128. Stop Avoiding the Ask and Start Selling with Annie Ruggles

Without sales, you don't have a business. But the resistance to selling is fierce among small business owners, particularly in the helping professions. (I'm looking at you, therapists and coaches!)   There's too much frantic posting on social media, trying to be everywhere, and creating content for the sake of creating content. Where's the ask? Where's the solving of your audience's problems?   This week on the podcast, my friend Annie Ruggles is sharing her energy and insight into pulling back and being more intentional with your time on social media. We talk about pushing your comfort zone, letting go of bad sales practices, creating sustainability in our marketing, re-aligning our expectations, and what we should be asking for when we create content.   We don't have energy for everything and we shouldn't try. Tune in now! About Annie Ruggles: For over a decade, Annie P. has harnessed her Hulk-like disdain for hard-sales, tacky self-promotion, and overly competitive sleazeballs as inspiration to help people find better ways to grow their small business. As Founder of The Non-Sleazy Sales Academy, she's guided hundreds of people toward making deeper connections, lasting impressions, and friendlier, more lucrative transactions and conversations. Her pride and joy is her podcast, Too Legitimate to Quit: Instantly Actionable Small Business Strategies with a Pop Culture Spin. Visit her website and follow her on Instagram. Links and Resources: Join the Inner Circle Listen to Amber on the Too Legitimate to Quit podcast Time Stamps: [3:45] - Annie's super special secret power [4:57] - There's a premium to selling with authenticity [8:08] - Market in a way that loses the fluff [9:01] - Have fun in marketing but overall people are looking to have problems solved [10:53] - People are having fun with Reels and they're loosening up a bit [13:32] - Amber is qualified as a dance party starter [17:03] - Know, like, trust is important; it's just incomplete [19:16] - Spray and pray marketing - all the things you're doing to increase brand awareness is an experiment but you have to do it in a controlled way [21:33] - Instead of trying all the methods of marketing, try all the methods of asking [22:55] - The difference between feeling like you have to do all the things and thoughtfully choosing to experiment [23:28] - Podcasting is a long game; you have to give things time [26:02] - Asking in all the ways we can ask [27:02] - Find your own sales voice [30:01] - Sales avoidance in a caring profession [33:01] - You have a finite amount of energy and excessive experimentation is depleting your account of time and energy [34:34] - The best advice for marketing