← The Abigail Peugh Podcast
The Abigail Peugh Podcast
37. How Relationship Anxiety Turned Into a 290k+ Strong Digital Product Business - Student Spotlight with @youloveandyoulearn
00:38:30
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- [00:00]
Abigail Pugh
Foreign. You're listening to an episode of the Abigail Pugh podcast with, you guessed it, Abigail Pugh. I'm an introverted mama who took my online business from zero to seven figures in 15 months, selling my own digital products on social media. And guess what? I did it all with my 3 year old daughter no less than 3ft away from me at all times. Now I'm bringing you everything I've learned about building a wildly profitable online business that supports your life while allowing you to truly live it. Get ready for raw, honest conversations with entrepreneurs making thousands per month selling their own digital products and people just like you who ditch self doubt to create the life they've always wanted. If you're ready to make more money, have more impact, and still have time for the things that matter most, you're in the right place. Grab your sneakers, head out on your hot girl walk, and let's dive in. If your brain is constantly trying to convince you that digital products won't work for you, this episode is perfect for you. Because oftentimes I feel like our brains just need to see more evidence that something works by seeing other people doing it. Which is exactly what we're going to do on today's episode. Today's guest is one of my students that has used my rich girl methodology, as she likes to call it, to launch her digital products this year. And her niche is so fascinating to me. Sarah teaches people like you and me how to deal with relationship anxiety and build more secure and fulfilling partnerships. And my favorite part about Sarah's story is that it all originated from her going through all of this first with her partner, making it kind of to the other side and figuring out a way to handle this and kind of deal with it. And now she's able to teach others how to do that as well because of that personal experience. Sarah, welcome to the show.
- [01:51]
Sarah
Hi. So excited to be here.
- [01:53]
Abigail Pugh
I'm so excited you're here. I realized that I need to have more students on my show. So I was telling my podcast manager the other day, I'm like, let's get more students, more students. Because I do feel like people need to kind of see other normal people doing this as well. Because again, like I said in the intro, like, our brains try to convince us that it's not gonna happen for us. Like, this doesn't work for me. It only works for these other people. So, Sarah, I'd love to just kind of hear a little bit about your story, how you kind of got into anxiety, relationship coaching, and then into digital Products.
- [02:29]
Sarah
Yeah. So my story starts back in 2020. I was put on furlough from my job. So I used to work in marketing and in the hospitality industry. And so during COVID no one was traveling anymore. So a lot of layoffs and furloughs happened. But then especially, like, no one was marketing traveling, so they were like, yep, you're not going to be working right now. So I basically had five months where I didn't have a job. And it also happened that I was really anxious about my relationship during that time. Like, this had been kind of a. An ongoing thing. My parents got a divorce, and that's not like, something I use as, oh, my gosh, poor me thing, but it did affect how I showed up in this relationship. And I started being very analytical of, oh, my gosh, is this the right person for me? What if this happens to me? And so all of this kind kind of came to a head during COVID and I realized, like, I have to figure something out because I'm so anxious, but I really want to be with this person. He's amazing, so there must be a problem with me. And I kind of went digging into all of this to learn for myself why was I so anxious and how could I get through it. And I started a blog and just started sharing my story, which I know you advocate for. Like, share your experience, walk people through what you're going through. And I did not expect so many people to resonate. And right around that time, this is kind of a weird part of my story. Like, we found out my fiance could move to Sweden for his job. At the time, actually, he was just my boyfriend, but we're engaged. Spoiler alert. It all worked out. But we found out he could move for his job to Sweden where his company is based. And so that was kind of a little opportunity for me to say, hey, maybe I could take this and make it into something, because I didn't really want to get a job over there. I wanted to explore doing this more full time. So that was kind of the kick that I needed to actually do this full time. So I'll stop there for now. But that's kind of how it all got started.
- [04:34]
Abigail Pugh
Oh, my gosh. I love that. And I want more. You got to tell us more. I love. I love that it originated from. From COVID because I feel like so many people. Like, Covid completely changed our lives and, you know, in so many ways, but it changed so many people's careers and kind of gave. Like, I feel like Covid gave you the opportunity to try something you probably wouldn't have if the world hadn't turned upside down. And the same thing with my story, like, with my husband and his medical issues and the strokes. Like, I don't know that I would have started had that not happened, because it kind of gave me permission to be like, you know what? Life is so short. I'm gonna take any opportunity that I can get, and I'm. I'm just gonna run with it. And so I created the opportunity for me. So you started the blog, and then did you start an Instagram soon after that? Kind of like, what. What. What happened after that?
