A (4:15)

Wow.

B (4:16)

Now we've lived here for so long, and it is the best thing we've ever done for our family. We have two more kids. We work for ourselves in our accounting business still. And we started that business out of our barndominium, so.

A (4:30)

Wow. So is the barndominium what's on the compound now and what you're living in now still? And then everyone kind of just built around you.

B (4:36)

Yeah. So basically, I don't know, a month later, my sister was like, we're moving too. And she. They started building. So we moved in about the same time. And then my little sister was like, well, I want to live there. And the house right beside my mom was going to go up for sale and my mom was like, please let my daughter buy that. And so it didn't even go on the market. She bought it and it all right together.

A (5:01)

Oh my gosh, that's amazing. I feel like that for, you know, people like me. Not everyone has this dream, right? But like, I would love to live near grandparents and on the same property. But you all have your own space and it's so cool to actually see it come to fruition with someone. Like, I watch your stories and it's so cool seeing you guys just like hoping, skipping a jump over to your sister in law's house where all the kids are playing. Like, it just feels like such a. Such a dream. But also something that aligns so well with owning your own business as well, right? Because you have people that can help you. You have family members that can kind of step in when you need it. The kids have each other to play, and it just kind of feels like a full circle moment. So thank you so much for sharing all that. I'm still fascinated. I've told Tara before that I'm like, as soon as we get land, I'm buying the compound guide because I'm trying to convince all of my siblings to come live on some property that we buy. But I would love to kind of hear a little bit about how you got into digital products. I know you guys have an accounting firm, I believe, or you're just accountants, you and your husband. And you sell digital products there as well. But now you're selling them for the compounding account as well. You guys, I will tag them down below in the show notes for you to follow them on Instagram if you want. It's super fascinating. I am. I'm kind of obsessed with it. I have this, like, homestead alter ego. I'm like, I don't know if I'll ever do it, but I love to, like, live in a dreamland in my head that I will do it someday. So I'd love to kind of. I know, I know I can do it. I just have, like, it all has to align perfectly. But I'd love to hear a little bit about how you guys got into digital products.

B (6:36)

So it's been a really long time coming. I feel like I listened to all these episodes on your podcast and it's like, wow, they dove in in a year and it changed their life. But for me, it's been about four years of trying to figure out digital products, because when we started our accounting Firm. We were so blessed. It. We grew so fast. So within the first two and a half years, we were at max capacity. And we're trying to figure out what to do next. Like, if we were putting more clients in, that's more time away from our family, and we didn't want to do that. So the same questions came over and over, and we're like, we've got to make this. We called it a book. We had no idea what to call it at the time. Let's make a book and let's answer all of the questions that people ask us so that we can help people that aren't clients.

A (7:22)

Yeah.

B (7:23)

And we spent a year making this incredible product, and it did not sell well.

A (7:28)

An ebook, right?

B (7:29)

Yes.

A (7:30)

Like a digital. Okay, cool.

B (7:31)

We called it a guide, a book. We had no idea.

A (7:34)

We were like, there's so many different things to call it. Like, yeah, yeah.

B (7:37)

We were like, it's phenomenal. But it did not sell.

A (7:40)

Yeah.

B (7:40)

And that kind of got put on the back burner a little bit. We were like, oh, that was a flop. And then in 2023, I'm like, no, this is a freaking good product. Like, I've got to figure out how to sell it. I'm very tenacious. Like, I get down. I'll get back up eventually. So I joined Masterminds. I listened to podcasts. I follow people on Instagram. I tried to teach myself, like, how to sell this thing because I knew it was so good, and it's what people were asking for. And still 2023, really no progress with that. And in 2024, a few people kept mentioning to me to make a compound guide on my personal page, and I thought it was a terrible idea. So I. I guess I was kind of looking at things like that. And I came across one of your reels, and I bought rich girl reels. And the moment that I checked out using Stand Store, a light bulb just went off, like, we are putting people through 500 steps to sell this product. And I immediately took down our Shopify account. We stopped selling the product, the hard product. And I was like, I'm going to scrap it all in 2024 and build a stand store. So I did put up a Stand store in about 30 minutes on my personal page because I was selling nothing on my personal account. And it was growing very quickly. I think I was about 80,000 followers at the beginning of the year. And I just put up one of my freezer meals because I always shared it, and it immediately sold. Now it wasn't life changing sales. But, like, I got an email within minutes that somebody had bought it and I. I was amazed.

A (9:24)

So this Stan for the win, you guys. Stan is literally the best thing ever.

