3 “RULES” TO BREAK TO CREATE ALIGNED OFFERS THAT ARE FUN AND EASIER TO SELL

With Ruth Poundwhite (she/her), host of the Soulful Sales Summit and creator of the Aligned Offers Experience

Click here to read the transcript

0:00
So Hi, and welcome to the three rules to break to create aligned offers that are fun and easier to sell. So hi, in case we haven't met yet, I am Ruth Poundwhite. I am a copywriter turned business coach and mentor to sensitive and driven service based business owners. By the way, the reason I switched my business was not because it wasn't successful, it was because it wasn't aligned. And that was a very big deal for me to actually quit a successful business. But it's part of what I'm going to be talking with you about in this workshop. So I've got 14 More than 14 years experience as an online business owner, I have figured out my way to massively break the rules to find myself to trust myself, and to learn to do things my way over time, it has been a bumpy road, I will be honest with you. I am author of the book quite the ambitious, which was published in 2022. And host of the quietly ambitious podcast. And I am not a fan of rules. That's not to say there's anything wrong with some of the ways that things are done, but it has to align with you as a person. And I am a huge believer in business as a vehicle for full self expression, and to create meaningful impact in the world. So I just want to start by sharing how I'm actually already breaking the rules with the way that I'm running this workshop. Did you know that contrary to the way our brains may like us to see things, that we don't actually have to do things the way that they've always been done, or the way that other people might do them. The truth is that the conditioning does run very strong. The self doubt makes us think that we need to fit into a certain box. But the honest truth of it is that we are all a brilliantly unique and imperfect humans with our own set of personality traits, quirks, strengths, weaknesses, and with a whole host of physical and mental health and wellbeing needs as well. So there really is no such thing as one size fits all, which is why I decided to break the rules with this one. So number one, I am not actually running it live. Now I said it would be a live workshop with a replay. But this is happening for me at the end of a really busy week. So I decided to pre record it to stream it live. But I'm not pretending it's live. I'm being completely upfront, I'm not actually there live. And to give people the replay because I trust that I get to do this my way and that it still gets to be mega mega mega valuable, even though I'm not here in this exact moment. I also actually followed the nudge during this workshop in the first place. Because I have at the time of recording this been running the soulful sales Summit, which is all about selling in a more empowered and aligned way. And honestly, creating an aligned offer, for me has been the key to making that happen. So I followed the nudge, pulled out the bag at the last minute. And I'm keeping it super short. Because if there's one thing I've learned from running this soulful sales Summit, is that there is huge value in being intentional about delivering short 15 to 20 minute presentations with no fluff or actionable advice. So this one is going to be short and actionable too. And I've never done a free workshop this short before. And I thought you know what, I'm going to practice what I preach, I'm going to follow the nudge, I'm going to break the rules. And I will be also really, totally upfront with you and let you know that I am going to share how you can work with me not more deeply on this in my aligned Office experience programme, which you know, is probably another rule that I'm breaking. I shouldn't be saying that right now. But honestly, this workshop in itself is totally actionable. It's going to give you loads of ideas to run with. It's not going to be one giant sales pitch, I promise. And yeah, I'm so excited to carry on breaking the rules with you. And to show you how it's done.

3:54
I'll show you one way of doing it, because you can do it a totally different way, however suits you. And honestly, this whole topic gets me so fired up. So yeah, I just wanted to share how I'm already breaking the rules with what I'm doing. And I'm going to share the three key rules that I think business owners, especially the sensitive ones, neurodivergent ones, the otherwise different ones or those with a lot on their plate, especially those ones need to break to make selling easier and way more fun. So before we get into it, I want to address the fear that I know a lot of us have, don't we have to do things the right way in order for it to work and for us to be successful. We fear that if we don't do it, right, we won't get people signing up to our stuff. We won't be successful. We'll get it all wrong. make a fool of ourselves, we'll never achieve what we want to achieve. Right? I know that there's a part of you that feels that way sometimes. The thing is that so many of us put together offers based on what we think people will want, what other people are doing, what we think we should be doing what we think we can get away with. This is like, you know, this comes into play and like oh, I could get away with charging this much or I could get away with doing this but I couldn't do that or whatever. massively over delivering or undercharging because we think that's the only way. Now, none of this is wrong, you, maybe that suits you some of those things, but it's not necessarily serving us to think that we have to do it a certain way. And I actually honestly truly think that trying to get it right,