- [05:26]
Sarah
Yeah, so I started an Instagram, like, on pretty much the same week that I started a blog. And I had my first thousand followers, like, for the first six. Like, it took me six months to get my first thousand followers. And then I actually joined one of your past guest interviews, Jera, I love. She had a group coaching program called the Social Media Saloon, which was all about how to show up more authentically on social media. So I actually took that program, and that was really the first time I had ever learned about how to show up in more of a, like, personal branding type way, because I used to work in marketing, and I did some work with brand social media, but not personal brand. And so this was kind of helping me to get started sharing more of my story. So that was really, really helpful. And it was just so empowering to hear, like, how can you get your message out there more effectively? Because I didn't really know how to get the message across. I just knew I have this story. Other people are resonating, but if you can't storytell well, or if you can't, like, tell people what they need to hear to draw them into your world, it's hard for people to connect with you. So that was a really important part of my journey as well.
- [06:42]
Abigail Pugh
I love Jara and you guys. I have a. Like, she said, I have a podcast episode with Jara. She is one of the best storytellers that I know. I. I love everything she does. So I will link that podcast episode for you guys down there. So, okay, it took you, what, six months to grow to a thousand followers? I feel like that's pretty common for a lot of people. In the beginning is like, we see people blow up, but we don't see the time before where it took them a while to get to, like, a smaller. I wouldn't say small. A thousand people is amazing. That's not a small amount of people. But when you guys see where Sarah's account is at now? It's gonna seem really small because spoiler alert, she's blown up and it's pretty freaking cool. But, okay, so you took the training with Jara and then kind of what happened from there? Where were you with your relationship at that point? Do you feel like you had kind of worked through it fully or you were still kind of in the middle of figuring out how to handle the relationship anxiety?
- [07:37]
Sarah
Yeah. So I would say with relationship anxiety and maybe for other people's niches or what they help people with, sometimes you just need to know you're not alone. And that can be like such a healing thing. And so as I was doing all this research and I came across other people who had gone through what I was going through. I feel like I was so inspired, and that's why I wanted to start sharing my story. And I really started feeling like, oh, this is something that I can work through. Like, I can be in this relationship. I almost got that, like, permission slip from other people that I really needed to be giving myself that whole time, which was, you can be in this relationship. And so there was a period where I felt like my anxiety's all gone, like it's never coming back. And over the years, there's definitely been moments where it's come back and I've had to coach myself through what I coach my clients through. But really, after the first, like six months to a year, I feel like I had gotten to a place where I could confidently be at least like three to five to sometimes 10 steps ahead of the people I was helping. And part of my message is not that you have to fix yourself. Like, you're not looking to suddenly wake up and be anxiety free. Just like you tell people in businesses, it's not like you're just gonna never have a problem in your business again. It's how can you be more intentional responding to that? And how can you show up and help yourself and then show back up in the relationship and reconnect to your partner? So I think that's an important piece of my message too, is I'm not trying to help people fix themselves or to make everything go away, but how can you show up in a more intentional way? So by that point, I was definitely at a place where, like, through coaching people and through my own experience, I felt like I was in a really good place. But that doesn't mean it's like, perfect now.
- [09:22]
Abigail Pugh
Yeah. So did you start with one on one coaching first?
- [09:26]
Sarah
Yes. So I started with one on one coaching first. And then before I entered Abigail Pugh's world, I did have a. I did have a digital course that I only recently have. Kind of like, I don't really promote it anymore, but it was more of a. I guess you could call it like a higher ticket or a mid ticket. It was 2:99. And if I had come into your world earlier, but at this time, I don't think you were sharing anything yet, I probably would have started with like a lower ticket thing right away. But I did have that course and that was kind of what I had done for all my private coaching clients. I just built it into a course that was more self study. So I started with private coaching and then once I felt like I had a clear program I was taking people through, I put it into a digital course.
- [10:17]
Abigail Pugh
I love that. Now. Okay, so what you teach is relationship anxiety. And I actually asked her before the call, do you have a degree in like therapy or anything like that? Because I do feel like a lot of people feel like in order to teach something, you have to have a degree around that. And she said her degree is in marketing, you guys. And so everything she's teaching is literally from personal experience, something that she went through and now she's able to share with other people. I'm curious though, do you ever get people who are potential clients asking you if you have degrees or certifications or things like that?
