One Thing to Consider When You Feel Overwhelmed or Stuck

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, Shelly Hitz.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed or stuck in life? I think if you're human, you've probably been to a place of feeling overwhelmed at some point. We, we all are there. And in today's training, I'm going to talk to you about one thing to consider when you're in this place of overwhelm. My name is Shelli Hitz. I'm an author coach. I'm the owner of authoraudienceacademy.com and I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's time to let your light shine. This week I actually had a one on one coaching client session. And typically I have people send me information before the session so I can prepare and that way I can kind of, I can pray about, I can get clarity and really have some talking points and some questions and some things that we can dive into. During the session, we met together and as I was getting ready for that session, I was feeling overwhelmed for that person. They're at the beginning stages of building a business and there are so many puzzle pieces. There are so many things that they need to do in order to be successful. And so I was praying about it and what I felt like the Lord said is share with them the concept of layering. So what I want to share with you today is layering to be able to reach your goals and to be able to overcome the overwhelm. So what do I mean by layering? So I want you to think about, first of all, a hundred or a thousand piece puzzle. There are all these different pieces to the puzzle. And what you do is you put the edges to the puzzle, typically put the edges together first. Right. Because then you have the framework for which the rest of the puzzle goes together. Now, there will be some pieces that will be a lot more difficult to fit in that framework, but you'll be able to really have an idea of where you're headed. So just the same way writing a book, marketing your book, creating a business, whatever you're doing, there are 100 or 1,000 different puzzle pieces. And if we look at all of those puzzle pieces and think that they have to, now my heart starts beating faster and I just start feeling overwhelmed. And overwhelmed can lead you to being paralyzed and being paralyzed gets you stuck. And so, yes, it's good to see the overall picture just like the top of a Puzzle box. You see the big picture, but we need to take a deep breath and realize there are a lot of different pieces and we're not going to accomplish it all at one moment. And so the layering happens by having one 90 day goal. What is your highest impact task? What's your big goal right now? What's your priority right now? For my client this week, it was income. She needed to start making some income. And so because the income is her main goal, I'm not going to have her focus right now on content marketing. She was wanting to start a blog and do all these things and it's like, okay, what we need to focus on right now is she has products to sell, but we need to get these set up online in a system to sell your products. So you have an online store and for her it was going to be Etsy because she sells different types of art. But for you, it can be something else. Could be Gumroad, it could be some other platform, it could be Amazon, selling your books on Amazon. That's the first layer for her. She has to have those products up online to sell. And there was another part of the 90 day goal for her as well, but that was the foundation. That is the highest impact task right now for her to set up, to have a product to sell. Well, she has it, but to set it up, to be able to be sold. And there's a million other things that she can do to market and to set up her business and to do it. And I just kept saying, think about doing that later.

One of the things that I really want you to think about, if you're overwhelmed or if you're just looking at all these pieces, these 1,000 pieces, and you're stuck or you're overwhelmed, I want you to take a deep breath. And one of the things I love to have you to do is do a brain dump. So it's like a brainstorm, but you're just writing out everything that needs to be done. And then I want you to look at that list and I want you to begin to prioritize it into what is your primary goal right now. If your primary goal is income, it's going to be you're going to prioritize that differently than if your priority is exposure or building a platform or email subscribers or whatever it is for you, speaking engagements. I mean, there's different goals for different people and different layers. Every time you're in a different season right now, it's going to be a different layer that you're going to add.

