Ruth Poundwhite [00:00:00]:
If selling your offers has felt a little bit different lately, you are not imagining it. AI has changed the online space, content is everywhere, and buyers are more discerning about where they spend their money. But I promise you, it is not all doom and gloom, and the good news is that you don’t need to be creating brand new offers. You just need to be making smart tweaks that help them sell in 2026, which is what I’m about to share in this episode. And if you want the full story, make sure you go and get your free ticket to the Soulful Sales Summit at soulfulsalessummit.com.

Welcome to the Soulful Sales Show, where we talk about believing in the value of your 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 in today’s episode, I want to talk about something that I think a lot of online business owners are feeling and talking about right now, which is that selling feels different, and it has felt different for a little while.Ruth Poundwhite [00:01:03]:
Before I get into this, I want to share something very important with you. When we are running a business and in certain circles on the internet— and obviously this is true in other areas of life as well— but it can be really easy to be in a kind of bubble where people are sharing the same kind of message, and it ends up being repeated again and again. The message that I really noticed in 2025 that I was being affected by myself as well was that sales are down, sales are down, things aren’t selling, or things aren’t selling like they used to. And I definitely bought into this for a while because I was hearing a lot of people saying it, and I was telling myself it as well about my own offers. The really interesting thing is, at some point in the year, I actually did some digging into the numbers, and realized it just was not true for me.Sales were not down. They were different, and I’m going to get to that in a sec, but they weren’t down. And it was just such an important lesson for me in not letting the noise make me decide something is a fact without looking at the real facts of my own business, right? So really, really important in any conversation about selling being different, or what we need to change, to be very discerning in the way you apply this to your own business.Ruth Poundwhite [00:02:35]:
Always look at your own numbers, always look at the facts of your situation. And if you ever find that being in certain circles where people are presenting changes as all doom and gloom and all of that is affecting how you show up, affecting your confidence, affecting your drive and motivation, then mute and unfollow and get yourself some new inspiration if you need it. Okay, so that’s my big caveat before I jump into this conversation. I also will say, as I am preparing to open up the Soulful Sales Summit— it’s already open for free registration at soulfulsalessummit.com, but it’s kicking off on Monday, the 9th of March— there’s definitely a theme running through a lot of the presentations, which is what is working in 2026.

But what I’m very, very careful as I’ve curated this collection of speakers and topics is that it is not from the perspective of you’re doing everything wrong and this is not working. I really don’t enjoy that kind of marketing myself, and it often— well, I mean, I just shared an example about how it can make me believe things aren’t true. What is much more empowering to me is to see what is working, especially examples of people who are making it work who are like me. So I’m not talking about people with bucketloads of energy, endless focus, extreme confidence, and charisma.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:04:05]:
I’m talking about sensitive, introverted, neurodivergent, low-capacity business owners who are making it work. Okay, so that is very much the vibe of the Soulful Sales Summit, and that’s very much The message that I want to give you as we have this conversation about selling feeling different in 2026. Okay, so let’s talk about why it feels different. Now, of course, we have been in the AI era for a few years now, especially the last couple of years. And one massive, very fast shift that came along with the mass adoption of AI was that content— there is more content out there than ever. AI has made it very, very easy for anyone to whip up a post, an email, to give advice, to create a whole strategy, all of the things. And because of that, not only does the internet feel noisier, but it’s also full of stuff that we don’t know if we can trust it. I mean, I am blown away on a daily basis by some of these AI videos that I am seeing lately.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:05:21]:
And I’m really, really annoyed about it because so many people in the comments are just taking them as pure fact when they’re clearly— well, not clearly, that’s the point, that’s the problem— when they are AI. It’s just wild out there, right? We don’t know what we can trust, and it is noisy. And when there’s more noise and we can’t trust in content as much, people are becoming more discerning, especially about what they are buying. They are slower to trust, they are slower to buy. They might need more information, they might need more connection with us before they decide that something is right for them. They probably need evidence that things are gonna work for them before they want to buy into it. Now, I know that at first this might actually feel discouraging, especially if you are a sensitive human who already finds all the marketing that you have to do for your business a bit overwhelming. But I genuinely do not think this is doom and gloom, especially for heart-led business owners.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:06:22]:
The thing is that as a heart-led business owner, you have a huge advantage in the AI era. And actually, this is something that I talked about in my Aligned AI Summit back in September 2025. The human, the unique human element that only we can bring to our businesses. Because people don’t need more information. People are already overwhelmed with all the information that is out there already. They are looking for people they can trust, people who see them, people who understand them, people who are like them to show them what’s possible, and people who can help them actually take action. And get the results that they want to get. And this is why, as, as a heart-led business owner, it’s actually kind of a good thing because connection is our thing, right? Being human, being imperfect, it’s actually a key part of the way that we get to sell.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:07:22]:
Now, I’ve actually recorded a whole presentation for the Soulful Sales Summit about 5 key elements I’m seeing in offers that are actually selling right now. And of course, human connection is part of that.. And this is based on what I’ve been seeing in my own offers, my own sales, in my clients’ offers and their sales, and in my peers’ offers and their sales. Now, I really do want you to sign up for the, for your free ticket for the Soulful Sales Summit to get the full presentation. I’m afraid I’m not sharing it all here on the podcast because I want you to sign up to the summit. My suggestion for the summit is because there’s a lot of presentations, I know some people love summits, some people find them overwhelming. Just allow yourself to watch whatever you want to watch. Don’t think that you have to watch everything.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:08:09]:
So if all you want is to hear me talk about what all of the 5 elements of offers that are selling right now are, and then just get your free ticket at soulfulsalesummit.com, and you’ll be able to watch that presentation on Monday, the 9th of March, when it goes live. Okay, but I am going to give you one of those elements beyond the human connection right now because I don’t want to leave you totally hanging in this episode. And what I will say is that this actually has always been important. The human connection has always been important as well, but this extra element has always been important, but it’s more important now than ever. And that is that you are very clear on the specific tangible result that your offer gives people. And when I talk about a tangible result,. It can be something like a shift in perspective, uh, it can be a decision that they make. So it can apply to, you know, feelings and mindset, but it can also be they take action on this thing, they create a CV, they, you know, create a freebie to put out into the world.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:09:15]:
That’s one of my very specific tangible offers, is to create a freebie in 5 days in 30 minutes a day. It’s a really, really clear outcome, and I feel very, very confident about selling that outcome because I’m not promising the world. I used to sell very big offers that would, you know, go on multiple topics over many weeks, and they were definitely valuable. But I think that offers like that are harder to sell these days, and you’re better off splitting it into individual, boundaried, clear outcomes so that people can know exactly what it is that they’re buying. So when we go back to that piece about buyers being more discerning and needing to actually trust and believe that they can get something out of the offer they buy. This is what helps them do that, because if we’re promising all these things, it’s harder for them to actually clearly see, well, can I actually achieve that? If I’m promising create a freebie in 5 days, in 30 minutes, in a day, it’s so much easier for them to say, yep, that’s what I need, that’s what I want, I want to actually take action on that, so I’m going to buy that thing, right? Helps me to sell it because I’m more confident in that one specific thing that I’m promising as well. And not trying to convince anyone that our offers are going to change their whole lives. We’re just saying, here is this one result this offer will help you to achieve, and then they get to decide if that result is what they want and is valuable to them.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:10:43]:
Now, there is more to this, of course, and there are a couple more elements that are very powerful tweaks, very important things that we can add to our offers to make that result more likely to happen. But I’m afraid I am going to leave you hanging there, and you are going to have to sign up to get my free presentation at the Soulful Sales Summit at soulfulsalesummit.com. So I’m going to go deeper into some of the shifts with the offers I’m seeing that are selling right now, how to make some tweaks to your existing offers. And actually, this was a point— have I already said this? This was something else I really, really wanted to say in this episode. When we hear this message repeated again and again, you know, things are different, things aren’t selling the way they used to, offers aren’t selling the way they used to, we can kind of think, I’ve got to create something new, I’ve got to reinvent everything, and it’s just exhausting. You absolutely don’t. There are so many offers I’m selling now that I was already selling in 2020, right? And that was a very different time in online business, and they’re still selling now because I have made tweaks to the positioning, I’ve made some tweaks to the content of what is included in the offer and the boundaries around what I help people with in those offers. So I promise you, it’s not about changing everything.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:11:54]:
It’s about being really smart with the design and the positioning of your offer and having the mindset that actually it’s a good thing that we’re making it clearer how we can help people. It’s a good thing that we’re making it easier for people to actually use the offers that they buy from us. So yes, if selling has felt different to you lately, you’re not alone. There are changes and it’s our job as online business owners to learn from those changes, to make these changes to our offers and to experiment with what is working. But it actually gets to be really exciting when you are willing to make these tweaks. So go to soulfulsalesummit.com, get your free ticket, and you can hear the full 5 elements of offers that are selling in 2026. And beyond that, we also have an incredible list of speakers who are sharing what is working for them in 2026. The thing that I really want you to take away from the Soulful Sales Summit is that this is not about keeping up with all the strategies, posting everywhere, being everywhere, hustling harder.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:13:01]:
If things aren’t working for you, you get to figure out a way that does work for you in a sustainable, long-term capacity. Because if we push and try to fit ourselves into strategies and business models that don’t fit us, we are only going to burn out, and it is not gonna do us any good for the long term of our business, right? So I have a whole selection of speakers who are talking about anything and everything from the way we prepare our offers to help them sell, to protecting yourself from burnout to feeling good about actually selling, because I know that’s a sticky point for a lot of thoughtful, heart-led humans. And day 3 is all about the specific strategies that people are using to sell right now in 2026 that are working for them. So can’t wait to share all of this with you, but like I said, it is not about doing it all. It is about looking at which presentations will support you right now, prioritizing those and feeling zero guilt for skipping the rest. So yeah, I hope to see you at the Soulful Sales Summit. I hope that this has been a reassuring conversation for you, because it is true, there are many opportunities out there if we can make those small positioning tweaks and also not get stuck in the mindset that things aren’t working, because they are working. And there are so many people looking for what it is that you are selling, and you still get to help people, but you’ve got to keep showing up and putting it out there in front of them.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:14:34]:
All right, I’ll see you at the Soulful Sales Summit. I’ll obviously put all the links in the show notes as well. And yeah, can’t wait to share it all with you. 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. And if you would like to carry on the conversation, then you can connect with me in the free community at ruthpoundwhite.com/community, or my personal favorite, join me inside the Soulful Sales Society membership at ruthpoundwhite.com/membership. And keep doing what you’re doing because your work really does matter.