How Selling Builds Your “Receiving Muscle” – A Mindset Makeover for Heart-Centered Entrepreneurs
If you’re a coach, healer, or service provider who loves to give, but cringes at “hard sales,” you’re not alone—and you’re in the right place. Annie P. Ruggles joined host Naketa Ren Thigpen and together they delivered pure gold about reframing sales from something sleazy to a profound act of self-care and business growth.
Let’s expand a brilliantly simple yet transformative concept from the show: Selling as an Opportunity for Receiving. Grab your pen—this is the mindset shift that might finally unlock your earning potential (and your joy).
The Sale Is Not a Sin–It’s an Invitation to Receive
If you’ve ever felt exhausted from “giving and giving and giving,” wondering when the universe will reward your generosity, Annie P. Ruggles knows your pain. She shares:
“I was so anti that sleaze and anti that arm twisting that for years without even really thinking about it, in my business... I just wouldn't sell at all. I would just...market deliver, deliver, deliver. Problem solve, problem solve, problem solve...And that is a really awesome way to accrue fans, and it is a really awesome way to magnetize taker people to you. And it is an absolutely terrible way to sustain a business or to grow your impact or your dream.”
Here’s the truth bomb:
“Selling is just opening yourself up to the art of receiving, that’s it...if I could teach people how to ask and receive as themselves and to feel so lit up in that receiving that they go and seek out more of it, then we're going to have heart centered, mission driven, ethics intense businesses not only compete, but thrive.” – Annie P. Ruggles
Unlocking the “Receiving Muscle” in Sales
Most helpers and healers have superb giving muscles—but atrophied receiving muscles. Naketa Ren Thigpen catches the importance right away:
“Selling is an opportunity for receiving—that is such a mind shift...what personal development lesson do I personally get, selfishly, when I step into selling? I get to work on my receiving muscle and I get to build that.”
Let’s expand this philosophy:
Receiving isn’t greedy—it’s essential to your business survival and energy.
Receiving models healthy boundaries for your clients, team, and even your family.
The exchange is not just money: as
Annie P. Ruggles
puts it, “My definition of sales is the art of exchanging problem solving for money.” If we could pay the mortgage with “goats or macrame,” we would—but monetary compensation is what allows you to keep serving, keep giving.
Why Selling Prevents Burnout and Resentment
Here’s where “giving without receiving” goes wrong—not just for your revenue, but for your wellbeing.
“You can't pour from an empty cup. I didn't know what that meant until I realized that serving without selling is martyrdom.” – Annie P. Ruggles
That’s why so many generous business owners get resentful:
“I would feel building resentment toward the people I was helping because our relationship was unbalanced…I am blocking my ability to say, I have a gift to the world that is my privilege to share. And in exchange for that, I'm going to be compensated so that I can continue to sustain myself, to build a lifestyle that I want for my small family, to pay the team that allows me to put my good work out into the world and to grow to greater heights.” – Annie P. Ruggles
Ready to Build Your Receiving Muscle? Here’s The Practice:
When you ask for the sale, referral, or testimonial, you are not “take, take, taking.” You are:
Honoring your worth
Enabling further service (for your team, your purpose, your family)
Keeping your passion alive
Modeling healthy boundaries to your clients
Practice today:
Ask for what you need. Receive it. Let your business—and impact—grow boldly.
Share this mindset with fellow helpers. There’s no badge of shame in balanced, reciprocal relationships (fans are not clients, and love does not pay the bills).
“You have to be willing to both ask and receive for what you want. And then the balance can come.” – Annie P. Ruggles
Sales isn’t a dirty word. It’s the art of empowered, ethical receiving. Flex that muscle—you were built for it.
Credit Where It’s Due:
Real talk and quotable wisdom from Annie P. Ruggles on the “Balanced Boldly” podcast hosted by Naketa Ren Thigpen