5:18
in this way is actually getting in the way of our true brilliance, it's actually getting in the way of creativity is getting in the way of innovation. And it's getting in the way of what we need as individual humans. So personally, I am a recovering people pleaser, I grew up not trusting myself, because I was always told that I was too sensitive, and that my feelings were too much, basically. But actually, how I feel matters a lot to me. In life in business, if what I'm doing isn't aligned, it's either really hard for me to do it with any kind of enthusiasm, or maybe even do it at all. Or on the flip side, I'll just push myself really hard in a way that's ultimately unsustainable, because I can't, I can't work, I can't work in a way that's not aligned to me for any length of time. I'm also actually prone to anxiety and overwhelm, which means I often end up overthinking and not knowing what to do next. I'm also a massive introvert at the same time as being massively ambitious, but I couldn't recognise my ambition until well into adulthood, because it didn't seem to look the way I thought it should, again, the word shirt. Basically, the reason I'm sharing all of this with you is because I have unique needs, I have unique needs that need to be met in order for me to quite literally stay sane. It has also taken me a very long time to trust myself because of all of this stuff. All of these things all have these quirks all of these what I used to see as weaknesses. But now down are the reasons why it's so important for me to build my business in my own way, I find it really hard to show up for things I'm not 100% behind. So my way is the only way it gets to be sustainable in the long term. And I'll bet that this is true for you as well. Here's the thing, we're all unique, individual humans with unique needs, we need to have a different way of thinking about the way that we create the way that we run the way that we sell our offers. We need a way that helps us feel more relaxed and more easeful about selling and delivering them we need to trust fully in the value of those offers. Because a lot of us, like me are prone to people pleasing and overthinking. Worrying about how people might be judging us or whether they're getting a good experience, right. So this is why we need to let go of there being one right way. So are you ready to get started? Are you ready to break the rules. And I really hope that what I'm about to share takes a huge weight off your shoulders, and excites you and actually leads to some amazing creativity, innovation and new ideas as well. So rule number one, the first rule I want us to break is actually what we've already been talking about the rule that we have to do things the right way, or even the belief that there's a right way in the first place. So doing things things the right way could mean a giving people what they want. I mean, it sounds nice to just give people what they weren't right. But I don't think that's the first place we should be starting with. It could also mean doing things the way other people do them, because we see other people do them, right. But this isn't the way necessarily that sensitive business owners thrive. So how do we let go of what this right way this mythical magical right wait is now there are a few different ways that we can do this. So number one is getting conscious of the rules and the conditioning that we actually have in the first place. So if you're watching this, and you're able to pause, you might want to pause right now. So you can literally write down what you think offers should look like or how you think you should sell. Because often consciously will think that we don't really believe in certain rules around doing things, we'll think that we give ourselves the freedom that we need to do it our way. But when we're radically honest with ourselves, and we actually give ourselves a moment to acknowledge how we feel underneath will will find that we do have some rules. So for example, I can only sell things for X price Maximum, or I have to sell things in y way. Or I have to deliver my offer with Zed extras or in such a way right. So for example, I have to have a Facebook group for my course every time or I have to give extra support to my one to one clients in between calls, right? We all have these kinds of rules. We just need to get radically honest with ourselves about them. And these rules are often based on what we assume that other people might want or what we assumed they might think if we chose to do things differently. And that also based on how we see others doing things and you know, it's totally natural human thing. To watch other people doing things to see how we think it might work, and to think we should do it the same way as them. But this is where I want us to start thinking differently. So number two, of letting go of the right way of doing things is being willing to try and being willing to mess things up. So I actually call this imperfect experimentation. There is so much stuff that we will never know about how we actually work best as individuals, unless until we try it. So for years, I thought that because I was socially awkward, and because I was massively introverted, that I wasn't actually the type of person to have a podcast. And it wasn't until I actually tried it. And by the way, I was still scared. But I tried it. And it turns out, podcasting is now one of my favourite things, right? So we have to be willing to try different things. And we have to be willing to potentially mess up along the way, because that's all part of the learning. And the key mindset shift for me and my business has been that it's safe for me to try new things. And I call this the mindset of imperfect experimentation. Because when I think of an experiment, I think of myself simply trying something, gathering data from trying that thing, then learning from that data. And, and the truth is that I can actually never, it is impossible for me to fail. Like not everything's going to work the way that we might expect or want it to. But it's impossible for me to fail if I have this mindset, because I know I will always learn. And this mindset has encouraged me to try so many things, like breaking the rules. With this workshop, for example, I'm experimenting, I don't know if it's going to, I don't know, if it's gonna go down a storm, I don't know if people aren't going to like it. But I'm experimenting, right. And then number three, is doing the inner work to trust yourself to innovate and come up with new ideas. And this one, I mean all of them. But this one really is an ongoing process. But I think it's really important not just to focus on the practical rules, how you're actually showing up what you're doing, but to get to know who you really are. So the way I support my clients through this in my business coaching and mentoring is through conscious and subconscious work to really understand how they work as individuals to really see the beliefs and conditioning that they've taken on in their lives. And to learn to unravel that from your true inner voice. I mean, that is a lot. And it's honestly is a lifetime of work. That is the work of a lifetime. But you can start to unravel it in really simple ways. So for example, with a daily journaling practice, I mean, you can take some of these things, like for example, What rules do I have around Salim and start journaling about it to get more clarity, bring it to the conscious.

