You make beautiful work. You provide a service that helps your customers. You craft gorgeous products. You teach people life-enriching skills. There’s only one problem:

You feel so gross when you have to sell.

Most artists and creative small business owners operate from the “sales are slimy” belief at some point in their journey to make sustainable incomes from their work. But being afraid to sell because you feel that it’s manipulative or unethical—or that if your work were any good people would just buy anyway—leads to the same result: low sales that prevent you from having the freedom to devote your time to your craft.

If you experience this tension between wanting to be financially fueled by your work but afraid to actually ask people to pay you, you’re not alone. The good news? There are two simple shifts that you can make in your relationship to sales that will help you to promote your work without feeling like you’re selling out.