← The Abigail Peugh Podcast
The Abigail Peugh Podcast
42. Launching a Digital Product with a Small Following - Student Spotlight with @iamcristina.suarez
00:26:46
Loading summary
Transcript43 lines
- [00:00]
A
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. We are back today with another student episode. These are always some of my favorite favorites to record because I love seeing real life, humans, mothers, entrepreneurs, share what worked for them. Because when we see someone doing what we want to do, it's such a great way to convince our brain that it's possible for us too. Now, if you have a smaller social media following and you are wanting to launch a digital product, or maybe you've been thinking about pivoting niches, today's episode is perfect for you because Christina has done both of those things. Christina, welcome to the show.
- [01:24]
B
Hello. Hello.
- [01:26]
A
I'm so excited you're here. I love your accent. It's always so fun to me to have people on the show that have an accent. Cause I'm just like fascinated by it. When you. She had sent me like a voice memo on Instagram. We were like chatting back and forth about the episode and I was like, oh my God, I'm so excited. Her accent's so cute. I love it.
- [01:46]
B
Thank you. A lot of people say that I don't have an accent and I believe that, but what?
- [01:52]
A
No, you definitely do and I love it. Okay. I would love to kind of just start off the show with how you got into digital products and kind of why you got into them. It's always so interesting to me to see different reasonings for kind of wanting to get into digital products.
- [02:08]
B
Yeah. Well, I started my online business crusade about a year ago and I, I had my fourth child and I was determined to not go back to work. I didn't want to go back to nursing. As much as I like nursing, I just is a very Difficult job to do when you have a family. And so I was determined to do something that would allow me to stay home. And I started, funny enough, I started on Amazon, fba, which didn't work. I didn't like it. It was too risky. I was like, this is not for me. Then I went onto Etsy and I started doing website templates and it was going really well. And then my shop got shut down and I was never told why. And I appealed and I still was never told why. And so whilst I was going through the appeal process, I was like, but I can't just sit and do nothing. So I went onto Instagram and I came across an MRR course. And of course I fell for it, just like so many people. And when I purchased the course, I was like, okay, I see the process, I see how, how it works. But I had the course on my standstill one day and I took it off. I was like, I just don't feel right promoting something that isn't mine. It doesn't have. I don't have any connection to it. It just doesn't sit right with me. And then I came across you and. And then everything kind of made sense because I love the. The business idea of selling something digital online, but I didn't have anything of mine and I didn't think I. I just didn't have anything to offer. So I started following you and basically binging your content and I purchased your. The first thing I purchased from you was the digital toolkit, and I absolutely loved it. And so I started working on my own digital product, but I hadn't walked the walk. So I was trying to create a guide on how to sell a digital product when I hadn't sold digital products. And it just. I knew how to create it because I'm very creative, I know how to do designing, and I just didn't have the knowledge to sell online. So as I started promoting that product, not my first guide, a lot of people were commenting on my editing. So they were saying, oh, I really like how. How did you do these? And listening to people like you always say, you listen to what people are telling you. And so I thought, well, maybe, you know, maybe I need to start looking into editing because it comes really natural to me. I love it. And that's where I'm at my most creative. And I just love it. So I decided to create an editing course, Super Basic for beginners. And that's when I purchase your launch product.
- [05:16]
A
And Rich Girl launch.
- [05:17]
B
Yes. Everything went so smooth because when I First launched my first guide on how to sell digital products. It was a total fiasco. Like, I didn't know what I was doing. I just wanted to sell digital products and make money and it just. Nothing made sense. But when I purchased Rich Girl Launch and I really put the time and the effort into launching a product on something that I knew how to do, everything made sense. And I was able to have an amazing launch with under 2000 followers. I was just blown away on how, you know, when you really put the effort into it and you know how to hype your audience. It just. Yeah, it was absolutely amazing. And I was blown away. And so I messaged you literally the following week and I was like, you need to have me. I need to tell this story because it works.
- [06:11]
A
I love it. Do you remember how many people purchased your digital product during that launch?
- [06:17]
B
I. I remember make. I don't remember the amount of people. I just remember making over £2,000 in, like, in less than a month where I didn't have. It was like from zero to that. And it just blew my mind because.