12:39
But yeah, the more we do this, the more confidence and freedom we will have to innovate and to really be able to do things differently. And I did put a PS on this slide that this is going to feel uncomfortable. And I'm sorry to say it but it will, there are so many reasons why it's going to feel uncomfortable. self doubt will show up when you're stretching, when you're trying new things, you'll probably feel like a bit at risk of being judged for being more of yourself or doing things a bit differently. It's okay to have feelings about breaking the rules, it's okay. And in fact, it's really normal that it feels uncomfortable. But that doesn't mean that it's not worth it. And just remember what I said early on about how I really believe that business is a vehicle for full self expression. This is all the bigger picture of that the bigger picture of truly learning to be yourself in all ways. And don't forget, you will actually be better at what you do and how you serve your people when you can tune into your strengths. So if you need anything to help get you through the toughest moments, just remember that you're going to do your best work in the world by leaning on your strengths and your unique way of doing it. So rule number two is the rule that we always have to be practical and or strategic. Obviously, practical strategy is helpful in many ways, but it's only part of the puzzle, and it often can lead sensitive business owners down the wrong path. Spoiler alert, your feelings matter. They really matter too. So here's why focusing on your feelings is practical. If you only ever focus on doing the next strategic thing, you're gonna miss out on joy, you're gonna miss out on fun creativity and innovation in your business. If you only ever focus on doing the next right practical thing, you might not be able to really fully get behind what it is that you're selling, selling and delivering. You might feel wrong, you might feel resentful that you've forced yourself into a box. You might feel like I did that your insides don't match match your outsides. Remember playing by your own rules is the only way this gets to be sustainable over time. So I want you to ask yourself some questions. And again, go and do some journaling on this if you need to. Have you ever launched anything that made sense in so many practical ways and it completely flopped, like, the practical strategy can't protect you from like, it can't help you control the outcome, right? Have you ever launched something great, but you ended up not being excited to run it, like it looked great on paper, it fit into the rules of what you should do. But you just weren't excited to run it. Have you ever run something based on it feeling so good. And it ended up feeling so easy, because I know that I have. Now I'm not saying it always works out the way that we want it to or expect it to, but it is possible. And at the heart of all of this is the fact that our feeling our feelings matter. You deserve to feel good with the work that you're doing. Yes, there are strategies and practical steps and stretching our comfort zone and getting uncomfortable. But at the end of the day, like what are we doing this for if we don't want to design it in a way that ultimately suits us. Like I've said, so many times, we are all unique humans, we get to design our businesses around our quirks around our imperfections. And actually, some of that stuff can actually be our strengths. If we give ourselves permission to create our offers and sell them in alignment with that, we get to do this intuitively, even though so many people benefit from telling us that our intuition is not worth listening to. And that creates a different way of doing things. It models things for other people, it gives other people permission to do things differently. And quite frankly, I believe that all of us working in our zone of magic doing things the way that is right for us as individuals is world changing. And if we ignore our feelings about stuff we suffer, that could look like finding it hard to show up and sell the thing it could look like what I said like feeling like something's chipping away at you like you're inside doesn't matter outside could look like delivering it half heartedly reducing the impact that we actually could have had with it. Or it could look like procrastinating and resisting even starting it in the first place. So how do we actually go beyond the practical. I'm not saying the practical doesn't matter. But all of this work that I've been talking about in the last section, getting to know ourselves, bringing the subconscious rules and the conditioning to the surface, being willing to experiment, giving ourselves evidence that can work in a way that suits us, all of that stuff is just as important as the practical stuff. And we get to use our feelings to guide us in making our decisions in the first place. And you know, it's what I it really what I experienced in my last business was that I only really started to trust the way that I did things, I only really started to trust that my feelings mattered when I started to see the money coming in. I so wish that I had trusted my feelings and knowing that I was worthy and deserving of that sooner. But it takes guts to do it. And that's why I'm here sharing it with you. But yeah, once the money started coming out, I realised hang on a minute, I've got this evidence now that it does get to work. So I want you to just ask yourself some questions, make some notes if you need to have a think about it, talk about it with someone. If you focus purely on what felt exciting, whether that's like a tingle in your body or just intuitive knowing what would you choose to do now based on how you feel? Or do you have any some like any kind of nudge right now about what you want to do next, about an offer that you want to put out there or let go of or something you want to change about the way you run your offers. I invite you just to take a moment to sit quietly, close your eyes. And just imagine for a second, that you've created an offer purely based on how you feel playing by your own rules.