I want you to prioritize that list. Then I want you to take the top thing that is your highest impact task and I want you to look at that task. And if you need help on that, I have a blog post about high impact tasks. Just go to my blog, shellyhits.com, and search for that. Or it's in Author Audience Academy under the Start Here module. The high impact tasks for authors, that's a whole other training. But what is your number one high impact task right now? It may take you one day, it may take you one week, it may take you the next 90 days. I don't want it to be something that will take longer than 90 days. And then I want you to focus just on that one piece of the puzzle. So I want you to not have all those other pieces in your view right now. So I want you to remove that list of that brain dump, that other list. And I just want you to put that one task on a sticky note or on an index card or on something where you just have that one thing in front of you. What is the one thing you're working on right now, and let go of all the other things. Because you know what, it's going to get done eventually. When you layer things, it's like a snowball. I opened Author Audience Academy in March of 2015. So it's been over two years and I still don't have everything done that I need to. I really need to set up a better onboarding email sequence. I have one in place, but for my new members, I really need to be doing that. But is that my highest impact, highest priority goal right now? No. And so I have that on a list somewhere and that's something I will do, but I don't need to do everything right now. And I think sometimes we just get this pressure, like, okay, I teach inside Author Audience Academy, an author automation system. It is a system that it's like seeing the big puzzle, seeing the box top, but sometimes then you can get overwhelmed thinking, oh, there's so much to this. But guess what? One layer, one piece of the puzzle at a time. So I was just talking about this a little bit on the clarity call for Author Audience Academy members. It's a live webinar we have every month. And one of our members, we were talking about this and she said, it's kind of like parking your car in a parking garage. You have all these cars, you have all of these things you could do, but you're not discarding it. You're not saying, I'm never gonna do this. You're not being irresponsible. You're saying, I'm gonna park this in the parking garage. It's safe there. It's stored there. I will get back to it. Tell your brain I have it stored here. It's okay. I will get back to that task. But right now, this is my main high impact task. So I want you to think of it as layering, that you are just providing one layer at a time. When I started my broken crayonstool color project, it was so overwhelming because there was a lot of different things that went into that project and I had to really break it down in this way. So the first thing I had to do was I had to get the first draft written and sent to my editor. So and then I had to send that to my beta group and then create the PowerPoint for each week's video, record each week's video, create each coloring page for each week. And so it was a layering of one task every week. I had, you know, this is my main task today. This is my main task today. And then to publish the book, that was another layer to launch the book, that was another layer to launch the podcast, that was another layer to create a children's book, that was another layer. And I'm still working on that layer.

To really market the book, that's another layer. And I'm working on that right now. I've done two special promotions for that book and I'm going to continue doing it. I'm actually going to record my results and I'm going to add them as case studies studies. Inside Author Audience Academy. All the different places that I'm using for paid advertising, different sites, and it's not Amazon ads or Facebook ads. I have separate training Inside Author Audience Academy for those things. But these are other sites that offer paid advertising. So I'm doing that for now for broken crayons still color. But did I do that at first? No. I mean, it's layers. I set up my author automation system for that book. It was one layer at a time. Now if you start thinking about all those things right now, I feel overwhelmed. Like, I start feeling like, ah, that's a lot. But I've done it one step at a time. Starting last June. It wasn't overnight. It was one thing at a time. You know, I do this full time so I have more time to accomplish these things. Layering.

Don'T get to the point where you think you have to have everything done right now it really comes down to prioritization. What is your highest impact task right now? So for my husband's running coaching business, we've been in that position with him. There are a million and two things that we could do right now for his business. Right now the primary goal has been getting new clients. He almost pretty much has a full clientele basis now. And we really grew his business through Facebook ads. I have a new class on Skillshare, all about Facebook ads. So you can go to Shelley.

Facebook Ads. And I share his case study of how he really started and grew his business from Facebook ads. Crazy. I mean, it's crazy. And how I've used Facebook ads successfully. But we want to create digital plans for him to sell online and we have one of them done and we're kind of stalled in that we want to do more blog posts and content marketing, do more advertising. There's all these things, you know, like networking and advertising here and doing this here. But you know what? Right now the primary goal, the primary focus is for him to build his one on one coaching, serve those clients. And then once he's really gotten that, he's really gotten a system for that and all of that, then we can start layering these other things. And you know what, he's profitable. He's profitable right now because we prioritized. The very first thing we prioritized was having a sales page for his coaching services, then setting up a Facebook ad, then him developing his systems of how he's going to get the plans to the clients every week.

