be a leader. And Moses, what did he say? Who am I? Who am I to do this? You know what God's response was?

I am.

He said, I am the I am. It's not about us and our qualifications and who we Are and what we have to offer, what we have to bring, it's not about us. It is about the I am. It is about God in us. Can you tell? I'm getting ready to preach. I am the I am, he said to Moses, and I want to say to you right now, where are you hiding? Where has shame told you that you are not good enough? Where do you feel like you cannot show up in the world in your giftings, in your talents, in the things that God is doing through you because you are just not qualified? Or you don't have that piece of paper, that degree, or you don't have someone's approval? Where are you hiding? Because I have decided I am letting go of that shame. I am letting it go. It has been my constant companion for, I think, every day of my life for 42 years. I don't remember ever not feeling good enough. And it's been kind of my driver of my workaholism. I have to prove myself, and it's led me to action. Sometimes shame can either lead you to action and to prove yourself, or it can lead you to inaction and hiding. God's told me recently, shelly, it's time to let that go. And at first I was like, oh, what am I going to do without that? It won't drive me to succeed. It won't drive me to do things. And God said, uh, you're going to be even more fruitful. You're going to do even more than you have ever done before. And Ephesians says, you know, he's able to do exceedingly, abundantly above what we even think or imagine.

Are we willing to let go of the shame? And I have to admit that when God was bringing that up to me the other day, I was listening to a podcast by Revelation Wellness, an amazing ministry, by the way. Fitness teachers, gospel preachers. That's their theme. They're taking the gospel to the nations, to our nation, through fitness. I love. I mean, their podcast and their ministry has impacted me so much. But she was like, she was saying these things, where are you hiding? And leading us to talk to God about it and. And having us put those thoughts on trial. And it was so powerful. And when God was like, okay, are you ready? Are you ready to let go of this shame that you are not good enough? I have to Admit, I am 42 years old, and it was like something that has been a comfort to me. It was like a comfort zone of, like.

I don't know if I want to get rid of that, because that's been my constant companion. It feels comfortable and it's what has driven me in so many ways to succeed. I literally felt like I had tears in my eyes. I felt like I had to literally think about holding the Holy Spirit's hand. I know it sounds weird, but that's how God works. I see things in pictures and I literally was like holding his hand. The Holy Spirit is our comforter. And I literally visualized Jesus shackling this thought, this accusation from the enemy of shame. Shackling it in that courtroom when I put it on trial. Jesus is the judge. The Holy Spirit is the jury. Put it on trial. I visually watch Jesus shackle their arms and legs and put it behind bars and lock it with the key. And the enemy says, it's going to come back. You're not going to be free. Because I felt like 100 pounds had been lifted off of me. And the Holy Spirit immediately said, you will be free. All you have to do is just continue to bring those accusations into trial, into the courtroom in front of Jesus, continue to do this process, continue to do this each and every day that you have those accusations, and you will be free. I didn't realize I was going to share all this right now, but it just came out of me. But I just have a feeling somebody needed to hear this today. We can be free of this whole concept of shame Now, Brene Brown, she says everyone has shame. Everyone walks around with that feeling of not being good enough. And it's not something that we'll ever just be free of all the time. We learn to be shame resilient. We learn to have shame resilience. And I highly recommend her books Daring the Gifts of Imperfection. But as a Christ follower, we are to take every thought captive. We are to take all of these accusations that the enemy is bringing against us that you're not good enough. Who are you to write this book? Give it up. You don't have the money. You don't have the finances. You don't have what it takes. Quit.

Who else has ever heard those accusations go through their mind? Because I have heard them. I think every day of my life. And I'm done.

I am done. I'm free. I'm going to continue to stay free. And who is in this with me? Who wants to be free today? Who wants to walk in the freedom of who you are in Christ and impact a nation or impact people? Nations? Who knows with the gifts God has given you, not be held back or not be pushed forward.

With this message of you're not good enough. Because the answer is I have died and Christ lives in me. So that accusation of Shelleyhead's is not good enough. It doesn't even hold up in the court of law because you cannot bring an accusation against someone who's already dead. I have died and Christ now lives in me. And so we can move forward. We can overcome in Christ Jesus. And I want to encourage you, whatever has been stopping you, whatever has been holding you back, dig deep, speak it. Talk to God about it. Let's get serious about it. Let's not wallow in it. Let's not let it stop us anymore. Let's move forward. Amen. All right. Well, I hope that this has encouraged you today. If it has, make sure to share it with someone that you know that could benefit from this message. I hope you have subscribed to my podcast, my YouTube channel, and to my live videos on Facebook. I want to help you. I am in this with you. I am walking with you each step of the way. And I know that God has called me to this ministry to minister to you, to minister to Christian authors and help set the captives free. So let's do this. We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. Amen. All right, see you next time. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Author Audience. I would like to invite you to attend one of my free trainings all about how to sell more books without being pushy or self promotional. It's called Amplify youy Message. Plus I will give you two free gifts just for attending, no credit card required. First you'll get my best selling book 9 Strategies to Build and grow your Author Platform and you'll also get my ebook titled List Vend 5 powerful emails you can use immediately to grow your business. These are basically fill in the blank style templates and they are yours at no charge when you join us for the training. You can sign up for my free training by going to shellyhits.com/ that's shellyhitz.com S H E L L E Y h I t z.com amplify this training and the two bonus ebooks are free and I would love to help you sell more books.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelly's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.