What You Really Need as an Author

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.

In today's training, I'm going to tell you what you really need as an author. And no, it's not a new training or a new tool. Hi, my name is Shelly Hitz. I'm the owner of Author Audience Academy and and I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's time to let your light shine. And one of the ways I do that is through really helping you to wade through all the confusion, all the different things out there for authors, all the things being marketed at you and just helping you see, okay, what do I need to focus on right now? And one of the things I have seen when with many authors, the authors I coach inside Author Audience Academy, as well as the authors that communicate and connect with me and email me every day, is that many authors are in information overload. There's a ton of training out there. There are a ton of tools coming out all the time. And I will tell you, it's not a new training, it's not a new tool that you need to succeed in 2017. What you need most likely is to apply and actually do the things you already know. You know, it's the same thing with eating right and exercising. We probably already know what we need to do. We just need to come up with a plan, find something that really brings us joy, that we enjoy, that we can get into and to do it. But what I have found that most authors benefit from accountability. So what's actually the perfect marriage is if you have the training and you have the accountability at the same time. Because when you have both of those things, you're going to have a much greater likelihood of success. So I started Author Audience Academy back in March of 2015. I've learned a ton along the way. And this last September, I decided to launch a 90 day accountability group. It was a group to really help authors in my paid membership, authoraudienceacademy.com to publish a book before Christmas. And what I found was incredible. What I found was that many members who had been behind the scenes or who had been trying to make progress finally were getting things done and making progress and reaching goals and hitting the publish button and becoming best sellers and reaching more people with their God given messages. And our group just came alive in such a cool way. Now I offer accountability every week inside our Facebook group. But with the 90 day accountability group, it went a step further. I actually met with my members live every week for 30 minutes. We had Q and A. I said, for accountability post where you're at, where are you stuck? They got their answers, their questions answered. And it was just such a neat feel within our group. We took December off and we had some other things going on in December, but we're starting a new accountability group January 1st. It will be another 90 day accountability group. Now this time it's going to be more focused on setting up a marketing system that will work for you long term. I call it my author automation system. However, you can come into Author Audience Academy or if you're in Author Audience Academy, you can have whatever goal you want for that 90 days. I teach you how to set a 90 day goal inside of Plan It Day. That's a training inside authoritience academy. And then you're actually going to get the accountability to move forward. So if you felt stuck or if you felt overwhelmed or if you've just had a year like 2016 has been a year of getting a lot of training and learning a lot of things, but not really implementing in applying what you already know or the training you already have. It's time. Let's do this together. 2017 can be different for you now. You can join at any time within our 90 day accountability group. Jump in at any time. Feel free to still join us. Jump in. We had people that came into our accountability group later this last time and they still got tons done. And I would love to help you, love to help you reach your goals, but you don't have to do, you don't have to get accountability with me. You could also set up an accountability partner. You can hire a different coach. Whatever works best for you. I really believe that you don't need to buy another book, buy another training, get another tool to find your success. Sometimes you just need to apply and do what you already know. And what I find is that many, many authors have the bright shiny object syndrome. You know there's something new, ooh. And you get distracted easily and get off track. And so what we want to do in Author Audience Academy is have you set a 90 day goal and have you then focus on that, have accountability and I want to see you cross that finish line. So everyone's 90 day goal is going to be different. For some of you, it may be a small goal because you're working full time, you're very active in your community, your church, you have children, whatever it is, you have a full place. So your 90 day goal may be smaller. Some of you, your 90 day goal may be big. You know, maybe you're at home and you're able to do this full time right now. And so you can really set a bigger 90 day goal. But I would love to see you actually do it, actually reach your goals, actually cross the finish line. And the reason is because the Bible says in Matthew 5 we're not to light light a lamp and hide it under a basket. No, we're to put it on a hill for all to see. And until we actually click publish or until we actually set up our author platform, until we actually do the marketing, it's almost like we're hiding the light that God has given us. And I want to see you shine. I want to see you do what God has called you to do and live out his call for your life. So if you would love to do that, I would be honored to be your coach. You can join us@authoraudienceacademy.com and if you are an Author Audience Academy member, be ready. We are starting 2017 off with a bang. We are just going to have so many fun things. We are going to be going through the Author Automation System. So we have the Author Automation Blueprint Webinar. We have the 90 day accountability group. And then in January, I'm going to be hosting my first virtual writing retreat. These are going to be done later as well in the year and open to anyone to attend for a fee. But in January, any current active Author Audience Academy member will be able to come to that two day virtual writing retreat for free. It's going to be January 25th and 26th. It's a Wednesday and Thursday, so mark your calendars if you're an Author Audience Academy member. I'll be sending out more information soon, but it is going to be an exciting, exciting month. This is really a great time to join if you've been on the fence of whether or not to join. And I look forward to helping you cross the finish line. I look forward to seeing what you do in 2017 and I will see you next time.

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.