18:42
And with this offer, whether you've got the full details of it of it or whether it's just a sense of the offer, how would it feel to actually go out there and sell that offer? How does it feel to tap into the enthusiasm you have for that offer? How does it feel to tune into why you believe this offer can help people? How would it feel to actually deliver the offer? Once it comes time to do that? So in your own time just taking a minute with all of those questions with all of those feelings, and taking a moment to write down any realisations or intuitive nudges that you might have had. And finally, rule number three, it has to be hard work. Do you relate to the idea that if it isn't hard work, it might not be good enough, or you must not deserve it? The truth is that hard work doesn't validate your idea. Hard work doesn't dictate the outcome of selling your offer as much as we wanted to control the situation and the outcome with hard work. That's not what it's about. So I invite you to make it easier. Now I'm not saying I'm absolutely not saying that. It's never hard work. It's actually a lot of work to get radically honest with yourself and undo all of this conditioning, right. And there are, of course, times in your business where you will be doing a lot and you'll be busy. But everything that we've been working on today in this workshop is what makes your offer easier to sell the fact that you believe in it, the fact that you chose it based on what feels good, the fact that you tuned into how you actually want to run it, the fact that you're letting yourself, experiment and play. So ask yourself, How can I have fun selling this? And what would I do if I treated this as an imperfect experiment? And because I'm doing a super short and no fluff training today, I don't have time to go into all the exercises that I would give you, as a client to make this easier. But if there's one thing you do, ask yourself those questions, how can I have fun selling this? And what would I do if I treated this as an imperfect experiment. And just to warn you, your brain will try to complicate this, if you're not used to running things from a place of ease, your brain will try to obligate it at some point that is okay. Again, it's like a form of stretching your comfort zone, you want to go back to your comfortable space where it feels hard, right? If that's the way you're wired, that is okay. Just remember, you have to keep choosing ease, it's not a one time decision, you have to choose it again and again. So the key message I want you to take from today is to radically trust yourself to create offers that feel good, and that that will make your work and sales easier. It really can have a tangible impact on what you do. How you feel matters, tuning into that can make a huge difference to your business results. It gets to be easier than it's been before. But it takes practice to keep tuning into it to keep following following what feels good and to do things in a way that maybe you don't see others doing. And if you're really worried that what if I follow my feelings and it doesn't work? The truth is if you don't allow yourself to follow your feelings, it won't be sustainable in the long run. And if you allow yourself to follow the your feelings, what if you come across something magical? What have you come across something new, something that you've never experienced before? What have you realise that you're capable of something different than you thought that you were? And this has definitely been the experience with me and my own aligned offers? Like my first launch didn't actually sell I just couldn't get behind it. I relaunched it, I changed it based on how I felt and it did well. I mean, since then, I've had some offers do really well, some offers flop. But the most important thing is that I am so aligned to what I do, I have stretched myself so much I have massively expanded what I'm capable of, I've massively expanded how I see the value of the work I do. And I have so much more confidence in the way I show up and do it and honestly like running my first group programme. And then my subsequent group programme, which I still run now rest and rise has been game changing for my business. And it really took me to really connect with myself really think about how I felt, and to face the discomfort of doing something kind of scary exciting. Because I was really connected with the transformation, I was really tuned in to why it mattered. And actually, I now have over 2000 people registered for my courses in my map course membership platform, I have run so many incredible live rounds that just make me My heart just filled with joy,