B (9:30)

And I can't stop talking about it. I'm telling everybody, you need to stand store. Clearly you need to stand store. So 2024 has just been huge for me and I know it's just getting started, so I did that just to see, like, where's proof in the pudding. And then I did write the compound guide this summer, and that's when I was following all your steps. I didn't just post it up there on a whim. I did a wait list and I did the reels that you suggested. And when I put the compound guide live, I, like, I was just getting sales within minutes and minutes. And I was like, this is it. And I haven't really put like, all the steps on the business part of it because I have too many things going on. But I know that it's going to work. Like, I already know it's going to work.

A (10:15)

You have the evidence now, like, you've proved to yourself that it works, which I feel like our brains need that sometimes, like even just a few sales, to have that proof in your mind alone that you can do this even though you see other people do it, you see other people make sales and you're like, okay, well, I'll believe this when it happens for me.

B (10:33)

Yeah, exactly. So I launched that in September. I think September 4th was when I launched the family compound guide. And it. It just sold so well and I was just beside myself. And then after that, using all of your reels, I think I had a reel go pretty viral. I'm at like 22 million views on it.

A (10:56)

Oh, my gosh. That's like mega viral.

B (10:58)

Yeah. And this is just really step one of implementing what you're teaching. And I'm just like, yeah, think about, you know, 18 months from now when I had all this time, But I think I did message you saying I made $2,500 so fast. And I know it's not life changing, but I feel like it could be eventually. And I think now my Stan store, I've sold about $10,000 worth of the family compound guide within just the last couple of months. So to me, that is life changing now. Like, that's a great amount of money for my family and gives me more time with my kids. And it's just been the start of something. I know it's going to be even bigger.

A (11:41)

Right. And I feel like so many people think like, oh, a life changing amount of money is, you know, 10,000, 50,000, 100,000. But really to me, like, what's so life changing is the fact that you're making this money in like a sustainable, sustainable way from home, in your own time. And that to me is always the most life changing part where you're like, wow, I get to serve other people and teach them how to do something that I love, but I also get to do it from my compound with my children right next to me. And like, that truly is life changing. So I love that and I love that it took you so long to kind of figure it out. I feel like a lot of the time people will hear, you know, they had this success in XYZ amount of time, right? She launched in September and she's hit this, but really she's been at this for a long time. Like she's been trying to prove to herself that this is going to work in her brain for a long time. And she's just now getting there and it just feels so satisfying to kind of see you get to that point. And I just love it. I love watching people's journeys unfold. And it's funny that you said you thought nobody would buy it, right? And you're like, no, no, no, I'm not going to do it. And it ended up being like your best selling. I feel like the best selling offers often come from people asking you for something that you're like, no, no, like it's, it's gotta be the accounting thing that I already did. And it's like, no, people want something from you and you have to kind of lean into that. Um, so I love that you leaned into that. And it's such a niche topic. Which is one of the things I love about your story so much too, is that it's not like a typical topic, right? Like, it's a very niche person who wants to learn how to build a compound, right? And to see that being successful, like, I, my brain loves it. I just love it so much. So I'd love to dive into a little bit about your actual launch for this and kind of what worked, what didn't work. You know, give us the nitty gritty of how your launch went.

B (13:28)

So I think the biggest thing that I did that I didn't do before was I did a wait list. And I was kind of nervous about that too because you're putting it out like, hey, I'm making this thing. Do you want to be on My list. What if no one says they do?

A (13:41)

Yeah.

B (13:42)

So I was like, okay, I'm going to do it. I'm just going to put those thoughts aside. And my waitlist got like over 700 people on the waitlist. And that was kind of when I was like, people really do want this information. And so before I even launched, I believe I sent out an email stating, like, it's available. You get, like a little discount because you're on the waitlist. And I woke up to all of these sales. So taking time to do the waitlist for me, which was just a series of reels that I was talking about it, this is what it's going to be. Hey, I'm putting it together. Let me know if you want to be on the waitlist. So I did that for about a week, and that really made all the difference. And it was so easy with Stan Store, but it was just more of me just being scared to put it out there.

A (14:31)

Yeah, it's terrifying to do something for the first time. Like, even still, I do new things in my business all the time and I'm terrified when I try something new.

B (14:40)

So that doesn't go away.

A (14:42)