- [06:34]
A
Yeah, under 2000 followers too.
- [06:36]
B
Yeah. Yeah. It's wild. Yeah.
- [06:39]
A
And I love what you said about when you put in the work. It works, right? And I think a lot of the time when people launch something the first time, it's not that they didn't put in the work, it's that they don't know how to launch. Like, launching is something that you learn by doing and you learn by kind of having a framework that is very flexible. I will say Rich Girl Launch, like, I do tell you what to do and I do have prompts, but I also leave room for you being able to do what works best for you. Because I'm a firm believer. Believer that you can have frameworks, you can have outlines, but you're always going to have, like, something slightly different based on you and what works best for you. And that's one of my favorite parts about Rich Girl Launch is that you're really able to take the strategies and prompts and things in there and make them your own and make it work for you. So I love that. Something else that I hear a lot is that people, like, I don't have enough followers, like, how am I going to sell something? And like, it's not really about the follower count. It's. It's more so about the connection that you've made with people first. And that's something that Rich Girl Launch goes over in depth, is like, you have to connect first and listen to people.
- [07:42]
B
One of my favorite things about that specific product was, like you said about the prompts when you launch in, there is so many elements. Like, there's so many things you have to think of and the timing and, you know, I think for me, having the prompts was such an amazing help because there was something that I didn't have to think of. And of course, I did put my, My, my spin on it. I didn't just copy and paste. But it was so helpful to have somebody telling you, look at this phase of the launch. It's advisable that you use this type of language. And then, you know, it's like, it was amazing. It was so helpful for me. I'm. Yeah, I loved it.
- [08:22]
A
That makes me so happy. Okay, so you launched your first digital product and then you pivoted, right? So your first one was all on editing, which something she said earlier. I wanted to point this out. She said she listened to her audience, right? And something that I think that MRR and like the world of MRR has convinced people is that you can launch a digital product on anything, even if you don't have experience. And I, I don't agree. I strongly believe that when you launch something, you need to have a personal story and a personal experience with it, because that's what people want, right? They want to connect with you. They want to see that you were able to do something and now you can teach them how to do it as well. So I love that you said when you first launched your first product, it just didn't feel right because it wasn't your expertise, right? And then instead of just scratching it and being like, okay, I'm done. She listened to what people want, which was editing, and created something on editing after that. So you launched that. It did. Amazing. What, what did you pivot into? Where, where. What are you doing now with digital products?
- [09:23]
B
So, because this product was aimed at beginners and it's. It really is for beginners. Like, I'm not going mental with, like, difficult edits or anything. I kept seeing a lot of my students had UGC attached to their handle, and it was like a repeated. I kept seeing that and I already knew a little bit about UGC because I heard you talk about UGC funny enough, but I never really paid any attention. And it was. Somebody actually said to me, why are you not selling? Like, you're teaching us how to create content? Why not selling your content? And I was like, I don't know. I don't even know what you're talking about. Like, What? What? And she said, brands, you know, you're teaching people how to sell their content to brands. And I was like, who's gonna want my content? Like, who am I? And anyway, she kind of introduced me into UGC. I looked into it and then on the 1st of November, 2024, I created my tick tock account, which was UGC only, like had all the SEO. It was optimized for UGC. And on my second week I landed a huge gig with a huge brand here in the uk. And again, it just blew my mind. I thought, who? Why? Like, who am I to be creating content for brands? And it just, it just made sense. So I started working into it and now I create UGC for brands, but I also teach people how to create content because that's how it all started. Really?
- [10:58]
A
Yeah.
- [10:59]
B
And it's all kind of beautifully linked together. And so I still have UGC creators that buy my course and I also create content for brands and it's beautiful. It actually fits really well with my lifestyle, with having four children and I'm able to manage that better than any other thing I've done before. So, yeah, it's, it's great.