- [10:53]
Sarah
Yeah. So this has been something that I have also had my own kind of imposter syndrome around. And it's taken me some time to. To kind of work through that because part of me said the same thing, like, I shouldn't be doing this or this is irresponsible. But it was really important to me to explore, like, what is the difference between a coach and a therapist? And so that was also something that was important to me, like, what is the role of a therapist? And I learned from other therapists or mentors that I've had in the therapy space that like, that's really about looking backwards or trying to unpack kind of what's been going on. Whereas coaching is more about how can we take what's going on in the present and move forward or make an action plan. So that's really important to me, like to stick to those boundaries. And I did take a trauma informed certification to understand as well. Like, when are we dipping into trauma? And how can I let my clients know that that's more of a therapy recommendation versus processing it here? But I would say that experience is always first and foremost what's going to connect you to your clients. Because there could be someone going to a therapist, and they're asking these questions from a relationship anxiety perspective, and the therapist doesn't understand it, and they might say something like, ooh, sounds like you are in the wrong relationship. Which is, first of all to me, crossing a boundary. Like, I don't think that's appropriate, whether you're a coach or a therapist to tell someone, like, what they should or shouldn't do about situation. But a lot of times I've had people come from a therapy relationship that said, like this, like, felt inappropriate or like, they triggered me more or they made me feel bad about my relationship. And I really just wanted someone to hold space for me. So I think that whether you're a coach or a therapist, there can be people who are absolutely amazing at guiding someone and people who are not so great of a fit for guiding you. So that's something that I've had to remind myself of as well, is like to always lead with integrity and just try to support the client in the way they need.
- [13:00]
Abigail Pugh
Yeah, absolutely. And like she said a little bit earlier, I truly feel like experience is more important than the degree. Obviously, there's some degrees. Like, if you're a nurse or a doctor or a therapist, you gotta go to school for that. Right? Like, that's not what I'm talking about. But I think a lot of the time, again, our brains are trying to convince us that you don't have this degree. So how dare you teach something like, I don't have a degree. Degree in Instagram. I don't have a degree in marketing. I don't have a degree in digital products. But I consider myself an expert in several of those areas because of my personal experiences and learning kind of on the job. And honestly, I think you learn more nowadays with social media from doing the thing than going to school. Like, what you would learn in school would be extinct by the time you got to the job, per se. So this is your permission to take your personal experiences and turn that into a digital product or an online business that helps people. Because, again, those experiences often bring so much more to the table than a degree that they're teaching things that were relevant five years ago?
- [14:05]
Sarah
Yeah, absolutely.
- [14:07]
Abigail Pugh
Um, okay. I would love to kind of talk about where you were when you first found me. What. What was the first product like? I don't. I don't remember when you came into my world. Cause I feel like a lot of the time you guys are really quiet in the DMs, and you wait to say anything to me until you're like, oh, I tried this and it worked. And that's kind of like when I start building more of a, like an open relationship with people in DMs, because before they're kind of just like quiet and lingering. So what was the first product you got from me and do you remember when that was?
- [14:35]
Sarah
I bought the digital product starter guide, but I was definitely a lurker for a while and I did not use it right away. I think it took me six months to actually go through it because I was just overthinking it and I already had my other course and so I was like, oh my gosh, like, how would I make another new digital product that's smaller? Or, like, would it be competing with this other product? I think I just got in my own way. And I want to say that it was in early to mid 2023 that I first got it, but it wasn't until earlier this year that I actually sat down and looked at it and took it seriously. And the digital product starter kit was the first one. But I think I've bought every other offer since then. Like, I definitely have gone through rich girl reels and did a full challenge, even though it was self paced. I've done rich girl stories. I'm in the rich girl community. So I feel like I've really tried to lean in because once you find someone who you resonate with, I'm like, I need to tune out all these other pieces of advice because sometimes it can be slightly different. And I'm like, I just want to focus on someone that I have seen doing the thing, walking their talk, and focus on that.
