232: How to Use AI to Sell More Without Sounding Like a Robot

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I know how overwhelming AI can feel—like everyone else has it all figured out while you're just trying to write one decent email that actually sounds like you. But what if I told you there's a way to make AI work for your business in a way that feels aligned, authentic, and even energizing?

In this episode, I’m chatting with Ruth Poundwhite—visibility, sales, and mindset coach, author of Quietly Ambitious, and host of the Soulful Sales Show. Ruth opens up about her journey from being terrified of visibility to confidently leading a business that supports over 7,000 entrepreneurs. 

What really struck me is how she’s using AI not just to get more done, but to honor her energy, especially as someone navigating chronic fatigue and probable neurodivergence.

We talk about how AI can reduce overwhelm, help you sell more (yes, really!), and stay connected to your voice and values. Ruth also shares behind-the-scenes of how she’s using custom GPTs, plus her exact workflow for making AI feel more human and more helpful.

What You’ll Learn:

• How Ruth overcame deep visibility fears and found her voice

• A mindset shift to help you stop feeling “behind” on AI

• Ruth’s step-by-step process for making AI sound like you

• Ways to use AI to support executive function and reduce overwhelm

• How custom GPTs are helping her make confident decisions faster

• Using AI to sell more and create better support systems for your clients

• What to expect from her upcoming Aligned AI Summit

If AI has felt like too much, or too impersonal, this episode will change how you see it. 

Ruth’s perspective is exactly what so many of us need right now: compassionate, strategic, and incredibly practical. Take a listen and start seeing AI as the support tool it was meant to be.

Mentioned in this episode:

Where to find Ruth: Website and Podcast

Ruth's free gift: AI Shortcut Generator GPT

Get your free ticket: Aligned AI Summit

Creating Aligned Sales Systems with AI (Without Losing Your Voice)

When I first dipped my toes into the world of AI, I felt overwhelmed, skeptical, and completely out of my depth. It felt like yet another "must-do" in the fast-moving world of online business—and the pressure to figure it out fast was real. But what if AI didn’t have to feel like another chore? What if it could actually become a supportive partner in your business—especially when you’re juggling low energy, self-doubt, or simply a full plate?

In this post, I’m diving into my recent conversation with Ruth Poundwhite, an inspiring coach who helps heart-led entrepreneurs grow their visibility, sales, and mindset. Ruth is also the author of Quietly Ambitious and host of the Soulful Sales Show—and her take on AI is refreshingly human. In our chat, we unpacked how AI can help you sell more, work less, and most importantly, stay true to your voice.

From Fear to Empowerment: Ruth’s Visibility Journey

Ruth’s story is one that will resonate with many. Back in 2008, she started her online business journey as a copywriter, but she never felt aligned with traditional ways of doing business. Like many of us, she carried deep self-doubt. At one point, she couldn’t even bring herself to show her face in a profile picture—let alone do a podcast interview or get on a Zoom call.

Fast forward to today, Ruth is confidently leading her business, coaching thousands, and speaking publicly with clarity and warmth. Her journey to visibility wasn’t overnight—it was built through mindset work, honoring her neurodivergence, and learning how to work with, not against, her chronic fatigue.

Her mission now? To help others find their voice, too—and to show how AI can actually be a part of that journey.

The Mindset Shift That Changed Everything

When ChatGPT first came on the scene, Ruth felt the pressure like many of us. “It felt like everyone was rushing to figure it out,” she says. “And I just couldn’t handle one more thing.”

But instead of staying stuck in overwhelm, Ruth reframed her approach. She stopped seeing AI as a skill she had to master and started viewing it as a tool that could support her brain, her energy, and her creative process.

This shift changed everything. She began using AI not to replace her, but to act as a thought partner—a way to work through decision fatigue, executive dysfunction, and the paralysis of too many ideas.

How to Make AI Sound Like You

One of the biggest barriers for business owners using AI is the fear that it just won’t sound authentic. We’ve all seen those stiff, robotic social media posts and cringeworthy emails that clearly came from ChatGPT with zero editing. Ruth knew she needed something different.

So, she created a system that would help her train AI to write in her voice.

Step 1: Gather your best content—top-performing emails, Instagram captions, or blog posts.

Step 2: Upload that content into ChatGPT and ask it to analyze your tone, structure, and style.

Step 3: Save that analysis as your "brand voice" document.