- [11:21]
A
When you learn how to create content, you guys, the doors that will open to so many different things, not just digital products. Right? Like, digital products are obviously like my specialty. What I love, what I pour a lot of my time into. But you know, the brand deals, the UGC deals, which if you don't know what UGC is, it just stands for user Generated content. And basically it's where you're creating content for brands, but it never gets posted to your page. Right. It's for the brand to use, like run ads to post on their social media. So. So you're kind of like a behind the scenes influencer. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. But when you know how to create good content, so many doors will open for you. And I love that you've kind of meshed the two together. That's what I did in the beginning. I started, I was opposite though. I started with UGC and then I pulled in digital products. And then especially during all my health stuff, I was like, okay, I can't be creating crazy amounts of content for brands. It's too much. So I poured more into digital products and that's more kind of like my love. I love digital products and content and all those things. But it's so fascinating to see how, when you know how to show up online and create content that people are interested in, that it opens the doors to so many different things. So now you're doing digital products and content creation. Which one would you say you are doing more of? So like creating content for brands or more digital products?
- [12:42]
B
At the moment, I'm doing more UGC than digital products only because like you say many times, if you want to sell, you have to sell. Like you have to talk about it. And I find it. Whilst I'm going through this process of finding my feet with both of them, I am kind of falling behind on the talking about my digital product because it does take time and like, I'm putting a lot of my time in creating really good content for brands and I feel like that's falling behind. So I'm, to be honest, this is like the very beginning I'm finding my feet and for me, 2025 is all about finding that perfect balance where I will be able to do both, if that makes sense.
- [13:26]
A
Yeah, I talk about balance all the time as like, it doesn't exist. You can obviously like get better at doing two things, but it's hard to simultaneously kind of sell two very different things. I totally think it's possible this especially because as a UGC creator, like the content you're creating could also attract brands. So I think, I think that's awesome. And I think it's important to kind of diversify where your income is coming from. Not right at the start. Like, I'm not saying start off with four different types of income. That's not realistic. But in the beginning, really just be thinking about, okay, what are some other ways that I can pull revenue into my business doing things that also I love because I feel like UGC lights you up. Like you guys. There's no video for this podcast, but when she started talking about ugc, her whole body shifted and she just like lit up. And it's so important to not again, not just follow blindly into someone else's framework and do what they're doing. I feel like I got stuck with that a lot in the beginning because people were like, oh, you can't just sell digital products. You have to do one on ones. You have to do masterminds. And I tried everything. I did the masterminds, I did the one on ones. And while I loved them, I kind of always deep down knew like, this can't be a long term strategy for me. Other people, absolutely. If you want to do it and you love it, go for it. But it just wasn't what I had the capacity for. So I think it's really important when you're building your business to make sure that you're building it in a way that is sustainable for you, specifically. Like, you don't have to do things how anybody else does them if you don't want to.
- [14:57]
B
Exactly.
- [14:58]
A
I mean, I got told in the beginning that if I didn't have a $10,000 offer, there's no way I could hit a million in a year. And I didn't hit a million in a year, but I hit it in 15 months. And I just wanted to tell that person, like, stop telling people that they have to do something your way. Like, that's. That's not realistic for everybody else. I don't want a $10,000 offer. So I think it's really important, and Christina's story really, like, solidifies this, that you need to build a business doing things that you love and that you enjoy and that kind of work for you. And I will say with UGC content, when you have kids, it is kind of fun to, like, have a project and then be done with it. Whereas, like, with digital products, they can be more passive. Absolutely. But you do have to consistently show up on social media almost daily, if not daily, to kind of sell those products. So, yeah, I love that. Now, you mentioned earlier that in the beginning, when you were trying out, like, different side hustles and all the things, your Etsy store got taken down, which. Oh, my gosh. I just, like, there was, like, a pit in my stomach. Ridiculous.
- [15:59]
B
It is. I know, I know.
- [16:01]
A
Oh, my gosh. Now I'd love to hear. Feels like that was, like, a big hit. But what. Yeah, what else? Like, what happened when you were launching? Maybe did anything go wrong? And, like, how did you pivot? I feel like whenever we're trying something new, like, things are bound to go wrong.