- [15:46]
Abigail Pugh
I love that way of thinking. I am the exact same way. Like, I don't follow a ton of people in different niches for things that I want information on. Because you're right. Like, sometimes it becomes so overwhelming and not to say that, like, I'm the only one that's good at what I do. There's tons of people that are good at what I do. And I think what you said, like, really just hit it home for me was that, like, you have to find the one that you resonate with the most. And then you kind of need to put like, all your trust into this person rather than just like, well, I'm gonna take this piece from this person and this piece from this person. Because a lot of the time, like, something can work well and somebody else can be doing the exact same thing in a different way and getting similar results. But, like, if you're mixing and matching all these things, it just. It's very overwhelming. So I love that Sarah. Yes, she is in the community and she's still kind of a lurker in the community too, but she's more talkative in our DMs. So I love kind of seeing what you're doing. But, um, I'd love to kind of talk about Instagram growth and when that took off. Um, I know your Instagram following is. It's huge. I didn't check before the episode. What is. What is your following at right now?
- [16:49]
Sarah
I believe as of today of recording, it's 2,95,000. So. But this is actually the interesting part. So earlier this year in January, it was at 109.
- [17:01]
Abigail Pugh
Oh, wow.
- [17:02]
Sarah
So it's definitely been like most of the growth, like, over double of the growth has come this year. And this is after four years of having my Instagram. So just a reminder that, like, there can be exponential growth, but, like, it's not necessarily gonna happen in six months. Some people's will. And, like, I feel like now with reels, it's much faster, but when I started, reels didn't even exist yet. So.
- [17:25]
Abigail Pugh
So what changed this year that kind of made. Can you. Is there a few things that you can kind of pinpoint that really kind of helped with that growth?
- [17:33]
Sarah
Yeah. So I would say a lot of the audience growth type reels that you've shared. I know in Rich Girl Launch, you kind of walk us through, which I used, by the way, for the first launch of the Abigail Pugh era, I use that formula and it was like very on point. But the audience growth type reels, like, you know, pov, you are an overthinker in your relationship and you want to learn how to show up in a healthier way. And then you find my account or, you know, this account is perfect for you, if. Or the one that I think you had given in the Rich Girl community prompt that went super viral for me. Like 15 million views. It was just that blinking video. And it wasn't even the hack of the blink. It was like the specific text that I used of, like, you haven't found my account yet, but you're, you know, struggling with this in your relationship. So getting super, super specific. And the thing about my niche is that it's so niche. And something Jara said right from the jump of my social media career, if you call it was. If you're talking to everyone, you're Talking to no one. And so people know right away, like, if they've experienced what I'm talking about because I'm so specific. Whereas I think sometimes if you just have even just a normal therapy account or normal relationships and you're talking about all types of relationship stuff, people might not always directly connect with it.
- [19:02]
Abigail Pugh
Yeah, I feel like you are so good at getting specific. And I say this all the time with the prompts that come in. Rich Girl Community or Rich girl Reels. Any prompts that I do, it's like they will only work as well as your messaging. And your messaging needs to be so clear and specific. Like, instead of just saying something where you're like, point of view, you're someone that struggles in your relationship. Like, that means nothing. Right. And with Sarah's real, she really goes deep on, like, the exact situation that somebody is going through, because a lot of the time we think that the situation is unique to us. But so many aspects of the situation, somebody else has been through the exact same thing, and they're sitting there feeling so validated by seeing that real. And I feel like that's something you do so incredibly well, is really speaking to, like, specific situations that someone else in a relationship is like, oh, my gosh, I totally have felt that before. And these are things, too. I feel like you get really good shares because people are, like, sending this to a friend who's the one that they talk to, and they're like, oh, my God, like, I went through this exact thing and things like that. So I know it can feel scary to get specific. But the more specific you are, like, the more you will talk to that kind of ideal customer or ideal community member, whatever you want to call people, and they will really feel seen in their content. Do you remember how I know that one blinking reel, which I'll be the first to say in Rich Girl Community when I do the prompts, I am never afraid to try things. So those blinking reels that came out, am I? Like, I told them in the community, I'm like, this is not something. We're not building your whole strategy on this. But if you want to try it and have some fun, go for it. And then there are some pages like, it works once, and then every single reel after that is that. And that's not really how I roll. I never want to, like, trick people into watching something, But I do think it's fun to try fun things that are coming out and try different things. So was that your most viewed reel?
- [20:55]
Sarah
I think think that the most views I've ever had. That one was close. There's another one that. That was 15 million, which is like, freaking bonkers to say. I'm like, it was just 15 million. Like, no, but there was another one, I think, like, at the very beginning of the year that was like 15.8 or 16.8. I forget. But, like, there's been some where. I kid you not, I'm pretty sure, like 50 or 60,000 people, like, followed from just that one. So it's like, that's always been. What's happened in my Instagram growth over the last four years is most of the posts or reels are not like a flop, but they're just like, okay. Like, you know, people saw them, they engaged, but then there's kind of a plateau and then one kickstarts like the next level of the growth. So it's just about consistency, really.
