Ruth Poundwhite [00:00:00]:
Last year I ran a Black Friday sale of daily deals and the workload involved nearly broke me. A few weeks ago, deep in marathon prep and recovery, I ran an eight day sale. New offers, new sales pages, but I genuinely had fun doing it. I’m still the same person, I’m still running the same business, but it was a totally different experience. So in this episode, I’m going to walk you through three things that made this actually fun, including the way that I use AI that is going to change the way I sell for good. Welcome to the Soulful Sales show 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 I’m going to share something very exciting today, which is that I have a brand new offer that is called the Aligned AI Lab.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:00:54]:
I will be sharing more about that as I go, but I also want to share a really fun sale that I that I ran a few weeks ago that was really, really surprising. Now, the headline numbers for this sale aren’t like the best sale I’ve ever run. It was a 5k income sale, but I was really, really happy with that. Number one, because this was a sale on very low ticket offers. I’m talking 17 to $27 each. And number two, the most interesting bit of this is, is that it was a daily deals kind of sale. So there was a new offer every day. A lot of these offers were brand new, but the setup took me hours instead of what would have used to take me days.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:01:41]:
And I was running it in a low energy period as I was getting ready to run the marathon and recovering from my marathon. And yeah, I’m gonna walk you through it in this episode. So I’m really excited to share with you. So let me give you a bit more context about what this sale was. As you know, if you’ve been listening to the podcast, I have been moving a lot of my AI work over to Claude over the last few months. I was inspired by seeing other people doing the same. And then when I actually got to grips with how Claude works, I realized that it just works so much better for my brain. Now I’m not going to go into why I moved to Claude here because it’s all in the previous episodes.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:02:25]:
If you search back a few episodes, there are two round label discussions with my Mastermind group where we talk about this. That is episode 89 and episode 90. Those are the two to listen to if you want the deep dive on why we made the move and the things that we are doing include. Although, let’s be real, AI is evolving so fast, things change all the time. And actually that is part of why I have started my new aligned AI lab, which I’ll tell you more about in a bit. So, yeah, I had been moving everything over to Claude. I had previously sold a bunch of custom GPTs. These are a customized version of Chat GBT to guide people through certain business tasks based on my own strategy.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:03:07]:
And I wanted to not. Not replace them, but give Claude versions of them so that people who have people can either use the Chat GBT version or the CLAUDE version, depending on which AI system they prefer. And to give me a kind of boost in momentum to actually force myself to do it, I thought I would use it as a. An opportunity to bring visibility to these offers that I have, which I call AI bots, and do a daily sale. So a different AI bot every day for eight days, which I called the Spring Skill Sale. A lot of these were things I had already created as custom GPTs. Then I had to create the new version as a Claude version. Most of them, I don’t know of any of them actually had a standalone sales page because I had sold these as part of Bonuses and bundles before.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:03:53]:
So I had to create standalone sales pages for all of these offers. That’s eight offers. That’s a lot of sales pages. And a few of them were brand new. So I created a few that were Claude only, which was build a skill to help you build skills to do things for you in Claude. Again, go listen to the Claude episodes if you’re not sure exactly what I mean. One is about building artifacts, which is kind of interactive tools and pages in claude, and one was testing those things. I’m sure there was something else.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:04:22]:
But anyway, the point is, some of this stuff was new. I had to create a bunch of new sales pages. I was designing these skills, migrating them from ChatGPT. There was a lot of stuff to do, and this was not a sale that I had planned months in advance. This was actually inspired by me getting serious about some of my funnels behind the scenes, realizing that I wanted to use some of my custom GPTs as order bumps, getting inspired to then move them over to Claude, knowing that that would make them more valuable. And I made a really fast decision to run this sale, which actually is the first lesson I want to share with you. It made me nervous, I’m not gonna lie. And actually I have an episode coming soon.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:05:03]:
More about the mindset stuff of. Of selling these things. The long and short of it is this is a kind of new type of offer for me. Like, I’ve never focused so strongly on techie AI tools before, and it made me really nervous. But I knew that I wanted to jump in. I made a quick decision. I see my mastermind buddies making fast decisions all the time. We see an opportunity that we can sell, something that will genuinely help people, that there is a desire for and that people need, and we jump in quickly when we see that opportunity.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:05:36]:
So I’m really glad that I did it, but it did make me nervous. But like I said, I’m going to record a whole separate episode about more of the mindset and feeling side of this. So, yeah, there was not a big, long Runway to get this done. Unlike in Black Friday, when I did a daily deals kind of sale, I had a long Runway and there was a lot of work work to do. This time I made a decision and I kind of launched it within a couple of days of that decision. It felt scary for that reason as well, but it was actually very, very doable, thanks to the way that I used AI to support me to run the sale. And I’ve kind of joked that Claude ran my sale because it kind of did. Now, obviously, I did have to put work into it, and I’m never going to be that online business coach that pretends that I didn’t.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:06:25]:
But the work was so much easier, and it gave me like a dopamine hit. That meant it was easier in that sense as well, because of the way that I trained Claude to give me each step. Anyway, I’ll get into that now. So the three things that made a huge difference and that made this super doable in a much shorter period of time, especially compared to that Black Friday sale, where I had much more of a one Runway. And it still felt really, really overwhelming and such a huge job. So, number one, I often experience, and I know a lot of you will relate to this because there’s a lot of neurodivergent people in my world, I often experience real analysis paralysis when it comes to a big project, when it comes to something new that I’m making the decisions on, or when it comes to something that feels big and this, you know, ticks all of those boxes. It was a big new thing. So what I started with was a real brain dump into Claude.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:07:26]:
And obviously you could use any other AI tool for this. Of every single step that I could think of, that would be needed for each of the AI bots that I was going to sell in the spring skill sale. So the steps like, okay, find my original custom GPT version, build a skill of that custom GPT, test the new skill, create a sales page for the combined GPT and skill, create the checkout page for it, set up a redirect so that the sale version automatically redirects to the full price version, set up the deadline funnel countdown timer, upload the sales page to my website, write the email for that day that you can see. There is a lot of stuff involved in running a sale like this. And actually I should have said at the beginning I recorded a demo of how I did this. So if you’re a visual person and I’m going to share the process that I went through and if you would rather see it in my Claude account, you need to get in my quietly ambitious free school community which will be linked to from the show notes. Actually, let me get you the link. It is school.com forward/quietly ambitious or one word, no hyphens.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:08:37]:
Get in there. Because I did a show and tell where I literally shared my screen and shared some of what I’m about to say next. So from this brain dump, Claude turned it into a master plan. It was basically a revolution, really detailed process map and it mapped out not just the overall process, but it created a checklist for every single day of the sale for me from everything I said. And the best thing about this was it was a living document that could change. So obviously in my first brain dump, I didn’t remember everything. I would be going through one of the days of the sale and think, oh yeah, I forgot, I need to make a short link for the sales page that I linked to for my emails. Oh yeah, I need to make a, a tag in my in kit in my email software to tag the buyers.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:09:24]:
And I would have forgotten to say that in my initial brain dump. And then Claude would go and keep updating the master plan as we went. Each time I said I had done a step, it would update that in the master plan. If you watch the show and tell video in the group, you will see that this master plan actually looks quite complex and there are a lot of steps, but it actually simplified it so much for me in my head because it took all that stuff that would be messily arranged in my brain and I could just let it go and give it to Claude. And this is what I talk about when I say that AI is, is way more than content creation in Fact, I’m really careful about how I use it for writing for me, but it’s about doing stuff for you and taking over that cognitive load. That part of it is huge for me. And the way it would do it to me is that do it for me is that Claude would give me only one step at a time. So I asked Claude give me one step at a time, what is the one next step I need to take.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:10:18]:
And it would give me a step. And the key thing about this master plan as well was that it gave me links. So if Claude couldn’t do the thing itself, because Claude can do a lot of stuff itself automated, but if it was on a website or a tool that doesn’t have an integration with Claude, it would give me the link. So I’d be in the Claude chat, click the link, do the thing, come back to the chat and say done. And it would give me the next step one at a time. So that for my brain gave me a dopamine hit every single time. So it turned something from a really overwhelming big project that would cause analysis paralysis to tiny steps include that actually felt fun and gave me a huge dopamine hit and checked off the checklist every time. So important for people with lower capacity, neurodivergent humans, reducing the overwhelm that in itself, to have discovered this process for the way I work with my brain is going to change so much for me in the future.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:11:14]:
But that was only step number one. So the second thing that made the difference, and actually this is, this is the part that’s very, very important for me to say, because you might hear the headline of me saying I created all my sales pages and it was really quick and I outlined my emails and all of this. It really isn’t as simple as that. And if you just go into AI and ask it to make you sales pages and write your content and write your emails, you are not going to get great quality copy or design. So the reason that this worked the way it did for me as quickly as it did for me is that I had spent a few hours, couple of months ago really in detail, training Claude on my brand voice. And that doesn’t just mean my writing, it means my visual design, the structure of my sales pages, certain AI tells that I want it to avoid. I also trained it on my spoken voice and my voice in different contexts. So, for example, I, I write differently when I’m sharing a quick post in my community than I do when I’m sharing an email or when I’m writing a sales page.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:12:22]:
So I spent hours doing that. And this is the thing that I think a lot of people will skip because that doesn’t give you so much of a dopamine hit. That feels like the real work and it feels kind of boring and you want to get ahead and create the stuff. But. And I demoed this in the show and tell if you create something without this training, it’s going to be very generic and it’s going to sound the same and look the same as everyone else. And that is where we lose our edge. And I’ve always said this, but you are your unique magic and the selling point in your business. So we don’t want to lose that, we don’t want to dilute that.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:12:55]:
So the training is really, really important, but it is boring and it does take time and it does take a couple of hours, but that couple of hours up front is going to save you hundreds of hours down the line. And yeah, I totally get it if you have been avoiding it or you’ve done it a little bit, but it’s still not giving you the output you want, but you can’t be bothered to do the detailed training. I totally get it. I avoided it for ages too. But it’s really, really important, which is why next week on Thursday 28th May, I am running a workshop on building your signature AI brand. So this is not just some surface level train your AI to sound like you. It’s really, really detailed on all of the elements I mentioned. So it includes visuals as well as written stuff, different types of written stuff, structures of sales pages, removing those AI tells how do you speak, what matters to you and your business, what are your values, what your customers, all of that stuff.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:13:51]:
So I’m doing a workshop on that and that is the first workshop I’m doing as part of the Aligned AI Lab, which maybe I should just tell you about that now and then I’ll get to the shift three that that made this really doable for me after I tell you about it. Okay, so the Aligned AI Lab is my new offer to help you free up your capacity using AI. The absolute thing at the core of this offer is that it’s not just AI theory. It’s not about learning all the things about AI and giving you loads of prompts. It’s not about that. I am not an AI expert, so I’m not here to give you the AI theory. I am an online business expert who has been doing this for what, 18 years and that is the application that is the way I want to apply AI and for you to apply AI not as something to waste your time and get overwhelmed with, but to actually take over the stuff in your business and carry that cognitive load and the marketing load so that you have more time to go and sell more, reach more people, have more fun in your business and rest more. So you could read more about that@ruthpoundwhite.com forward/lab like I said, the first workshop is happening on Thursday.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:15:03]:
Of course there are replays. This is all about creating your signature AI brand so that we can do the exciting stuff afterwards like creating the sales pages, the free opt in pages, creating interactive freebies, creating paid offers, creating quizzes. All of this stuff we can do. But we gotta start with your signature AI brand. So every month I’m going to give you one of those things that I just reeled off. So month one is the signature AI brand, Month two is the sales pages, the opt in pages. Month three is the interactive tools, the freebies, paid offers. So that’s ruthpoundwhite.com forward/lab to read more about that.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:15:39]:
Now the really important thing about this is that there is founding only pricing. So at the time of release of the podcast, this is the best price you are ever going to get. The founding pricing ends on Tuesday the 26th, but you can still join after that. So if you, if you’ve missed that deadline, don’t worry because there’s still going to be a good deal for you. It’s just not going to be the founding pricing anymore. So highly encourage you to check it out now. I am so excited to share this. The reason that I have decided to do it as a membership is that AI is changing so fast.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:16:14]:
This is the way that I can keep us up to date and not on all the theory and all of the things that feel really overwhelming, but on the way that AI is actually going to help the bottom line of our business to save us capacity and to take over some of those marketing tasks for us. And if you don’t want to use it to write your content, because I know that that is a kind of deal breaker for some of you and I get it. I’m really careful with the way I use it in my content as well. Don’t worry, it’s not just about writing content. Like I said, I actually think there’s so much better things we can be doing with AI than just focusing on content. So yeah, RuthPoundWe.com.com lab and I’ll make sure that Link is in the Show Notes as well. Okay, so finally, the third thing that made this sale really, really doable. And actually this is a really, it’s a really simple thing, but I used my voice to type content back to Claude and Claude does have a voice mode.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:17:09]:
Chat GPT has a voice mode. I’d already been using those, but I found them kind of glitchy and less accurate. And what has actually changed the game for me in terms of speaking and turning that into text is software called Whisper Flow. So it’s W, I, S, P, R flow and I do have an affiliate link for that, that’s links.ruthpoundwhite.com forward slash L, forward slash Wisp, R. I’ll make sure that’s in the Show Notes as well. So, yeah, this is helpful for anything you’re doing. It’s not just limited to Claude. I’ve been using it in WhatsApp and, you know, to send emails and stuff like that as well.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:17:45]:
But the what, the way it really comes into its own and saves me so much time and energy is when I’m editing longer things like sales pages. So basically you’ll have Claude generate a page and you’ll just have the page open, turn on Whisper Flow and just read and talk through your thoughts on the page. Oh, I don’t like the way this bit sounds. Or oh, can you give me some mockups for that header? Because it doesn’t look quite how I want it to look. So give me some ideas and then I’ll pick just things like that. And then Whisper Flow is much more accurate, I find, at transcribing your spoken voice. And it’s just so much faster than typing, so much less overwhelming, especially when you’re tired. And it’s also great for training the AI to sound like you because you’re literally speaking as well.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:18:34]:
So it’s a really, really simple one. But actually one of the biggest things I have done to reduce my overwhelm and improve my productivity over the last few months. So that’s Whisper Flow and I’ll make sure to put the link in the Show Notes. So, yeah, that is how I ran this sale with so much less time and energy. It has changed so much for me. I’m going to share loads of the actual step by step. So I’ve shared with you what I’ve done, but if you join the lab, I will share how to do it step by step as well as what I’m doing. And don’t forget to check out the lab@ruthpoundwright.com lab and yeah, whether you join the lab or not, I really hope that this has been helpful for you.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:19:16]:
I hope that you can allow AI to take off some of that cognitive load, especially if you are low capacity or neurodivergent. And I’ll catch you again next week for that promised episode on some of the feelings around selling things in a different way or selling things that are different to the things we normally sell. 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@ruthpoundwhite.com community or my personal favorite, join me inside the Soulful Sales association society membership@ruthpoundwhite.com membership and keep doing what you’re doing because your work really does matter.