- [16:14]
B
Well, for one, when I was trying to launch my first guide, I literally didn't have a clue what I was doing. I just. I knew how to build a digital product, and I had to design it, and it was all beautiful. You should have seen it. But it was selling it to, like, I didn't know who I was talking to. I didn't have a Persona. I didn't have a target audience. I didn't. I wasn't talking to anyone in particular. I was just. Because I was coming from the MRR background, where, you know, like, it's the wealth niche. You just talking to anyone that wants to make money. I didn't want to talk to everybody. Like, I needed to find someone, and it was only when I launched it and failed that people were sort of commenting on the actual edits. And I was like, damn, that's not what I'm selling. I was like, actually, these. These are my people. The people that are commenting are my people, and I need to talk to them. I don't need to talk to the. They don't, you know. Yes, they want to probably be wealthy because they want to learn the editing to then sell something.
- [17:19]
A
Yeah.
- [17:20]
B
But I don't care what, you know, what they want to do. I want. I care about them and they want this from me. And that's what I learned. I think for me, that was the biggest take on my failure, my first product, because it gave me my target audience. And for that, I'm so grateful.
- [17:38]
A
And I tell people this all the time, like, just get something out into the world and you will learn so much from doing that. Like, my first digital product, yes, it did well, but it also really opened up my eyes to what I liked more and what I wanted to help people more. And the same thing happened to me when I started talking about my UGC starter kit and how many people were grabbing it and being excited about it. People were like, oh, how do you market this? Oh, how do you create this? And again, I was just like, oh, I didn't realize people wanted to know this information. And when I launched my digital product starter kit, this was before the MRR boom. This was before, like, people knew about digital products. Like, I'd say in the last year or so, digital products have blown up. People know what it is now. They kind of recognize digital marketing and digital products because of the MRR boom.
- [18:24]
B
Yeah.
- [18:25]
A
But when I started, like, nobody knew any. Like, people weren't really teaching that. And so it just felt for me as well, like a great opportunity to be like, hey, I'm actually even more passionate about, like, content creation. That was like, kind of my first love. And then I did ugc. Right. And so being able to see, oh, people want this information from me. So if you want to launch something, just launch it. Like, you will learn so much more from launching something. Even if you don't have Rich Core launch, even if you just launch on your own and you just try, you will learn so much more from just launching something than you will from sitting around and overthinking and worrying about what you're going to do. And if it's perfect, I'm just going to be honest. Your first one's not going to be perfect. Mine wasn't.
- [19:08]
B
The problem is people tend to throw in the towel when they, they put a lot of effort into something and then it doesn't go well and they just give up. I remember from, there was loads of girls to join, bought this course from the same person. We were put into this big group and we were thrown in and neglected completely. But we made friends from that group and from that group, I think only one person still trying to sell, like they're all giving up. And I get it. Yeah, it was a sh. It was a shit model. It was a really terrible business model and it wasn't going to work for everybody. But they haven't tried to do something else, you know, like they just quit. And I think that's the difference between the people that make it like that. You just have to keep, get up and then change something and try again. And yeah, and that's what I've done basically from day one. Like Amazon, FBA didn't work. Like, my partner always laughs at me. He's like, oh, what are you doing this week? And I said, look, everything is a stepping stone to where I need to be and everything has taught me something and I don't regret anything. I mean, yes, I wish I'd found UGC sooner because it, like you say, it just lights me up. I love creating in the uk. It's always great. The minute the sun's out, I'm literally clearing the whole house. I'm like, right, it's recording day because I love it. And you know, that's my only regret. I wish I found it sooner, but other than that I just, yeah, you just have to get up, try again until you find something.
- [20:42]
A
Absolutely. And I think I really try to look at things not as failures, but like you said, a stepping stone. And the same thing goes for me. Like people, it looks from the outside like I was like an overnight success. But I, I created a reel on this once. Just like all the things I failed at before I hit this win in this right. And for years I self sabotage and I convinced myself that I could only be a right hand girl. Like I could not be the star of the show and have my own thing. I had to be a right hand girl. And I kept getting myself in these types of jobs and some of them were amazing and I learned so much from them. But again, I just kept kind of like belittling myself. And then I had a floral design business where I hardly made any profit from it. Like I always put more money into the flowers and more money into making it beautiful and I loved it. But again, I learned so much about business by owning that. And when I closed that business, I knew I was like, whatever I do next, the profit margins have to be different. Like, I cannot be sacrificing, you know, making money for my family just because I want to make something prettier. Because I do. I love to make things beautiful, and I am a creator at heart, and I loved designing and making and getting the expensive peonies and all the. To make it perfect for them, but then it was at the cost of me making any money from it. Right.