- [21:46]
Abigail Pugh
And that's the same for me. Like, I have kind of like a consistent baseline that my content will usually hit, and then every once in a while, one will just. Just like take off. And that's where a lot of my growth comes from. Not to say the other reels. There's not like smaller amounts of growth. But I do feel like that's pretty common with social media, is where, like, you are expecting every reel to take off and that's just not. That's not really how it goes. Usually it's like consistency, consistency, learning what's working, it's working, it's working. Then boom, something takes off and then back to like, the consistent, consistent. So, like, that's totally normal. And it's very normal for a lot of people to have, like, most of us probably with any type of larger account, like anything probably over 10k probably can pinpoint, like the 5 to 10 reels that did most of the growth for the account. And you will never create those type of reels if you're not creating, if you're not trying new things, if you're not testing things. And I feel like you're really good about that. You will kind of repeat concepts that have worked with different situations essentially. But you're not afraid to try new things and test something out. Like, social media doesn't have to be that serious. Like, it can be something where you post and you're like, okay, it didn't do so great. So now I know. I feel like I have to remind myself of that as well. But. Okay, so let's go to when you launched your first. Not your first digital product. Cause she had the course before, but your first digital product with me, I guess. What kind of, what was your experience with that? How did that go? And yeah, yeah.
- [23:13]
Sarah
So I kind of took the inspiration of the formatting of the digital product starter guide because I felt like it was so simple. And I decided to make my first ebook type toolkit thing and I called it the Relationship Anxiety Toolkit. And it was a 21 day guide where each day had a lesson and then had journal prompts to reflect on the lesson and then it had an action item. So that format felt pretty easy for me to replicate even though it wasn't the exact same thing as the, the digital product starter guide. I was like, I like how this is all laid out. I like how it's like a daily task or challenge. So I decided to map that out. And like I mentioned earlier, I used Rich Girl launch and I really took it seriously. So I gave myself a 12 week timeline to create a new freebie, promote that freebie with audience growth. And like, I, I think actually that blinking reel was like the second to last day of my audience growth. Like it was like I had done for three or four weeks and like pretty much didn't grow at all. And I was kind of laughing to myself. I was like, audience growth phase is like not growing at all. But then it all of a sudden like that reel took off. So it was kind of like a nudge from the universe, was like, keep going, like don't give up till the end. And then I did the priming, like something's coming and getting people excited. And I tried to be, you know, as engaged as I could with question boxes, like, what do you want to learn from me about this topic? And really followed the formula that you gave us. And then I had a, I think it was like a 10 day launch where I started with $47 for the first two days of the sale and then I went up to $67 for the remainder of the launch as well as the, the current price. I decided to just keep at 67. So yeah. And as of now, it's actually just crossed over $30,000 from sales and over 500 people have bought the toolkit since August when I launched it. So that feels pretty exciting.
- [25:24]
Abigail Pugh
That's amazing. And you guys, I always like to say this, but you know, results are going to be different for everybody. Right? So I don't want you to hear this and like compare any part of Sarah's journey to your journey. We each have our own journey and as with anything in life, like there are Never results guaranteed. And I feel like Sarah is like the perfect example of that. Right. Like she did her growth phase for how many weeks and then no growth, no growth. And then like on the last day this kind of took off because like with anything, social media business, digital products, like there are never results guaranteed. So I just always want to be clear on that. Like, do not compare your journey with her. Sarah took four years to build this audience to what it was. And yes, she did have a few videos kind of like take off in the last year, but she was kind of learning and refining how to do all of this for four years. Right. So I love that, I love that you kind of started with higher ticket and moved to lower ticket. Because I do feel like a lot of people, you know, in, I feel like 2023, 2024 people were still really pushing like the higher ticket, the mid ticket things. And I am a firm believer that I think everybody should start with low ticket. I just think it's a better way to learn. And you don't necessarily need to spend like six months creating a course. I think with lower ticket stuff you can get it out into the world much quicker. So did you kind of like lower ticket as opposed to the mid? I think you said your course before was 2 97. Which, which one did you prefer?