No, it doesn't go away. It happens in all things with life. Like, I posted in my stories a few days ago, one of my students sells a guide on face taping and using that instead of Botox. And I bought the guide probably like three or four months ago, I bought the tape. I've had everything and I've been so nervous to try it. And it's literally face taping. Like, it's not a big deal, but I was nervous I would do it wrong. I was nervous I would mess it up. And I did mess it up the first time. But it just felt so good to have that first time under my belt where I was like, okay, I know I messed up. I know I can do it better next time. And I know that nothing bad happened. Right. I think we need to constantly be proving to ourselves that even if it does go wrong, like, what's the worst that could have happened with face taping, right? I woke up and there was like a crease on my face because I did it wrong or it peeled off or, like, you have to really just go into things saying, like, okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to do it for the first time. It's not going to feel comfortable, but you have to do it. Because once you do something, once it's like this switch in your brain where you're like, okay, I can do this over and over again. Like, you can launch a digital product once and then know when you have another one. Great. I know how to launch. I know exactly how to build a waitlist. And I love waitlists for launching. She was talking about how she built one. They're essentially, waitlists are just a place to get all your, like, hottest leads in one place so that you can launch to them first, give them a little bit of a discount. It really helps your conversion rate too, because essentially you're getting all the most interested people in one place to sell to them first. But like you said, it feels scary to try something new. After you did the waitlist launch, did you launch to the public? How did that. Did it feel easier kind of after you'd had some sales come in and see how things are working?

B (16:19)

Yes, once I had sales come in, then I was like, okay, people really do want to know about this. And so I just went forward with my launch. I just had a piece of paper stating, here's what I would do for the next 10 days.

A (16:31)

Yep.

B (16:32)

And I followed through with all of those. It was just one task a day, whether it was a story, question box, things like that. And I even used old reels that did really well about the compound and just used those. So I made no new content, just use those and made sure I was putting my mini chat in there to send them the link to the compound guide. And yeah, once the email list went really well, I felt confident, like, to move forward. But I just kept telling myself, it's a small list, work your way through the list and see what happens. And I mean, it was my best launch ever, but it was my first one and I actually launched, like, I actually went through and was like, I'm not just going to stick it in my standstore and see what happens.

A (17:15)

And I. I actually love that you did that with the first one, though, because I do feel like. And I get this question all the time, like, should I make this big launch or should I just get it out into the world? And I think there's a lot of power in just putting one out there and learning how to sell. Learning kind of just how to get your footing with selling something so that when you do officially launch something next, you kind of feel a little bit more ready. That's kind of what I did with my first digital product. I kind of, you know, I did build an email list, but my emails were so lame. Like, I had no idea what I was doing. I go back and look at them and I just cringe because I'm like, get it, get it now. The sale, the launch price goes away. Like, there was no value. There was no. Like, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't have the templates that I give you guys. Like, I literally just sent emails saying, you have five days to buy it at this price, and then it expires. And it felt really good to just get it out in the world and learn and understand what I was doing. And then each launch after that has gone better for me because I. I understand what I'm doing. I understand what worked the first time, what didn't work the first time. I don't think there's anything wrong with getting one out there and just learning how to sell and learning how to set up your stance store and learning how to make sure things deliver properly. Because you, you learn so much just by doing something and then going into your. I want, like, second launch. I say that in air quotes because it, you know, the first one was just get it out into the world.

B (18:32)

Yeah.

A (18:33)

I bet you felt so much more prepared. Right. Like, you could build products in your stand store faster. So I love that. That's exactly what I did. Okay. So I'd love to kind of end the episode with you just letting anyone know who is getting into this for the first time, giving them, you know, some words of wisdom or something that you learned along the way. I feel like we learned so much from launch. Like, even now, to this day, me, anytime I launch something, I learn so much from it. So if there's one or two things that you learned that you could let someone know that maybe hasn't launched their first digital product or they are in the process of doing it and they're feeling nervous and scared. Do you have any words of advice for them?

B (19:11)

I would say two things that I learned. And one is that you. If you want to sell something over and over again, you have to sell every day. And that's what I did wrong with the accounting things. It was, I launched and we even had like a little launch party and I thought I did everything and then crickets. Well, I wasn't selling every day. So I love that you say you start your day off with a selling activity. So I try to put that in my brain. I have limited time with kids in life, but I can put something. Whether, you know, for me, sometimes it's making like an affiliate link or something. Just start there. So you, you do have to sell every day and getting comfortable knowing that, that, you know, you're not making cells every day without doing anything. So why should we so know that everybody has to do that? And then it can seem overwhelming at first. I know because like I said, I did masterminds. I did all of this research and I just felt like I wasn't making any movement. And really I was, I was learning about email list. I was learning how to use ManyChat, which can be kind of hard to use in the beginning. And I was setting up some simple flows and I had never done that. And working with Stan Store, like getting that first one out really just taught me how to use Stan Store. How do I do an order bump? How do I put one in there? What all does it do? I love that you can, you know, book a meeting or do all of those things in it. So I felt like, man, I haven't done anything all year and this was my goal. And it was, you know, September before I did anything. But when I thought about it, I had done all of those tiny little steps and if I wouldn't have done that before that reel went super viral, I would have been screwed. Like, I would have nothing set up in place. So I think it just all happened how it was supposed to. So, you know, kind of give, give yourself some credit. If you are like hearing crickets and you're, you know, just getting started, just know that you've got to do all this stuff in the background and getting familiar with all of the little things. Like I know you've mentioned Zapier and Manychat and Sandstorm and all this stuff. It's like, it's a lot to learn, especially if you have a full time job and have kids and have all of this, but you're learning a little bit on the way so that you can do it. And it takes time. Like it took me months to be very familiar with all of those things and I had to remind myself all of the work that I had already put in.

