Women That Sell

Hosted by Riley May

Business EducationInterviews guests

Website RSS feed

Episodes

Latest episode

May 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

You've built the skills, now it's time to make them convert. Women That Sell is where high-level female founders master the psychology behind modern sales, content that actually moves people and positioning that makes buying feel obvious. This is the intersection of strategy, identity and intelligent marketing, built for women who are done leaving money on the table. Hosted by Riley May, founder of Women That Sell.

Listen to episodes

33 recent

May 24, 202627 min

The Masculine and the Feminine in Business: Why High-Achieving Women Are Exhausted and What to Do About It

Most high-achieving women in business are running on one energy and calling it a strategy. Either everything is controlled, systematised and forceful and creativity has quietly left the building. Or everything is inspired and fluid and nothing is consistent enough to compound. This episode is about what's actually underneath both patterns, why your business needs masculine and feminine energy in equal measure and what it looks like to build a container strong enough that you can finally stop holding everything together yourself and start creating something worth building.In This EpisodeWhy masculine and feminine are energies not genders and why that distinction matters for how you run your businessThe two patterns I see most often in high-achieving women: hyper-masculine and hyper-feminine, and what each one is actually costing youWhy the structure in your business is the masculine, the container that makes the feminine possible and what that looks like practicallyWhat happens to creativity when you are in control of everything, and why the most inspired thinking requires you to relinquish some of that controlWhy flow without structure doesn't build a business, it builds a beautiful messWhat your masculine container actually looks like in a service-based business: systems, automation, onboarding, sales processes, financial trackingWhy business doesn't have to be forceful and what it looks like when it's built more like a garden than a construction projectHow to diagnose which energy is running your business right now and what to do about itContinue the ConversationJoin ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Lounge⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Free community with resources, conversations, and tools for women building powerful businesses.Explore ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Women That Sell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ My flagship program for women scaling their businesses with integrity and modern sales.Download ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Why People Watch But Never Buy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The 22-minute audio training + Content Conversion Audit. $37 AUD.Follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Riley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Instagram Daily thoughts and behind-the-scenes on business, sales, and everything in between.Follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Women That Sell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Instagram Sales insights, content strategy and lessons on buyer psychology.Book Riley for ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Speaking or Podcast Interviews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For guest speaking, collaborations or podcast interviews.

May 17, 202620 min

The Reason Your Business Feels Busy But Isn't Growing (And What Actually Generates Income Today)

Most women in business aren't actually focused on making money. They're focused on everything that feels like business the branding, planning, content, refining and wondering why the revenue isn't following. This episode is a direct look at the pattern I see most often in service-based businesses and exactly what to do instead. If you've been busy but not profitable, this one is for you. Walk away with a clear, actionable list of the things you can do today not next week not after the rebrand to start generating income in your business right now.In This EpisodeWhy most women in service-based businesses are focused on everything except the things that actually generate incomeThe difference between activities that feel productive and activities that produce revenue and how to tell them apartWhy online business is structurally simple, and how we get in our own way by overcomplicating itThe specific actions you can take today to start generating a result in your business and by result, I mean incomeWhy distraction in business isn't laziness, it's often a way of avoiding the discomfort of doing the things that will actually workHow this connects to sales as a skill, and why learning to sell is the single most high-leverage thing a service provider can invest inContinue the ConversationJoin ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Lounge⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Free community with resources, conversations, and tools for women building powerful businesses.Explore ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Women That Sell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ My flagship program for women scaling their businesses with integrity and modern sales.Download ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Why People Watch But Never Buy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The 22-minute audio training + Content Conversion Audit. $37 AUD.Follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Riley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Instagram Daily thoughts and behind-the-scenes on business, sales, and everything in between.Follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Women That Sell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Instagram Sales insights, content strategy and lessons on buyer psychology.Book Riley for ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Speaking or Podcast Interviews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For guest speaking, collaborations or podcast interviews.