- [26:54]
Sarah
Yeah, so I definitely think that for my audience specifically, I prefer the lower ticket and I've even offered lower as well in the form of a monthly membership that's, that's a starting rate of $7 and I'm going to be adding a tier for $27. But I, I just feel like, to me it feels like no brainer pricing. Whereas even for me as a consumer, 297, 299, like that, that still feels like you have to really think about it, like, is this going to be worth it? And that's a lot to, to put into something that I don't know, like what the outcome will be. So I think that is why I decided to give the lower ticket a try because I was even, you know, questioning that purchase price for other people's offers. So why would I then, you know, feel like I have to charge that?
- [27:44]
Abigail Pugh
Yeah, absolutely. And I just think with lower ticket it really gives you more time to learn kind of what you enjoy teaching what you're good at. And when you do lower ticket, you can launch multiple offers within a year or however long. Right. You can like kind of give yourself a timeframe and say, I want to try these different things, figure out what you're best at and what your audience likes the most. Like when I first started, I didn't know that prompts and social media prompts and those types of things were like going to be my sweet sauce, right? And I figured that out by trying it with Rich girl reels. And then I got a ton of really good feedback and people said that they loved that and my brain loves doing that. So it just made sense to build, you know, my community, including something like that, whereas in the beginning I didn't know that. And with low ticket stuff, you really are able to kind of just see what you enjoy and what your audience enjoys. So I would love to kind of hear where you're at now. So maybe tell us something that worked for you in 2024 that you're going to take into 2025.
- [28:43]
Sarah
Yeah, so I've been focusing on how to create more passive income because I would love to eventually get to a place where coaching isn't the primary source of my income. And so I did start a, as I mentioned, like a subscription membership this year that work really well. I started it in February and I've grown it to over 300 paying members. But again, it's only $7 a month compared to some other things. So I think that's important to keep in mind. But I would really like to continue that growth moving forward. I would say that's worked well and you've inspired me. In your Rich Girl community planning session, you mentioned how it's fun to have monthly challenges or like a sort of new year challenge to start the year. And so I've decided to add that as part of my membership and have it as a way to not only support my members and really engage with the members that are in there already, but also as a way where now each new month I can say, hey, here's the monthly challenge coming up, we're going to be focusing on how to grow your relationship mindset or how to shift away from perfectionist expectations in your relationship. And so then it can create a recurring opportunity for me to also get excited about what's going on in the membership.
- [30:04]
Abigail Pugh
I love that. Last week I did a trend kind of prediction for 2025 and something I talked about was reoccurring revenue and really building a business that is like not only focused on getting new customers, but also finding a way to either have a subscription or a membership. Something that you can pour more into your people, but you can also create more sustainable and predictable income your business. And I feel like subscriptions and communities Memberships, things like that are a great way to do that. And I feel like people want a little bit more. Right. We had this big surge of, you know, high ticket courses and then we had this big surge of like mid ticket courses, and then low ticket digital products became really popular and a lot of people were like completely removing themselves from things. And I feel like people are now missing the connection and they're missing someone being able to, you know, look at something in their business and give them advice based on that specific person's business and subscriptions or communities. Things like that, I feel like are a great way to do that. Right. So I'm kind of basing my entire business model that for 2025. And I'm just excited to pour more into the same people too. Something that I kind of learned about low ticket digital products, which I will say I have a lot of repeat customers. Like, I have a lot of people that have bought every offer for me. So it's not like I'm not continuously working with the same people, but I'm not involved in some of those offers. So I love that with my community. I'm really like able to see and talk to the same people and kind of feel this connection because it's important for me too. Like, I love kind of being in the room with people that have the same goals as me. It makes business a lot more fun too, which I feel like we tend to take the fun out of business all the time and make it all business, but you need to have fun and enjoy it too. So before we end, I would love to kind of hear what you would say to someone who is starting maybe from scratch. They are like starting an Instagram from scratch or they're starting selling digital product from scratch. I'd love to hear, you know, one piece of advice that really helped you in the beginning to take the leap and just get started and go with it.