- [21:55]
B
Yeah.
- [21:56]
A
And so all those things that I wouldn't even call them failures, all those things that I tried. When I finally started this business, I had so many things from those past stepping stones that I was able to pull in and either replicate or do very differently because of what I had learned before. So I love how you say they're stepping stones. It's so true. So if you're someone that's listening and you kind of haven't found what you're passionate about yet, or found what, like, your little. Your little corner of the Internet where you feel comfortable and you found your people and you know what you want to sell, you're on the right track, you're going there.
- [22:28]
B
Yeah.
- [22:29]
A
But you can't give up. Like, you do have to continuously try and try new things, and if one thing doesn't work, try something else. Like, it's never going to hurt to try something else. And I know it can feel discouraging when you are doing something and you're like, I really want this to work. Like, I really want this to work. But your brain listens to what you're saying. So if you're like, hey, this is never gonna be successful. It probably won't. Like, honestly, it probably won't. So you really kind of have to just. I go into everything that I try new. Like, okay, this is. I'm. I'm going for it. Whether this is, like, monetarily successful or not, I'm just going for it. And I will take that over, you know, talking myself out of it any day. Um, so I would love it if you could share one piece of advice for anyone who has a smaller audience or. Well, we'll do two different pieces of advices. So if somebody has a small audience, what piece of advice would you give them for creating and selling their own digital product?
- [23:25]
B
I think the most important thing that you can do is to find your audience. Like, Even if it's 500 people, talk to that people, because it will pay off. Like, you will create a connection and that connection will last, and they will buy from you. Not only your first launch, but you're following one and the other one because they love. I have launched a couple of other things since. And I have people that are messaging me, asking me, like, when is this coming? Or, you know, like, when you create connections, even if it's a small audience, is so much more gratifying than having 100,000 followers. And, yeah, I think creating that connection, talking to that one, One type of person, the content will come so much more easy and natural.
- [24:18]
A
Yeah, absolutely. And anytime people are like, oh, my audience is so small. It's only 500 people. I tell them, Google, 500 people. That's not a small audience. Social media has, like, distorted our brains into thinking, like, 500, 200, even 50 people is a small amount of people. It's absolutely not a small amount of people. So I always, even for me, sometimes when I feel discouraged, like, I only gained this many followers this week, I Google it and I'm like, girl, stop, Enough. No, we're not thinking like that.
- [24:48]
B
Yeah.
- [24:48]
A
Okay, one last thing. If you could give anyone a piece of advice thinking of pivoting, what would it be? Because I know a lot of people, they kind of dig their heels in when they're like, this is what I decided to do, so I have to do this forever. And it's just. It's not true at all. Someone who pivoted herself, it's absolutely not true.
- [25:06]
B
No way. My advice would be, go for it. Just do it, because you're going to regret not doing it sooner. And again, if you do it and it doesn't work, do it again. There is no rules. Like, you're your own boss, is your own business, and no one's going to be looking at you going, oh, look at her. She's changed. Again, like, no, you do what you want to do and what lights you up. This is the thing. At the end of the day, you want to do something that shines through your content, and when you love what you do, it shows. And that's the end of the story. Because when your content is good, you make connections. Those connections turn into sales, and that's it. Like, that's. That's the end goal, isn't it?
- [25:46]
A
Absolutely. Well, Christina, thank you so much for joining me today. This was so much fun, you guys. I will link her Instagram down below for you guys. I know. I always love to go stalk people's Instagram after they're on a podcast and just kind of get to know a little bit more about them. And you guys, if, if you wouldn't mind, when you are done listening to this episode, don't don't turn it off yet. I know it's so easy at the end to turn it off. If you could go to wherever you listen to podcasts, either Spotify or Where's the other one Spotify or Apple podcasts wherever and leave a review. I did not realize the importance of the ratings and reviews on my podcast, but apparently they're really important. So if you guys could go leave a review after you listen to this episode, I would appreciate so much. Love you, mean it and I will see you 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.