23:25
I have changed the way I do my one to one offers based on how it feels I doubled my prices, we've doubled them again. And I love who I get to work with and how and this is all because I have learned to tune into my feelings and follow this process to create really aligned offers. So if you do want to dive deeper into this, then I do want to invite you to join my programme, the aligned offers experience, which is sharing with you how you can confidently create your exciting easy to sell product or service over the course of a week. So you create over a week you don't deliver it and sell it over that week without the overwhelm or the sales dread and you get a whole month of support with me in November, if you join now, this is actually a programme that until very recently, until now was exclusive to my higher level group and one to one clients. But I followed my own advice, I followed my own nudge to pull it back out of there and to run it again. So here it is with a discount and a special bonus bundle especially for you. So if you go to Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash offers, there will be a coupon code somewhere around this video. Enter the coupon code to get your special bonus offer. You'll get my journaling for launches. If you buy in the early bird period. You'll get my journaling for launches. mini course included with it. So this is my entire process which I think is game changing for how you actually show up and sell it. Like I'm talking coaching yourself through the tricky moments, getting back behind the value clearing the stories that are coming up when you're launching and getting that on selling more of your thing, plus, you're also getting my connected content prompts that will really help you speak from the heart about your offer. So this is a special bonus if you buy it in the early bird period. And then there's also a coupon code for you to get an exclusive discount as well. If you're part of the summit, then you're going to get a discount anyway. But if you were part of the VIP bundle, don't forget that you have $100 credit with me, and you can absolutely apply it to this, just send me a message and email or a DM and I will give you our personal coupon code to get your discount. So what we will cover in the aligned offers programme is and by the way, this is for business owners who want to elevate their offers to the next level you might have already sold offers, you might have lots of offers. But you want something even more magical, even more useful that you're fully behind when you sell, or you might be new you haven't created offers yet this will put you on the best path. So what we'll cover in the aligned Office experience is getting into the aligned offers mindset, uncovering the stories and beliefs that get in our way and leaning into really trusting ourselves. We'll cover starting with the transformation both for you and for your clients, and getting crystal clear on why you're creating this offer in the first place, who it's for, and what it promises. We'll cover choosing the container and the price for your offer that really suits you breaking the standard rules of online products and services and creating something truly magical. And next level. We'll also talk about the launch and beyond continuing on your self trust journey and how to keep remembering that you get to do this your way, I think the launching piece alone is probably worth the entire investment in the course, plus, you're gonna get a whole month of support from me, you're gonna get bonus one to one access to me through Voxer office hours, there's also going to be a q&a session, all of which to make sure that you are crystal clear and supported in what you need to do. We're going to start on the first of November, with the first module, they're going to be delivered daily for the first five days so that you can build momentum, get the work done, get the offer created, but then you've got the whole month of support to actually make it real and put it out there. Of course, you can do this at your own pace, you can do the self study option, but by signing up now you're gonna get the best price. And honestly, this process that I'm going to share with you in the programme, leaning into trusting myself or creating offers that feel really aligned has changed everything in my business, I have built massive momentum, I have hugely increased my income. I've built this business up so much faster than I did my first business. But more importantly, it's such a better way to work to manage my energy to help support my anxiety and my overwhelm. It feels so much easier. And yeah, I run the same aligned offers again and again. And it works and my clients have had huge results too in terms of income impact commitment to what they're selling and the belief in what they do. I honestly believe that these aligned offers are life changing. So yeah, go to Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash offers, don't forget we have a bonus early bird you're gonna get the journaling for launches courses for free as a bonus. And there's also a special coupon somewhere near this video, especially for you to get a discount as part of the summit. So yeah, I can't wait to hear your success stories with creating aligned offers really from your heart, breaking the rules, prioritising your feelings and all of this amazing stuff. I hope that you have gotten something really valuable out of this workshop. I

28:20
hope you've got something to run with. And I look forward to working with some of you and aligned offers. So you've got the early bird bonus of the launch journaling course until Friday, the 21st of October. You've also got your exclusive summit coupon so don't forget to use that and yeah, I can't wait to get started and thank you for being here.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

 

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