May 10, 202617 min

Three Weeks In: My Honest Postpartum Update, What I'm Feeling and How I'm Navigating Early Motherhood

I'm two and a half weeks postpartum, and I'm back. This is a Beyond the Business episode a real one. Not a curated update but an honest account of what these first weeks have actually looked like: the birth that didn't go to plan, a recovery that has been more than I anticipated and a very deliberate choice I've made about where my attention is going to live in this season. I also want to name something I've noticed consistently from conception through pregnancy and into postpartum that I think deserves to be said out loud.In This EpisodeWhy every positive experience seems to get met with a negative and what I think is actually happening thereHow I'm applying "pain is inevitable, suffering is optional" in the most literal season of my lifeThe difference between the pain that's real and the suffering you choose to add on top of itWhat I'm actually doing day-to-day to support myself through early postpartum practically, physically, and mentallyWhy no one else's experience, positive or negative, is a prediction for yours, and why going inward is the most powerful thing you can do in this seasonWhat's coming: the full birth story episode with my partner, including your Instagram questions answeredDownload ⁠⁠Why People Watch But Never Buy⁠⁠ the 22-minute audio training covering the five stages of buyer awareness and the content infrastructure that creates warm, ready buyers before the conversation starts. Includes the Content Conversion Audit. $37 AUD.Continue the ConversationJoin ⁠⁠⁠⁠The Lounge⁠⁠⁠⁠ Free community with resources, conversations, and tools for women building powerful businesses.Explore ⁠⁠⁠⁠Women That Sell⁠⁠⁠⁠ My flagship program for women scaling their businesses with integrity and modern sales.Download ⁠⁠⁠⁠Why People Watch But Never Buy⁠⁠⁠⁠ The 22-minute audio training + Content Conversion Audit. $37 AUD.Follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠Riley⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Instagram Daily thoughts and behind-the-scenes on business, sales, and everything in between.Follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠Women That Sell⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Instagram Sales insights, content strategy and lessons on buyer psychology.Book Riley for ⁠⁠⁠⁠Speaking or Podcast Interviews⁠⁠⁠⁠ For guest speaking, collaborations or podcast interviews.

April 26, 202626 min

You Can or You Won't: The Truth About Discipline That No One Wants to Say Out Loud

There is a version of you that already knows exactly what she needs to do. She knows what time to get up, what she said she was going to work on, what she promised herself last Sunday when she was in her planning energy. And then Monday comes. And she negotiates. This episode is about discipline as identitynot as a behaviour you force, but as a decision about who you are. When you make that shift, follow-through stops feeling like a fight and starts feeling like just... who you are.In This EpisodeWhy discipline isn't a resource you have or don't have—it's a relationship you build with yourselfThe difference between a genuine reason and a pattern (and why you already know which one it is)Standards as a decision, not a feeling and why what you tolerate from yourself matters more than what you tolerate from othersHow proximity shapes your discipline (and why who you spend time with is a discipline strategy)Why follow-through becomes addictive when you make it about identity not effortDownload ⁠Why People Watch But Never Buy⁠ the 22-minute audio training covering the five stages of buyer awareness and the content infrastructure that creates warm, ready buyers before the conversation starts. Includes the Content Conversion Audit. $37 AUD.Continue the ConversationJoin ⁠⁠⁠The Lounge⁠⁠⁠ Free community with resources, conversations, and tools for women building powerful businesses.Explore ⁠⁠⁠Women That Sell⁠⁠⁠ My flagship program for women scaling their businesses with integrity and modern sales.Download ⁠⁠⁠Why People Watch But Never Buy⁠⁠⁠ The 22-minute audio training + Content Conversion Audit. $37 AUD.Follow ⁠⁠⁠Riley⁠⁠⁠ on Instagram Daily thoughts and behind-the-scenes on business, sales, and everything in between.Follow ⁠⁠⁠Women That Sell⁠⁠⁠ on Instagram Sales insights, content strategy and lessons on buyer psychology.Book Riley for ⁠⁠⁠Speaking or Podcast Interviews⁠⁠⁠ For guest speaking, collaborations or podcast interviews.

