Year in Review (My Successes and What I Learned From My Mistakes)

This is episode 25 of Author Audience.

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.

Welcome to episode 25. This is the final episode for 2015 and it's hard to believe this this year is coming to an end. I'm excited today to roll out the red carpet and invite you to join me as I share my personal year in review, both my successes and my mistakes, and what I learned.

So this has been an amazing year. If you've been listening to my podcast, you've heard in the last couple of episodes about goals and some of the things that really helped me accomplish so much. I am just so blessed. I'm thankful to God. I give him all the glory for all that he's done in my life. And yet as I was looking back, I was realizing there were specific things that I learned from this year and I thought it'd be helpful for you to hear just the things that I learned from my successes and what some of my mistakes had been and what I've learned from them as well. I believe you have a God given message to share with the world. The question is, are you ready to shine in 2016?

It's time for this week's Center Stage Spotlight Training. This is where I share training and strategies to help you grow your business or ministry through writing and publishing books, marketing online and creating products and services to to sell on the back end. I'm not just about books, but I love teaching the entire process because it's the exact process that I've used to create a full time income. So today's podcast is episode 25 titled Year in Review Successes and what I Learned from My Mistakes. I know this is going to bring you one step closer to getting your message to more people because I think it's going to help you to relate my lessons to your business and your life as well. So be prepared to shine.

So as I was thinking back over this year, 2015, so much has happened. It's just been such a dramatic change in my business. My theme for 2015 was the word growth and growth was right. I just grew leaps and bounds in so many areas of my business, personally and professionally. So some of the successes that when I look back I had was one of the biggest things was branding. I transitioned from a general brand@trainingauthors.com where I had a partner, Heather Hart and I were working together on that site to a personal brand and There was. There was such a dramatic shift for me personally when I did that. First of all, I was able to niche down to my target market. But also, being a personal brand, it allowed me to put me into my marketing. It allowed me to really feel like I could share more stories, I could share more of me. Now, I know I could have done that@trainingauthors.com but it was me and Heather. It was more of a general brand, and so it was so easy for me to just take me out of it. So with branding, whether or not your brand is a general brand or a personal brand, the lesson that I learned in this success was put more of you into your branding, your stories, who you are, because people do business with those they know, like and trust. And when somebody gets to know you, they get to like you and they get to trust you. They're more willing to spend money with you. But with the branding, it was interesting because one of the verses that I use in my branding, and it's kind of the theme really of my business, is from Matthew 5, and it talks about letting your light shine. And that really became part of my brand. I have niched down to really having a heart, to helping those that are Christians. Now, it doesn't mean that I can't have people that aren't Christians in my programs, because I do. I attract all sorts of people, but for the biggest part of my audience will be Christians. And so that verse most people will recognize, Let your light shine they will recognize from the song we sang growing up in Sunday school. This little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine Remember that song? It's going to ring familiar. It's going to resonate with you. And it resonated with my message, with my branding, and so that became part of my brand. And then it was interesting because the shine, let your light shine I realized that, you know, wearing certain colors, wearing certain things also helps accentuate your brand. So I started wearing more gold because gold kind of represents that shine or things that have a shine to them. You know, certain jewelry or certain things. And it's been very purposeful. It's because of the branding and because I really do want to help you get your message to more people and help you let your gift shine. So it's been very interesting. But one more tip with the branding that really changed things for me this last year is getting professional pictures. I did two different.