There are a million two things we can do every day, but what is the priority? And you know what, if you are a Christ follower, the Bible says we have not, because we ask, not ask God for what you need. But also James 1:5 says if we lack wisdom, all we need to do is ask God. So ask him, say, Lord, what is the priority for me today? What is my highest impact task for me today? And then do it. Maybe that's just one thing every day. Maybe it's just one thing every week. But what is, what is that one thing? What is the top priority? And I can guarantee it's not scrolling on social media. I can guarantee it's not checking email a thousand times a day. What is the one top priority that you can do right now? Layer it. Park everything else in the parking garage, write it down. Have one notebook just for ideas for the future and the things that you want to do eventually. But what is that the thing that's going to move the needle Forward the most for you right now. Where are you already getting results? Where are you seeing the most results? What has been successful for you, what has worked and what is the next step of the things that would really help you to do that? Last year, first quarter of 2016, it was to get all of our stuff organized. Like I got everything organized in Dropbox for our finances, for our passwords, like all of that stuff, so that we could hire outsourcers, so that we could do that securely, so that it would be very organized. Oh my goodness, that was stressful. I mean, I did not like it, it was not fun, it was not easy. But getting everything set up and organized and it took me a good 90 days to do that whole process, but then I could hire staff. So then the next 90 days it was to hire outsourcers and then the next 90 days it was to really get them trained and up and going. And then I was working on broken crayons, still color. So it was a layering. I hope you're starting to see the power of focus. Follow one course until successful. I hope you're starting to see the power of layering, of just putting one piece of the puzzle in front of your eyes right now, put all the other pieces aside. You know, when we start looking at everything, we get overwhelmed and stuck one thing at a time. What is the one layer, the one action, the one thing that you can do right now? Let me know. Leave me a comment, I love to hear. What is that one thing, that next step, the next layer that you're to focus on. Maybe you just need to finish your first draft. Maybe that's your layer. Or maybe you need to publish that book now you've had it edited, you've had all that, you know, now it's time to publish it, get it formatted. Maybe it's time to set a marketing plan in place, you know, inside Author Audience Academy. I help you do that. A 30 day book marketing plan. Set up your author automation system which will work for you behind the scenes. And it's just one layer at a time, one piece of the puzzle at a time. Maybe it's time for you to really start, step outside the box and think about creating some digital products that you can also sell. What is it for you? Again, my name is Shelly Hitz and thank you so much for joining me in this training. I hope that it's helped you and I know for me I have to constantly remind myself, Shelly, one thing you just have to do, the next thing it's about layering because we can't do everything at once. You know, it's one step, one layer at a time and it begins to snowball and then you really begin to reap the rewards. That's where I'm at right now with Author Audience Academy. It's been over two years. I have just done one layer at a time. I am nowhere near where I need to be. I mean sometimes I listen to podcasts and I think, ah, I need to be doing this, I need to do that. I know. Focus. Follow one course until successful. Do it. Get your focus, find your 90 day goal and then realize just one layer at a time. It will help you get unstuck, to overcome overwhelm and to help you reach your goals. I want you to be a finisher and I know that God has great plans for you and I cannot wait to see what he does through your life. 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 on three proven book writing formulas Every nonfiction author needs to know. This is a fun and fast way to write a nonfiction book, but also a book that you're proud of. Plus, I will give you two free gifts just for attending. No credit card required. First, you'll get my 10 nonfiction book title templates and you'll also get my ebook titled Brilliant brainstorming. It's a 28 page ebook and both of these bonuses are yours at no charge. Just for joining us for the training, you can sign up for my free training by going to shellyhits.com formulas. That's Shellyhitz S-H E L L E Y H I-T Z.com formulas. This training and the two bonuses are free and I would love to help you write your next nonfiction 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 Shelley'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.