April 19, 202626 min

The Conversion Series Part Four: The Skill That Makes Every Business Strategy Work Better

Every strategy you have ever invested in would have worked better if you'd had the skill we're talking about in this episode. Every content course. Every launch program. Every coaching container. Not because those investments were wrong most of them had genuine value. But all of them would have produced more consistent, more significant, more durable results if they'd been built on a foundation of sales skill. Specifically, the understanding of how buyers actually make decisions. This is the episode that brings the full picture together.In This EpisodeThis is the final episode in a four-part series, and it's where everything converges. I make the case for sales skill as the foundational layer beneath every business strategy, the one that makes all the others more effective, that compounds with every use, that doesn't expire when the algorithm changes or the market shifts. I cover what the full skill looks like when it's developed, where Women That Sell fits in, and where to start if this series has been your first real introduction to buyer psychology applied to your content and sales.Why strategy without skill produces temporary results and what changes when the underlying skill is in placeThree concrete examples of the same business activity (content, sales conversations, launches) without and with buyer psychology skill and the difference it producesWhy skill compounds while strategy expires and what that means for the long-term value of developing this understandingWhy the psychology of human decision-making doesn't change when platforms, algorithms, or markets shift and why that makes this skill the most durable investment you can makeThe full picture of what sales skill looks like when it's developed, across content, sales conversations, offer design, positioning, and launchesAn honest introduction to Women That Sell and the entry training, where to start and what to expectListener ReflectionIf you accepted that sales skill, genuine buyer psychology, was the foundational layer beneath every strategy you've ever tried, what would that mean for your next investment in your business? What would you prioritise?Looking back at everything you've invested in over the last two to three years, can you see places where the skill we've been discussing was missing? Where you had the strategy but not the understanding of why it was supposed to work?What would your business look and feel like in twelve months if you spent the next year genuinely developing this skill not implementing a new strategy, but developing the understanding that makes all your strategies work better?Mentioned in This EpisodeDownload Why People Watch But Never Buy the entry point to everything I teach. A 22-minute audio training on the five stages of buyer awareness plus the Content Conversion Audit to map your own content and build your next five posts. $37 AUD. Instant delivery.

April 19, 202635 min

The Unspoken Factor That's Stopping You From Making More Money In Your Business

You're doing all the "right" things, the strategy, the offer, the content but something still feels off. You're exhausted from performing online, constantly activated, constantly triggered, barely regulated because deep down you know you're not actually being who you say you are. This episode is about congruence: the alignment between who you say you are and who you actually are. And why that gap is costing you money.In This EpisodeWhat congruence actually is (and what it costs you when you don't have it)The 4 ways we become incongruent and why teaching something you're not living creates a ceiling you can't break throughHow incongruence drains your energy, kills your magnetism and undermines your authorityThe 6 steps to becoming congruent from getting radically honest to cleaning up your private leadershipWhat actually changes when you stop performing and start being realContinue the ConversationJoin ⁠The Lounge⁠ Free community with resources, conversations, and tools for women building powerful businesses.Explore ⁠Women That Sell⁠ My flagship program for women scaling their businesses with integrity and modern sales.Download the Instagram Invite Strategies The exact framework for turning conversations into clients through Instagram.Follow ⁠Riley⁠ on Instagram Daily thoughts and behind-the-scenes on business, pregnancy and everything in between.Follow ⁠Women That Sell⁠ on Instagram Sales insights, client conversation and lessons on sales psychology.Book Riley for ⁠Speaking or Podcast⁠ Interviews For guest speaking, collaborations or podcast interviews.

April 5, 202621 min

The Conversion Series Part Three: What Selling Without Pressure Actually Looks Like