Photo shoots. I did one with my friend April Zoe here. She's local, and she did an amazing job. She really Helped me kind of change my look a little bit to more, you know, just elevating my brand a little bit more. And I love those pictures that she took for me. And then I had a second photo shoot. I don't know, it was like it was months later, not quite a year later, but with Molly McMillan and she's in Denver and she took some additional pictures and it's the picture you see on my podcast image and so much more. So these pictures were critical in really seeing a shift and an elevation of my brand to a new level. So if you have not gotten professional pictures, definitely take them. I got pictures in all kinds of positions, pointing and laughing and, you know, just action shots and different things. All of those pictures I can use in so many ways. I have an entire training module in Author Audience Academy on branding. So if you want more on branding, make sure to check it out. And if you have questions for me on the types of pictures I took or anything like that, feel free to ask in the forums. I'd love for you to join me. It's authoraudienceacademy.com you can find all about my signature program there. So that was the first success was the branding. That was huge. That was key. The second one was really changing my mindset from a one time fee product to a recurring income through a membership site. Now this was something that I got through Shane and Jocelyn Sams. They began to transition their products to a membership site and they had given me some coaching and recommended I consider doing it as well. I was actually kind of resistant to the idea at first, but oh my goodness, I'm so glad that Jocelyn really talked to me about this in depth because it has taken so much pressure off of me. You know, once you have a certain number of members in a recurring income membership, if you're offering value, which I feel like I am, it's not like I'm just taking money and people aren't getting anything from it. They're getting access to me and coaching in the forums. They're getting all my trainings, thousands of dollars worth of trainings. They're getting me in group coaching twice a month plus tons and tons of extra bonuses that I keep adding because I love teaching and sharing. But you know, if you're offering value, people are getting results, they're going to want to stay. And so one of the things that a membership site does is you join for the content, but you stay for the community and you stay day for the results that you're continuing to get. I'm so thankful that I listened to the advice of Shane and Jocelyn. You can find them at flippedlifestyle.com, amazing podcast to definitely listen to their podcast as well. But because it has taken so much pressure. I was in the launch sequence where I would create a product launch, create a product launch, create a product launch. And I was getting burnout, to be very honest, because I don't really love sending a ton of promotional emails to my list all the time. But that's what it ended up being because I was creating, launching, creating, launching, creating, launching. Now, that fits really well for certain people. And some people will just launch once a year. And so it's not a big deal. But for me, I was so excited to transition to a recurring income model. And yes, I have some people cancel every month, but it has been a very low percentage and most people are choosing to stay. And so it provides that consistent income and it takes the pressure off of me and I can just focus on serving my members, offering them amazing value and continuing to make this the best membership out there for authors, speakers, and entrepreneurs. And the third main lesson I learned from 2015 was the power of investing in paid coaching. I had invested in coaching previously, but not to the level that I did in 2015. I spent thousands of dollars in coaching, and it was so worth it. When you invest in coaching, you're putting skin in the game. It's not just a free consultation or it's not just something that you can just kind of put on the shelf and think, I'll get to it later. You, you have skin in the game, you have an investment in it. And for me, it was a really, really big stretch for me financially. And because of that.

I wanted to get my money's worth. I wanted to get everything I could out of that. And so it was a huge, huge asset for me. And I have different levels of coaching that I offer as well. If you're looking for a coach for business, for, for publishing, for online marketing, definitely check out my coaching. It's@shellyhits.com coaching. I will let you know if I think we're not a great fit, but if we are, I would love to work with you. I pay for coaches and believe in the power of it and also believe that you could benefit if it's the right timing for you. All right, so those were some successes. Now, moving into some of my mistakes.

Oh, this is where I have to get honest and be real. And you guys know, if you've been listening to my podcast, if you Know me, I am real. I share from my heart. And one of the things that was still an overarching theme for 2015 for me was fear. I still had a lot of fear and I'm still working through it, related to my business, and it really held me back in many ways. So, you know, I definitely deal with the scarcity mindset. And I grew up in a family, you know, that really emphasized scarcity. Getting the deals, not wanting to get taken advantage of, you know, just wanting to pay as little as you can for something and I don't know, just that scarcity mindset. My grandparents on my mom's side, they grew up during the Depression. And I remember one time at a garage sale, they were arguing on whether or not to spend 25 cents on something, and I was like, mom won't, Papa, I will give you a quarter. It's okay, it's worth a quarter, you know, but that's the kind of mindset that I grew up with and I'm still working to overcome. But also the fear of.

Will people buy or am I good enough? You know, some of those types of things trickle in there as well. So it helped me back from offering some higher end options. Like, I just recently put VIP days on my coaching page. A half a day or a full day, it's thousands of dollars to spend that time with me. But I will also make sure you get a ton, a ton of value from that time and it may be the right time for you to do something like that. And. But it was fear that kept me from putting it on my site. It literally took me about a half an hour to add that to my site to decide exactly what I was going to offer because I had already discussed it with my coach and it just took. It took me months to put it on there. And when I looked back, I thought, you know, I think it was fear holding me back from that. Another thing that I think fear held me back from was hiring outsourcers faster. So I really planned from the beginning of 2015 to hire a general VA virtual assistant and a support staff and just really do more hiring to take more off of my plate. I'm a doer and I can do a lot of things, but I've just been working way too much and not having enough margin. I did take steps and I did do a lot of things to take that step forward, but I can still tell you there's a lot of fear for me of hiring someone on a regular basis. And so the steps I did take, it was either based on hourly or projects. And I still don't have that general VA. And that's something that's now a goal for 2016 for me. And I know it would have relieved a ton of stress and a ton of pressure if I would have just pushed through that fear of, you know, needing to pay someone on a regular basis, needing to train them and the time that it would take to do that. But I'm definitely working towards that for this next year. Another thing, a mistake, I think, for me in 2015 was simply sitting too much. You know, as an online entrepreneur and author, it's easy to be sitting at a computer all day, every day if you do it full time. And so one of the things that I ended up doing is buying an inexpensive treadmill. And I worked out a setup with my desk, and now I have a treadmill desk. Now I can't use it when I'm recording videos or podcasts or periscopes, because you'll obviously hear that, but I can use it a lot of the time, and it helps me get up, moving. I'm just. I had thought about it for a long time, just thinking it was too expensive, I wouldn't be able to do it. And it was a block in my mind because once I really started researching it, my treadmill was maybe like $200. It really wasn't that expensive. And for my health and for the things that, you know, that I value so I can continue to work, it's so worth it. And so that was another thing that I realized was a lesson learned and a mistake that I did end up changing near the end of the year, but not soon enough. Then I think the last one I kind of related to this earlier is just not having margin. So you think about books. You're probably listening to my podcast. Because you're an author, you want to be an author. Books have margins. If a book has no margin.

