This morning, sipping coffee with my face in the sun, I had a little bit of a lightbulb moment - nothing too revolutionary. Just a slightly clunky, half-awake realisation of why selling just for the sake of selling feels cringe, like, properly cringe. I think it’s because the word “sales” has always conjured this very specific image in my head: some slick balding guy in a shiny, slightly-too-tight suit, trying to offload a lemon of a car he swears is a ‘bargain’. It's pushy, it's performative and it's the absolute antithesis of everything I want to be. And yet, here I am, running a business where selling is a big part of the damn job. If I want to pay my bills, I have to sell my service.

But here’s the kicker: I don’t actually think it’s selling that feels gross, it’s what I’ve attached to it. Somewhere along the line, I internalised this warped idea that selling meant manipulating people. That it was all smoke and mirrors and overly enthusiastic hand gestures. But when you strip it right back? Selling is just communicating value to someone who might actually need what you can offer, it’s telling your story, it’s helping people. It’s saying, “Hey, I can do this thing and I think it could genuinely make your life a little easier, better, smoother, less chaotic.” And that? That doesn’t feel gross. That feels kind of… beautiful?

The funny thing is, I see this same hang-up in so many of my clients. They're obsessed (in the best way) with their idea, they’ve poured all of the brain space, late-night panics, every dollar into it. But the moment they have to sell it? They shrink, they mumble and they say things like, “I’m just not good at that part” or “I don’t want to come off too pushy” or my favourite “I’ll annoy my friends that are only following me to support me”.

Here’s the truth: if you believe in what you’ve created, and if you know it has the power to help someone then NOT sharing it is actually the bigger disservice. You don’t have to be a walking billboard about your business, you just have to be honest, and show up, and explain why what you’ve built matters and how it helps people.

So yeah, selling for the sake of sales? Cringe. But selling because you care? That’s powerful. That’s real. That’s what people actually connect with.

Big love,
Ally

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Alleyway Designs is currently bouncing between Vancouver Island, Canada & Fremantle, Western Australia. We acknowledge and pay respect to the Lkwungen People and the Whadjuk People, the traditional custodians of both lands on which we work. Always was, always will be.

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