Most women in this industry have been told, explicitly or implicitly, that selling is something you have to get comfortable tolerating. That it will always feel a little uncomfortable, a little at odds with the generous, service-oriented version of yourself you want to be in your business. This episode offers a different possibility. Selling, done from genuine understanding rather than technique, can feel like one of the most natural things you do. Not a performance. Not a closing move. A genuine conversation between two people where one of them understands the territory better than the other and uses that understanding in service of the person in front of them.In This EpisodeIn this episode, I describe in specific terms what selling feels like when you understand how buyers actually make decisions, the state you're in, what you're attending to, why conversations close at the rate they do. And I connect it to the thing that makes it possible: the content ecosystem that creates warm, stage-ready buyers before the conversation ever starts.What a sales conversation feels like from the inside when you're operating from understanding rather than technique and why it looks like confidence from the outsideThe difference between a stage two buyer and a stage five buyer in a sales conversation and why that difference determines almost everything about how the conversation feelsWhy a 90% close rate is a comprehension achievement, not a confidence achievementHow the content ecosystem you build determines the state of the buyer who arrives at your conversations and why this is where ease in selling actually beginsThe philosophy underneath non-pushy selling, why controlling the outcome of a conversation is a trust problem, and what presence looks like insteadWhy selling from genuine understanding consistently produces better clients, not just more clientsListener ReflectionWhen you think about your sales conversations right now can you identify the difference in the state of the buyer who walked in? Was she stage two or stage five?What would it mean for your day-to-day experience of your business if your sales conversations felt natural, easy, and relational? How would that change how you felt about inviting people to work with you?Is there a belief you've been carrying about selling, that this episode might have shifted even slightly?Mentioned in This EpisodeDownload Why People Watch But Never Buy the 22-minute audio training covering the five stages of buyer awareness and the content infrastructure that creates warm, ready buyers before the conversation starts. Includes the Content Conversion Audit. $37 AUD.Join ⁠⁠The Lounge⁠⁠ Free community with resources, conversations, and tools for women building powerful businesses.Explore ⁠⁠Women That Sell⁠⁠ My flagship program for women scaling their businesses with integrity and modern sales.Download ⁠⁠Why People Watch But Never Buy⁠⁠ The 22-minute audio training + Content Conversion Audit. $37 AUD.Follow ⁠⁠Riley⁠⁠ on Instagram Daily thoughts and behind-the-scenes on business, sales, and everything in between.Follow ⁠⁠Women That Sell⁠⁠ on Instagram Sales insights, content strategy and lessons on buyer psychology.Book Riley for ⁠⁠Speaking or Podcast Interviews⁠⁠ For guest speaking, collaborations or podcast interviews.

March 29, 202623 min

The Conversion Series Part Two: The Misdiagnosis That's Keeping Capable Women Stuck

You've tried posting more consistently. You've rebranded. You've niched down further. You've adjusted your pricing. You've invested in programs that were supposed to fix it. And still, six months later, the conversion gap is basically the same and the self-doubt is heavier than it was before. This episode is about why. Not because you made bad decisions or chose the wrong solutions, but because every single one of those attempts was solving the wrong problem. And until the right problem is named, no solution will stick.In this episode, I walk through the five most common misdiagnoses women reach for when their content isn't converting and explain, clearly and without judgment, why each one fails to address the real cause. The real cause is always a buyer psychology problem. And once you see that, everything you've already invested in starts to make a different kind of sense.In This EpisodeThe five most common misdiagnoses women try when they're not converting and why each one addresses the wrong layerWhy posting more consistently doesn't fix conversion when the content itself isn't serving the buyer journeyWhat rebranding, niche clarity, and pricing adjustments actually do and what they can't doWhy investing in more programs often produces the same result as the last one, and what's structurally missing from most of themThe difference between a visibility problem and a buyer psychology problem and why they require completely different solutionsWhy none of your past investments were wasted and what they become once the missing layer is in placeListener ReflectionWhich of the five misdiagnoses have you tried? Not as a criticism of past decisions but as data about what hasn't worked and why.When you think about the conversion gap in your business right now, can you see the buyer psychology layer that's been missing?What would it mean for your content strategy if you accepted that consistency, aesthetics and niche clarity aren't the whole answer? What would you add?Mentioned in This EpisodeDownload Why People Watch But Never Buy a 22-minute audio training that gives you the buyer psychology framework and the Content Conversion Audit to map your own content against the five stages today.Join ⁠The Lounge⁠ Free community with resources, conversations, and tools for women building powerful businesses.Explore ⁠Women That Sell⁠ My flagship program for women scaling their businesses with integrity and modern sales.Download ⁠Why People Watch But Never Buy⁠ The 22-minute audio training + Content Conversion Audit. $37 AUD.Follow ⁠Riley⁠ on Instagram Daily thoughts and behind-the-scenes on business, sales, and everything in between.Follow ⁠Women That Sell⁠ on Instagram Sales insights, content strategy and lessons on buyer psychology.Book Riley for ⁠Speaking or Podcast Interviews⁠ For guest speaking, collaborations or podcast interviews.