It'S going to look funny. But then also in the center, you may not be able to read certain words because it won't be formatted right. You have to have those margins for your books. And just like we need those margins for our books, we need margin in our life. And I will admit, I am a recovering workaholic, and this year was not great for me in that category. I kind of slipped back into it where I was working way too much and I just didn't have enough margin. So that's something that I'm looking forward to adding into my Life More in 2016. One thing that I've noticed. I've invested in a ton of business coaching in this last year. But like I said, one of the biggest things I think that really still held me back is some mindset issues. Fear and scarcity and being so driven and not having that margin and just maybe even some control issues with the outsourcing. And those are all internal things. Those are mindset things. And so this year in January, I'm going to start working with a life coach. I'm hiring a life coach, and I'm starting to work through some of those really difficult things, you know, as a business owner, as an author, as an entrepreneur, as a ministry leader, as a leader in your home or wherever you're at you. It's so important that we continue to grow and that we continue to move forward. I am ready to move forward. My theme for 2016 is to thrive. Not just to survive, but to thrive. And then when I was doing the planitday.com virtual planning retreat for my author audience, academy members, we actually spent some time praying and thinking about our theme. And, and the secondary theme that came to me during that time is to rise. It's time to rise up past the fear, past the scarcity, past some of these mindset issues that have held me back for years and years. And it's time to truly trust Christ, truly trust him with everything. And so I want to ask you today in this take action tip. What is one thing that kind of resonated with you that I shared? Whether it was from my success or from the mistakes that I made, what is something that resonated with you? Write it down and think about how you might be able to apply it to your own life or to your own business.

As we end, I want to give you a backstage pass in this godly gain segment, which is all about keeping Christ at the center of all we do. Because, you know, it's the end of 2015. But all of my successes and even all of my mistakes, it's not for me personally as a follower of Christ. It's not about me. It's about Christ and it's about giving him, him glory in my life.

And I talked about that theme of rising as a Christ follower. The Bible says that we have been crucified in Christ and now we live in Him. We rise with him. Just as he was resurrected from the grave. We can rise with Him. We can leave those things from our past. Those, those things that, that fear and that, you know, just all the things that hold us back, that's our old self. That is not who we are now. And we can choose to rise with him. And because we're human does take effort, takes time. It takes, you know, it takes prayer. It's an everyday thing. It's not just you do it once and then it's over.

But in 2014, it was right after I had my miscarriage and I was really struggling and grieving the loss. And the theme I sensed God give me for 2014 was press on. It reminds me of the verse I just shared a couple episodes ago in Philippians 3:14. But today I'm going to share a couple verses earlier. This comes from Philippians 3:14.

Not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Oh, we can continue to press on. We always can continue to grow. As long as we're on this side of heaven, we have areas that we can continue to grow. And I encourage you this year to not just survive, but to thrive and to rise with Christ, to rise above those issues and those things that are holding you back. Because it's your time to shine.

It's my hope and my goal that these episodes are bringing you one step closer to being able to to shine and reach more people with your message. I believe in you. I know you have what it takes to go to the next level in 2016, and I would love to work with you. I encourage you to join me on my next live webinar. You can sign up@authoraudience.com webinar and I'm going to take you through three book writing formulas every nonfiction author needs to know. You can get help choosing your book topic, how you'll write the book, and so much more. So come and join me. Just sign up@authoraudience.com webinar and I'll 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 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.