A (21:36)

Yeah, absolutely. And just a little sidebar here, you guys. The episode right before this one, episode 32, I believe, is all about ManyChat automations DM automation with the person that I learned it all from. She is like a manychat expert. So if you haven't listened to that episode yet, when you're done with this one, go listen to that one because manychat is such an amazing tool. Before we go, I would love to hear like your tech stack, everything that you used to launch your digital product and to continue Selling it.

B (22:04)

Pretty simple for me. I did it in Canva, so I made them all in Canva and I use Standstore to launch it. And then for my personal page I just use Standstore. So Standstore, emails and everything. And then on our business we do use Flow Desk. So then adding manychat to that, that's pretty much all I use. I try to keep it pretty simple.

A (22:28)

Yeah, and you totally can. I feel like when I first got started I was really nervous about the upkeep of things. Or not the upkeep, I want to say, the reoccurring payments for things. Right. Because in the beginning you don't really have a lot to invest into your business. And I wanted to build something that wouldn't, you know, as I scale, I wouldn't have to like pay a ton more money for all the things that I'm using. So I basically started with the same thing, but not manychat. Manychat. I didn't use it until, I want to say like six, six to seven months into my journey. Um, I. It was very new in early 2023 when I first kind of heard about it and got into it. But truly you don't need all these crazy, crazy things to start selling digital products. Like I would say you need Canva, Stan Store and Manychat. Like that's basically all you need. And all of them have a free trial. So Stan Store has a two week free trial. I'll link that below for you guys. Manychat has a free version in the beginning. You get like a certain amount of responses. And then Canva, there's a free version as well, which I know you can't do as much inside of the free version, but there's. Where there's a will, there's always a way. So if you are someone that's like, hey, I don't have a whole lot of money to invest in starting my digital product business, like you don't, you don't need that much. Right. And you can truly build your empire. I say that in quotes because I always talk about not wanting an empire, but like your little tiny digital product empire that isn't really that tiny, but it doesn't require like a whole team to do everything right. You can really use the basics. And I feel like Stan has done an incredible job of really just giving us more features so that you really don't need other things. I probably would have just started out with Stan in the beginning for email if they had it. When I first started with Stan, they were a Very new company and they didn't have email marketing yet. So I've built my entire email list on Flodesk and I'm not about to switch that over now. And I do love Flodesk, but I think for beginners, Stan is definitely better for like entry level email marketing. Flow desk is amazing, but it's, it's a lot to set up in the beginning. So I love that you just started with those things and ran with it.

B (24:32)

Yeah. And I actually think that when I'm reading emails now, I see so many very beautiful emails. But when I get an email like from you, from Stan Store, I tend to read those more. So that's when I am telling myself I'm sending these simple emails. I like those. I don't. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's just me, but it's just simple and it's different coming across from Stan. Yeah, I like that, that. That's so easy to do within there. And Flow Desk is a little bit more complicated.

A (25:00)

Yeah. Even my Flow desk emails, they're very simple. Like, I don't have crazy graphics. I don't have all these things because that was such a huge deterrent for me in the beginning because I overthink everything. I'm like, does this look perfect? Does this look like my brand? And then I remember, I don't remember who it was. She was a designer. And she told me like, why, why are you stressing about that? Just remove all the pretty stuff and focus on the words that you're saying to your people. And I was like, oh, that's literally genius. So my emails will never be pretty, but they will be full of stories and I will, you know, poke fun at myself and give value and share things. Like, I think that's what it's all about. And I love that, like you said, Stan really allows you to just get to the point in what you're wanting to say with people. There's no frills. It's not all these crazy designs, which I know all my designer friends listening to this. Just plug your ears right now.

B (25:48)

It might be cringey, but I like it.

A (25:50)

I love it. Well, Taryn, let us know where we can find you over on Instagram. I feel like Instagram is your most popular platform. If you guys are looking to start a compound or have freezer meals, Taryn's your girl. So where can we find you?

B (26:04)

Yes, you can find me on Instagram at Taryn Sands. It's T E R A N and I always say it's like Karen, but with the T. So you can find me there. And then we're also on Instagram at what your CPA wants you to know.

A (26:17)

Awesome. I love it. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. This was awesome, and I will see you guys on next week's episode. Thank you so much for hanging out with me and my guests today. If you learned anything from our episode, I would love it if you could share it over on your Instagram stories and tag Meigalpugh until next time. Love you. Mean it.