Step 4: Upload your sales page and audience insights, and tell AI what offer you’re promoting.

Step 5: Now give it specific prompts: “Write 5 launch emails in my voice that speak to X pain point.”

This small shift—giving AI the context it needs—results in outputs that sound more like you and less like a generic sales robot. And the best part? You don’t need a custom GPT to do this (though it can help).

Using AI to Sell More (Without Selling Out)

Ruth now uses AI every day to write emails faster, brainstorm content ideas, and even map out launch strategies. And while she was already a confident copywriter, she found that AI helped her get started more quickly—and saved her precious energy.

She’s also built a custom GPT that acts like a strategic co-pilot. Earlier this year, she recorded a long voice note outlining her goals for 2024. She uploaded the transcript, her sales data, and offer list into ChatGPT. Now when she’s trying to decide what to launch or focus on, she has a smart assistant that gently reminds her of her original priorities. It’s like a built-in business coach that never forgets what matters to you.

“If we can make decisions faster and get things out there, we can learn faster and grow faster,” Ruth says. “AI helps me do that.”

Using AI for Member Support and Retention

Selling more is only part of the equation. Ruth also uses AI to support and retain her community. One powerful use case? Member onboarding forms.

When new members join her programs, they fill out a form that includes their goals and reasons for signing up. In the past, that data just sat in a spreadsheet. But now, Ruth runs it through ChatGPT to identify patterns, tailor content, and improve her support. She even uses that language to tweak her sales copy and messaging.

It’s one of the simplest—and most impactful—ways to turn qualitative data into personalized service (and smarter marketing).

Aligned AI Summit: What’s Next

Ruth is on a mission to help more entrepreneurs embrace AI in a way that feels good. That’s why she created the Aligned AI Summit, a virtual event running September 8–10. I’ll be speaking there too!

This isn’t your typical tech-heavy AI event. It’s designed for heart-led business owners who want to save time, increase income, and stay connected to their message and values. The summit includes:

• Mindset and thought leadership sessions on how to feel confident using AI

• Practical walkthroughs of real AI workflows (like Ruth’s email process)

• Examples of how to use AI to amplify—not dilute—your unique voice

If you’ve been curious about AI but unsure where to start (or how to make it sound like you), this summit is for you.

Final Thoughts: AI as a Co-Creator

At the end of the day, AI is just a tool. It can’t replace your stories, your lived experience, or your intuition. But it can support you in showing up more consistently, making quicker decisions, and freeing up energy to do the things only you can do.

If you’ve ever felt behind or unsure about AI, Ruth’s journey is proof that you don’t have to learn it all. You just have to take the next step—and do it in a way that works for you.

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Transcript:

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Creator's MBA podcast, your go-to resource for mastering the art and science of digital product entrepreneurship. My name is Dr. Destini Copp and I help business owners generate consistent revenue from their digital product business without the need to be glued to their desk, constantly live launching, or worrying about the social media algorithms.

My special guest today is Ruth Poundwhite. Ruth is a visibility, sales, and mindset coach supporting heart-led and ambitious business owners. She's the author of the book Quietly Ambitious and host of the Soulful Sales Show podcast. Through her courses, Ruth has helped over 7,000 online business owners work through their self-doubt and increase their sales and income in a way that honors their energy, values, and personality.

Ruth, I’m super excited to be chatting with you today. I know everyone’s going to love the topic we're discussing. Before we dive into all the questions I have for you, can you tell the audience a little more about yourself and how you help people?

Thank you for that lovely introduction, Destini. I’m really excited to be here as well. I’ve been on a long and winding journey, so I’ll give you the short version. I first started an online business in 2008. I used to work as a copywriter and didn’t vibe with a lot of traditional business methods. I thought there was something wrong with me for a very long time.

After a lot of inner work and self-discovery, I now help people do business their way. Back then, I had a massive interest in business but tons of self-doubt. I would never have done a podcast interview or shown my face. I didn’t even have a profile picture that clearly showed my face—I was so scared. That’s a big part of why I do what I do.

Now, I’ve also realized I’m probably neurodivergent and I’ve been managing chronic fatigue since around 2020. It’s not severe, but it comes and goes, and my capacity is significantly reduced. I often think I wouldn’t be able to work in a traditional job, especially now. That’s a big part of my mission—helping people who need to accommodate themselves in the way they work.