March 23, 202623 min

The Conversion Series: Why Your Content Is Building an Audience That Won't Buy

You have real engagement. You have an audience that trusts you. You show up consistently and people genuinely respond to what you create. And yet the income doesn't reliably reflect any of it. Some months convert well. Others don't. You can't isolate the variable which means you can't replicate the good months or protect yourself from the slow ones. If that experience is familiar, this episode is for you. Because it has a very specific cause and it is not what most people in this industry will tell you it is.In this episode, I'm walking you through the five stages of buyer awareness, the psychological framework that explains exactly why content that attracts people doesn't automatically convert them. I'll cover what each stage looks like, what content it requires, and why most online service providers are unintentionally skipping the stages where buying decisions are actually made. By the end, you will understand more about why your content does and doesn't convert than most programs in this space will ever teach you.Why engagement and desire are not the same thing and why confusing them is the real reason your audience isn't convertingThe five stages of buyer awareness, clearly explained and applied directly to your contentWhat stage three content is, why it's where desire forms, and why almost no one creates itWhy stages four and five are the most underproduced content in most accounts and what you're losing because of itThe difference between building an audience and building a buying audience and why visibility strategies won't close that gapWhat shifts in your content when you start creating with stage-awareness instead of just consistencyYour ReflectionWhen you look at your last ten pieces of content honestly how many were serving stages one and two? How many were stage three, four, or five?What would it look like to create one piece of stage three content this week? Not a product pitch, a specific painting of the transformation your work creates.Is there a stage five buyer in your audience right now? Someone who has been following you a while, engaging consistently, who might simply be waiting for a clear and warm invitation?Mentioned in This EpisodeDownload Why People Watch But Never Buy — a 22-minute audio training that walks through the full five-stage framework, plus the Content Conversion Audit so you can map your own content and know exactly what to create next.Join The Lounge Free community with resources, conversations, and tools for women building powerful businesses.Explore Women That Sell My flagship program for women scaling their businesses with integrity and modern sales.Download Why People Watch But Never Buy The 22-minute audio training + Content Conversion Audit. $37 AUD.Follow Riley on Instagram Daily thoughts and behind-the-scenes on business, sales, and everything in between.Follow Women That Sell on Instagram Sales insights, content strategy and lessons on buyer psychology.Book Riley for Speaking or Podcast Interviews For guest speaking, collaborations or podcast interviews.

March 15, 202638 min

The Uncomfortable Truth About Success: Why Your Standards Threaten People (And What To Do About It)

Your success is making people uncomfortable. Your discipline is threatening people. Your standards are activating something in others that they haven't dealt with. And if you're like most women, your first instinct has been to minimise yourself to share less, tone it down, make yourself smaller. This episode is about why that needs to stop, and what it actually takes to maintain your standards without apologising for them.In This EpisodeWhy people react to your success (it's projection, not about you)What subtle competition actually looks like and why the most insecure person in the room often withdraws rather than performsThe real cost of minimising yourself to make others comfortableThe self-discipline required to maintain your standards when everyone around you is comfortable with mediocrityWhy detachment is always louder than defenceJoin ⁠The Lounge⁠Free community with resources, conversations, and tools for women building powerful businesses.Explore ⁠Women That Sell⁠My flagship program for women scaling their businesses with integrity and modern sales.Download the Instagram Invite StrategiesThe exact framework for turning conversations into clients through Instagram.Follow ⁠Riley⁠ on InstagramDaily thoughts and behind-the-scenes on business, pregnancy and everything in between.Follow ⁠Women That Sell⁠ on InstagramSales insights, client conversation and lessons on sales psychology.Book Riley for ⁠Speaking or Podcast⁠ InterviewsFor guest speaking, collaborations or podcast interviews.