Kingdom Marketing Mindset for AuthorsSample

You Need to Ask

It’s important to serve our audience and share valuable content with them. But we also need to be willing to ask for things. Some examples of asking could include,

• Asking for book reviews
• Inviting your audience to buy your book during a special promotion
• Asking others for help in the writing, publishing, or marketing process
• Reaching out to potential strategic partners (podcasts, guest blogs, giveaways, etc.)

Back when CJ was doing more public speaking, he would send out marketing materials to hundreds of schools, churches and camps across the country in order to get in front of decision makers. He would then follow up with an email or phone call to answer any questions they might have about the topics he offered. Plenty of opportunities opened up by simply taking a risk and asking.

The late Steve Jobs was 12 years old when he gave a guy named Bill Hewlett (Hewlett-Packard anyone?) a phone call. Apparently, Bill’s number was still in the Palo Alto phone book at the time and he even answered the phone!

Young Steve proceeded to introduce himself before asking Bill if he happened to have any spare parts for a frequency counter he wanted to build. Bill Hewlett not only gave him the parts; he gave Steve a job the following summer working on an assembly line where he learned all the nuts and bolts of how frequency counters are built.

The future founder of a “little” company called Apple wasn’t afraid to reach out and ask for help. In fact, many of us own those slick iPhones and Mac computers because of one man’s willingness to ask for help over and over again.

In Shelley’s Book Marketing Momentum program, there was someone who has a big back list of books and a decent sized email list but she wasn’t selling many books. When Shelley helped her get down to the core issue, it was because she was giving things away for free all the time but not asking her audience to buy.

This kind of asking is known as a “call to action” in the marketing world. Sooner or later we have to realize that selling is helping.

Have you ever hinted at something hoping the other person would figure it out? That’s being passive aggressive. Shelley used to be like this when we were first married.

Instead, we need to be assertive. We need to be direct. When Shelley started changing how she asked CJ to help her around the house, he started helping and the marriage began changing for the better.

Whether it’s in prayer to our Heavenly Father or interaction with one another, asking is part of life,

“Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?” (Matthew 7:7-11, MSG)

What if people like Esther and Nehemiah would have never taken a risk and asked the king regarding the requests they had?

At some point, you simply need to ask

Father, give me the courage to practice asking and to be persistent regardless of the outcome