We all have issues, even if we think we don’t, and I think everyone listening can relate to that. I didn’t know all of that about you. For those listening, Ruth and I know each other quite well—we’re in a peer mastermind together—but I didn’t realize you once avoided Zoom calls or didn’t have a visible profile picture.

Yes, I was terrified. I wouldn’t even do a Zoom call, let alone a podcast interview.

You’ve come a long way! One of the things we’re going to talk about today is your upcoming Aligned AI Summit, but before we get there, I want to explore how AI has helped you with the challenges you’ve described. How are you using it, and how has it helped you?

First, I want to say that I was incredibly overwhelmed when ChatGPT first came out. I describe myself as sensitive, and this rush to explore AI tools felt like too much. I tried it early on when it was still basic and wasn’t impressed. It felt like another thing I had to learn, like a new social platform, and I couldn’t handle it.

But eventually, something clicked. I realized this was here to stay and moving fast. I didn’t have to keep up with everything, but I could explore how it might help me take one step forward.

What really helped was using it as a support for executive functioning. I struggle with starting tasks and get analysis paralysis. Just chatting with AI—even just to sort out thoughts—helped me decide where to take my next step. That was a huge mindset shift for me: AI isn’t something I have to use, it’s something that can support me.

That mindset shift is huge. So many people feel behind with AI, but approaching it from a place of support instead of stress changes everything. I recently heard someone say they weren’t using AI because it didn’t sound like them. She tried it for copywriting and gave up because it felt too generic. But I know you’ve done a lot of work on getting it to sound like you. How do you do that?

That was another reason I abandoned it at first—it sounded so generic. We’ve all seen those robotic posts. I totally get using it as a shortcut, but we need to inject our personality. Especially for those of us who are the brand, our personality is the magic.

I use ChatGPT all the time for copy, but I never take it as-is. It’s all about specificity. These tools guess what we want based on what we ask. There’s no perfect prompt system, but we need more than “write me an email about X.” That’s too generic.

Here’s what I tell people: take your top-performing emails or social posts and copy them into a doc. Upload that to ChatGPT and ask it to analyze your writing. Do it separately for different formats (emails vs. social). Ask it to summarize your voice, and save that as your brand voice doc.

Then, upload your offer’s sales page and tell it about your audience. Next time you need to write an email, say: "Act as an expert email copywriter. Here’s my voice. Here’s my audience. Here’s the offer. Give me five email ideas." You’re giving it so much context to create something aligned.

That’s very similar to what I do. I’ve created a custom GPT trained on my voice, and I use it for my newsletter. For example, I recently shared a story about an app I launched in November 2022—right when ChatGPT came out. I had to pivot fast. I gave that story to my custom GPT, and it helped me shape it into a newsletter. Super helpful.

Yes! That story piece is key. Even with all the voice training, AI won’t know your personal experiences unless you share them. I’ll sometimes have ChatGPT ask me questions to help dig out a personal story or example. That’s when the magic happens.

Now, let’s switch gears a bit. I know you’re using AI to help you sell more. Can you share some of your tips?

Absolutely. My email custom GPT is probably my most used AI tool. It saves me so much time—even though I actually love writing emails. And I firmly believe many business owners need to send more emails.

I’ve also built another custom GPT for strategy. At the start of the year, I recorded a massive voice note walking through my business goals. I transcribed it, uploaded it along with all my 2024 sales data, and let ChatGPT analyze everything. Now, I use it to make decisions. If I’m unsure what to launch next, it reminds me of my goals and keeps me focused. It’s like a strategic co-pilot.

Another powerful use: member retention. I used to ignore onboarding form data, but now I run it through AI to analyze what people want from my membership. That informs my support strategy and my marketing messaging.

You’ve given us so much to think about. Before we wrap, tell us about the Aligned AI Summit.

The Aligned AI Summit starts September 8. You’ll be there as a speaker, Destini! The summit is all about using AI in a way that supports you as a human. It’s for people who want to save time and energy, boost income, and stay authentic.

We’ll cover mindset and thought leadership, specific AI use cases, and ways to keep the heart in your business. It’s going to be amazing.

And where can people find you?

Visit my website at ruthpoundwhite.com. Check out my podcast, The Soulful Sales Show, and grab my free custom GPT at ruthpoundwhite.com/aishortcutgpt.

Ruth, thanks for being here. I’ll make sure all those links are in the show notes. Looking forward to your summit!

Thanks for listening to the end. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d love a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite platform. Have a great day!