- [32:20]
Sarah
Yeah. Well, I would say maybe I'll answer it in two ways, like what helped me in the beginning? I'll put that to the side for a second. But what I'm looking back on that I wish I knew in the beginning is that whether it is in a business or a relationship or just life in general, we all are going through our own inner stuff. That does not make it to the highlight reel because I feel like someone who's worried about getting started or I remember comparing myself in the beginning to just people who seemed like they were killing it. Or I've got messages before of like, you're killing it right now, but inside I'm like, oh my gosh, I feel so disorganized or like, you know, I just had a really hard day in my relationship or business. But I can't really share the full story yet because I haven't even processed it myself. Right. So I feel like just remembering that no matter what, like you're human and you're gonna have your hard moments, but everyone else that you look up to has had that same thing. And if you can be vulnerable and like, just show your humanity along the way, like, that will be a great way for other people to connect with you versus feeling like you have to have everything be perfect. And that's what I wish I knew. But I'm stuck on what I did here at the beginning of my journey and how it feels like a while ago. I think from the beginning what I needed to hear was just to keep trying new things. And I know other people have said that before on like your, your guest episodes, but it's always resonated with me when people said it in the beginning of my journey is like, you have to keep showing up and the only time you fail is if you stop essentially. So it's about like making sure that you're doing something that you can continue putting in those bite sized steps towards and you don't have to figure it all out right away. But I feel like the little nudges I would get from people of like, just keep trying and see what works or see what doesn't work, like that's really what I needed to hear versus feeling like I had to have it all figured out because we're not ever going to know what works until you try.
- [34:30]
Abigail Pugh
No, absolutely. And I tell people this all the time. Like with social media specifically, like every single post is kind of like a science experiment. You don't know how it's gonna go. Right? You have your intentions for it, you know what you want to happen, but you never really know. And I never really consider posts to be a flop or a success. Right. If it doesn't do as well as I thought it would, I'm like, okay, I need to make my messaging a little bit more clear. Or you know what, that was kind of a lazy post. But my goal today was to just get my post up right. Not every post is going to be life changing. Not every story is going to make the sales that you think it's gonna mail. Sometimes they're gonna, your stories are gonna like hit really hard and people are gonna love em and they're gonna do great with sales. And other times, maybe not as many people are on that day or they didn't see it. But I think the most important thing, like you said, is, like, consistently every day, like, taking one step towards your goal and trying something new and not being afraid to try new things and kind of put yourself out there in a way that you've never done before. And that's. I feel like I did a lot of that this year as I kind of was pushing my business more towards reoccurring revenue and not as many, you know, like, new sales. And it really made me step out of my comfort zone, and it was scary. And even, like, starting this podcast was completely out of my comfort zone, and I'm still nervous every time I hit record. But, like, you know, I'm about to have, what, like, 40 episodes soon, and it's crazy. Like, I never, never would have gotten to where I am now without taking, like, those little baby steps every single day, like, one step closer to your goal. And it doesn't need to be these, like, huge things every single day. Right? Like, it's kind of. You build a business on, like, momentum from the small steps. It's not like one day you're at zero, and the next day you're at 10. Obviously, like, there's weird things that happen and, like, freak cases where people do blow up and go from zero to a hundred, but most of the time, it's kind of like those tiny little steps every single day that build all of that momentum. So, Sarah, where can people find you if they want to follow you on social media?
- [36:36]
Sarah
Yeah, so I'm over at you Love and you learn on Instagram, and my podcast I have is the Love and you Learn podcast. So those are kind of the best places to stay in the know with what I've been sharing, like, with the Toolkit or the Patreon or just updates from me. So, yeah, I would love to hear. If you listen to the episode and learned anything or something resonated, feel free to send me a message and say hello. And I like you, Abigail. Like, it's fun for me to connect with people. That's the part that made me want to start sharing. My story is like, to reach other people. So it's nice to know when something you said does help because otherwise it feels like sometimes you're talking into the void. So I love hearing from people.
- [37:17]
Abigail Pugh
Oh, my gosh, yes, you guys, whether it's my podcast or anyone's podcast, if you hear a podcast and you love something they said send them a dm because with podcasts, like, we don't have comments on our podcasts. So I never really know if things resonated or not. Right. Like, you can see the downloads, but just because somebody downloaded something doesn't mean they loved it. So if you're an avid podcast listener, please send your favorite podcast host a DM whenever you like. Love something about the episode. It means a lot. And like Sarah said, like the connection and just kind of knowing what you're putting out into the world, it matters and it's helping people is. It's really, really special. So, Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today. I will see you in the community, Sarah. And if any of you guys want to join Rich Girl Community, it's my favorite place to be on the Internet, I'm not going to lie. And it's where I'm pouring most of my heart and soul into for 2025. So I will see you guys next week. 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 me at Abigail Pugh until next time. Love you. Mean it.