Episode #72: Why Your Weirdness Is Your Sales Superpower (Plus A Special Announcement!)

Ruth Poundwhite [00:00:00]:
Today, I’m talking about possibly the scariest part of running your own business, showing up as your real self. And that’s especially scary when you’ve always felt a little bit weird, a little bit different, a little bit wrong. So let’s talk about why your weirdness is actually your magic that will boost your sales and draw your right people to you. Plus, I have a very special announcement in this episode as well. Welcome to the Soulful Sales show, where we talk about believing in the value of your offer offers, getting them in front of your right people, and selling more of what you do in your unique way.

Hi, and welcome back to another episode of the Soulful Sales Show. So I actually had something different scheduled originally for today, but I decided to push that episode back because today is Halloween, and I want to talk about one of the scariest things about being in business, which is showing up as your real self, especially if you have always felt a little bit weird, if you have often felt like you don’t fit in, that you have a different way of doing things, you have a different way of looking at things. You’ve not been one of the popular ones, the cool ones.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:01:16]:
This episode is for you, because that is exactly how I have always felt as well. And, you know, I’m gonna share a lot more about it, but the crux of it is that people need you in all of your real weird, imperfect glory. People need to hear the way that you say things, the way that you do things, the way that your unique experiences have shaped the unique work that you do in the world. So, yeah, we are embracing our weirdness and embracing our uniqueness in this episode today. And I also have a very special new space to announce where I hope that we can all come together and connect with other people who get it, who understand what it’s like to feel a bit different and do things a bit differently and actually support each other, to sell more as our unique and weird and imperfect selves. But. But I will share a bit more about that towards the end of this episode. So let me just give you a little bit of context for my journey with this.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:02:29]:
So you may have heard me say that I started my first business in 2008. I was 21 then. I was so not confident in who I was. I actually didn’t know a lot about who I was in. In many ways. I didn’t know what an introvert was, for example, didn’t know about neurodivergence and any of this stuff. And I kind of fel in to running an online business. And I honestly tried to hide myself.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:02:57]:
Like, I was so careful not to show my true self. I actually felt really ashamed of the fact that I was so young when I first started. I hid myself in my profile pictures. I didn’t really use social media, all of these things. I really tried not to be visible and not to have to show myself and kind of watered myself down as a result. I tried to appeal to. To as many people as possible by not sharing any of my opinions or my unique quirks in my writing and all of that stuff. And I know that a lot of people listening to this will relate.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:03:35]:
We spend so much of our lives wearing masks, especially if we are someone who identifies as neurodivergent or we haven’t traditionally fit in and we’ve been rejected in our life. Like, it makes absolute sense that we wear masks. And especially in our businesses, you know, we. We want to come across as professional. We want to come across as someone who can be relied on, as someone who is worth investing in. So it makes sense in that, in that area that we would wear masks as well. But what I really, really want to emphasize in this episode is that there is so much power in sharing a bit of what’s underneath that mask. Now, before I get into that, I do want that.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:04:22]:
I don’t believe that we need to share everything. Obviously, some people’s brands are built on them being, like, really, really open and sharing all of the messy life stuff and, you know, sharing in real time what they’re going through and all of that. And that is absolutely fine for them. I personally have always found it a bit hard. A bit. That’s an understatement. To be open, even with, like, people I know really well, to be, like, totally open about what’s going on my life. I’ve always been, like, really, really private and.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:04:50]:
And there’s a lot of stuff that I still don’t talk about when it comes to my business. And I feel really, really comfortable with that fact. I feel like you can be both honest and open and private as well. So I do need to say that before I get to what I’m about to say. But there honestly is so much magic in your weirdness. And this is something that I’ve really been on a huge journey with myself. So, for example, I have never been able to stick to one thing. So although, you know, I want to give you my official intro to myself, I’ll say I started out as a copywriter in 2008.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:05:31]:
The truth is that I tried Loads of different online business things. So copywriting was the main kind of through line. But I actually flipped websites for a while. I created done for you content. I did so many different things, and I’ve always really resisted being boxed in and kind of beat myself up about it. And that’s one of the things I’ve always considered to be a flaw or kind of weird about me. I have also had a massive aversion to a lot of the sales tactics. And when I first started my business in 2008, I really didn’t know anything about business.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:06:03]:
I. I started it by accident because I couldn’t get a real job in the recession. So, you know, I used to think that there was something wrong with me because I couldn’t do things the way everyone said I had to do them. I thought I was weird because I didn’t want to do podcast interviews, I didn’t want to do videos. I mean, it wasn’t weird. It was fear. And it was something that I had to, you know, go on a journey to overcome. And actually what I have found is that going on that journey has actually been one of the reasons why so many of you work with me now or listen to this podcast now is because I have been on this journey and I haven’t been someone who has always found it easy.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:06:45]:
Right? It would be so kind of frustrating to listen to someone who had always been confident and who was great at speaking and really extroverted and stuff. If you just didn’t relate to them, then you probably wouldn’t think that whatever they were sharing was possible for you. So listening to someone like me who has been really, really scared and who couldn’t even do a zoom call, let alone a podcast or a video, whatever, you know, it makes a difference, right? I have also always found that the way that I work is weird. I. I don’t, like, do things in a linear way. I have massive bursts of creativity and then get paralyzed and don’t do anything for ages. I find it really to be consistent. I have weird rhythms and it’s taken me a while to honor and accept that.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:07:32]:
And actually, when I first made the shift from working as a copywriter to supporting other business owners to design their business around themselves and their personality and their energy, one of the things that served me best was just being honest about how afraid I was and just showing up, you know, and just. And just saying, look, I am not perfect at this and I am scared. But I have been on this journey and do you want to come along on this journey with me because I can help you. And it led to my core audience and ultimately what I have built up today, which is just amazing, really, when I think back on it. I’m also super, super sensitive. I can be very socially awkward. In fact, I didn’t even think I could have a podcast because I thought I was too socially awkward to interview people on my podcast. Because turns out a huge learning experience of interviewing people on my podcast was that I’m socially awkward about small talk.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:08:29]:
But actually I can go deep on a podcast quite well and I, and I really enjoy it. I do also go through periods of anxiety, depression, and not wanting to show up and, and having really low energy. And I’ve had to teach myself that I can show up with low energy and still make a difference, right? And still be good at what I do. And I guess to sum everything up that I’m saying what I’ve had to realize over time is that you can’t keep fighting these parts of yourself that are who you are as much as you have internalized that there’s something wrong with these parts because you have grown up in a society that doesn’t celebrate the way your brain works or the way that your energy is, or your personality or whatever it is.

You can’t keep fighting against them because they are who you are. And things really, really change when you allow yourself to embrace these parts of you, to work in a way that honors your energy, that honors your brain, and to actually be yourself and show your personality in your content. Because let me tell you, you will attract so many more of the right people to you. If you can be a bit weird and a bit quirky and maybe opinionated or whatever it is for you in your content, than being vanilla, right? There’s this kind of saying, like, if you, if you try and be vanilla, you’re not going to be anyone’s favorite flavor.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:09:54]:
But if you’re something really unique and different, like I always use the example of rum and raisin, which actually I hate that flavour of ice cream. But you will be someone’s like absolute favourite flavor by going for something unique like that, right? You can’t change who you are. I can’t change who I am. But you can bring that into the work that you do and attract the right people to you. And one of the exercises that I think is really, really helpful to do is to do some journaling on all the reasons why you are the best person to work with the people that you work. And you can even list out some of the reasons why you doubt yourself. So for example, for me it could be because I don’t feel that confident on video. I mean, even now I have to be in the right mood to go live.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:10:38]:
I don’t always feel that confident. I could write that down and flip that to. That makes me a great person to work with, someone who is less confident than I am because I can empathize with you and I can share with you the strategies I use to do it anyway and to stretch my comfort zone, especially as I have stretched it from someone who wouldn’t even get on a one to one zoom call with someone. Right. So really, really helpful to make that list and you can frame it in the positive. I am the best person to work with because I’ve been on this journey. Or you can also take what you initially perceive as negative, like I struggle with this thing and turn it into a positive. Really, really helpful.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:11:14]:
And speaking of the journey that we all go on up in our business, I’m at quite a, I don’t know, like an exciting point in my own business journey and I am making some changes behind the scenes that actually, you know, support a lot of what I’m talking about. So one of the changes that I’m making is I am closing my mini membership, the Soulful Growth Club. I’m not going to go into all the details, but basically I just want to simplify things. I want to focus all my energy on the Soulful Sales Society. What I realized the Soulful Sales Society is my main membership by the way. What I realized was people were getting confused between the two memberships. Most of the members in the mini one I was not getting to really work with very closely at all. And I’m making much more of a difference through the Soulful Sales Society which makes sense because it has more access to me.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:12:07]:
We have monthly get it done weeks where we actually take action to implement soulful selling strategies. So I’m pouring all of my energy into the Soulful Cell Society and closing the Soulful Growth Club. So if you are a member of the Soulful Growth Club, you should have received an email to let you know that if you were thinking of becoming a member, then I’m afraid it is no longer available to join. But I do have something really exciting happening instead. So firstly, you can always join the Soulful Sales Society. It is my favorite thing in my business and honestly it is the thing that I really want to focus on going forward. I love supporting my members in that way. I’ve also added a VIP tier So if you want one to one coaching with me, you can get that twice a month.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:12:54]:
Really really love it. So you can join that at ruthpound white.com forward/sss. And I am also starting up a brand new free community called Soulful Sales. So the free community where you can engage and connect with other members is called Soulful Sales. The paid membership is an upgrade from that, the Soulful Sales Society where you get deeper support from me, you get access to the monthly get it done weeks, you get all of my Soulful Selling curriculum courses and calls with me and all of that stuff. So I have had a client and student only Facebook group for a while called the Inside. Some of you might be in there and I am just not loving Facebook. I’m really not loving Facebook and the engagement and the reach is not great and it doesn’t encourage me to post.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:13:41]:
I’m sure it doesn’t encourage you to post. There’s so many distractions on there as well. I have decided to take my community to school that’s S K O O L and to make it free for anyone who wants to join. So if you want to join, if you are listening to this podcast, you are absolutely invited. It is for heart led business owners who don’t necessarily vibe with the traditional marketing advice, who want an honest space to talk about how they do things and how they can mold selling and business around your personality, energy and values. So you can request to join that at ruthpoundwhite.com forward/newgroup. We are just literally now getting started. I am going to encourage everyone to introduce themselves.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:14:27]:
I also, to be honest, want it to be a space where you can practice being visible. Because I know I attract a lot of lurkers to my world and that is okay. I have definitely been a big lurker myself. But I really want to encourage you to allow yourself to be seen and heard in a space where people actually understand you. And I have been running my Soulful Sales Summit for several years and that has always been the feedback that I have gotten when I ran those summits. So my intention really is that that is the vibe for this free group as well. We are a no promo space, no spam, no DMs. If people are found to be, you know, soliciting business in the dms, they will be removed from the group.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:15:09]:
But there will be regular thread threads to share your stuff as well. So it’s, it’s promo but in a contained thread. And I just, I have the best communities I have the best people in my community who get it, who understand, and who can talk about different ways of doing things, different ways of selling. We don’t always agree on everything, but we are there for the nuanced conversations and we’re there for the big ambitious sales goals and boosting your income without hustling hard all the time and selling your soul along the way. So I would love to have you inside the new free soulful sales community. Freaks and weirdos are definitely welcome. Come be your imperfect self. You can request to join the group at ruthpoundwhite.com forward/newgroup and I can’t wait to kick it off.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:16:04]:
And before I wrap up this episode, I really want to encourage you to do a bit of reflection on this. Maybe just pause for a moment, think about it. Or even better, get your journal out and ask yourself what is something you have been hiding about yourself that actually could be a superpower in your business? What is something that you have been hiding about yourself that actually could be a superpower in your business? You get to show up as you. The right people will be drawn to that and the wrong people will be repelled. And that is a good thing. Okay? I promise you that is a good thing. So yeah, this episode is coming out on Halloween. You may not be listening on Halloween, but I know that showing up as yourself in business is one of the scariest things we can do.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:16:52]:
So even if you’re not taking all the steps you want right now, if you are showing up in any way, you are doing amazingly, it is not for the faint of heart, that is for sure. And I’m there to support you. And our fellow soulful sellers are there to support you in the new group this the Soulful Cells community. So come join in. I’ll put the link in the show notes as well. Ruthpoundwhite.com forward/newgroup and I look forward to connecting. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Soulful Sales. If you have a moment to rate and review, know that it really does make a difference.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:17:28]:
And if you would like to carry on the conversation then you can connect with me in the free soulful sales community@ruth poundwhite.com or my personal favorite, join me inside the Soulful Sale society membership@ruthpoundwhite.com forward/membership and keep doing what you’re doing because your work really does matter.