← The Abigail Peugh Podcast
The Abigail Peugh Podcast
54. How Kristen Turned Low Tox Living into a Viral, Life-Changing Digital Product Business
00:48:43
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- [00:00]
Kristin
Foreign.
- [00:04]
Abigail Pugh
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. Today's guest is someone that I actually became good friends with on Instagram. We've never met in person, we almost did last month, but it, it didn't work out. But I just feel like her story has so many similarities to my personal story and you guys will kind of understand that in a minute. But she has a passion for low tox living and holistic health after overcoming chronic illness and mold toxicity, which I hate that I know other people that have gone through similar mold stories that I have, but I love that I have people that I can kind of talk to about these things. But she turned her background of graphic design and photography into her current social media business where she shares digital products about low tox swaps and holistically minded pregnancy and birth with her audience of over 235,000 people. Which something I love about Kristin and her story is that she took something really hard in her life that like the mold toxicity and the chronic illness and she learned how to remove toxins from her home and how to just live a lower toxic life because truly like non toxic doesn't exist. Um, but she took that and turned it into literally an entire business, which is what I teach people to do all the time. Like take something that you've gone through that you figured out and turned that into a digital product business. So, Kristin, welcome to the show.
- [02:10]
Kristin
Thank you so much. I've been literally looking forward to this for so long, so I'm glad it's finally happening.
- [02:16]
Abigail Pugh
Oh my gosh. I know she went to the Stan Collab fest last month and I almost went. It was like a hard week scheduling thing and I Just couldn't make it. But I was like, dang it, we could have met in person. You know, there's just some people that you know, like, you know them online and you're like, I know we'd be really good friends if we lived in the same city. I don't live in the same city as any of those people for me. But I digress. Kristen, tell us a little bit about how you got into digital products and all that fun stuff.
- [02:42]
Kristin
Yeah, well, so like you said, I. I kind of started my social media journey with a passion to share about my health experiences with other people that might be going through the same thing. Because I found that going through chronic illness and going through mold, there weren't a lot of people that I knew of that were talking about those things in the circles that I was, like, in or following online. So I just started very, like, organically talking about what I was going through with my friends. Because when I first started sharing on social media, which was back in like 2019, I really just had only people that I knew in real life that followed me. And I was terrified to start posting beyond just like a picture of my husband or something. And I just started talking about, like, hey, I'm chronically ill and like, here are the things I'm trying to do to get out of this. And the response was crazy because a lot of my friends were like, oh my gosh, like, actually, I have a chronic illness too, and I didn't know anyone else who had one. And just all of the messages started, started pouring in of people being like, share more about what you're going through. And I just started posting about, like, every single non toxic swap I was making in the efforts of improving my health. And over the years, I started to actually heal from my chronic illness. It's called interstitial cystitis. And in 2020, I had like my last flare ever. Like, I literally have not had a single flare since 2020. And so that was just such a cool, like, testament to be able to say, like, these lifestyle changes I've been making are really working. And that drew in the attention of a lot more people. And my Instagram just started kind of organically growing. And I decided that it would make a lot of sense for me to create a digital product. I knew literally squat about creating. I was like, okay, like, I have a degree in graphic design. I can put together like a cool brochure thingy that teaches people about low talks swap. And so I'm like, you know, like, refusing to use Canva because I'm like a very proud graphic designer. And like, if you use Canva and you have a graphic design degree, you're literally like going to hell. But she's.
- [04:41]
Abigail Pugh
It's sarcasm, you guys. You can use Canva. I promise you're fine.
- [04:45]
Kristin
Actually, it's shameful. But I do use Canva now because shame everyone else that I work with, like my assistants and stuff, they. They need to use Canva. So I've, I've switched over.
- [04:56]
Abigail Pugh
It's gotten better. I feel like Canva's on a different level now than it was in 2020. And it's different using it to create a digital product than like if you were a graphic designer and that's the only thing you used to design things. Like, that's totally different in my opinion.
- [05:10]
Kristin
Please do not try to design a logo in Canva. Like, I will cry. I will cry. Anyway, I'm like making this brochure in like Adobe InDesign, which like, doesn't have any features for hyperlinks or anything like that. So I'm putting in like 200 links to low tox products and I'm literally having to like go in and do them all manually. It's. It was worth it. I made my first digital product and I launched it at the end of 2022 and I sold it here and there on my social media for like all of 2023. And I made a whopping like $1200 in the entire year. And I was like, okay, this one didn't go great. I like had a few, like three.
- [05:48]
Abigail Pugh
I mean, that's still 100 bucks a month, like not terrible.
- [05:51]
Kristin
I mean like date night, like a little extra with like fun shopping. But like, I was like, I feel like there's a lot more potential here. And so at the end of 2023, I said I need to get a lot more specific about what I'm going to do. And so I need to. I need to not just have a guide that's like low talk swaps in general. I need to target someone more specific. And so I started thinking through, like, what do I know a lot about that? I can really answer a specific question for a specific type of person. And one of the most common questions I was getting on Instagram at the time was how do I pick non toxic things for my baby? And so what I did is I went on Baby List, which is the website that most people use to make a baby registry. And I went through every single category that they have on Baby List in the order that they have it on Baby List. And I found a non toxic swap or two or three or five for each category. And then I turned it into a digital product. And it's literally laid out in the exact same form format as baby list is. So when someone would go in to make their registry, you can literally go onto Babylist and plug in every single item from my guide or whichever prefer and like create your registry on baby list still with non toxic products. And so I created this guide and I started promoting it on my Instagram. And then I started following real trends a little bit more. And actually I think it was around this time I started following you when you were making the transition from UGC to digital products. Because at the time I was looking for more ways to bring an income. And I remember finding your account from my for you page. And I like remember telling my husband like, babe, I think UGC might be like my thing. I was like, I'm gonna follow. Your mom was like, you know I have like this, such this great photography background. Like I can make good videos. I'm like, great talking on camera. I'm super confident doing that. I think I should start doing ugc. And he was like, okay babe, whatever you want. He's like, whatever next random idea you have for yourself, like forever the weird entrepreneur or whatever, forever Abigail's going to teach me all about ugc. And then you like switched to digital products and I was like, great, even better.
- [07:54]
Abigail Pugh
And oh my gosh, I love that.
- [07:56]
Kristin
So then I started following like real trends and I started like watching your account and other people who are using like trending things on social media to like create really great reels with good hooks and like growing your audience and like turning that into sales. And I started just paying attention to that stuff a little bit more. And so then around January of 2024, I was pregnant. I was like 38 weeks pregnant and I had three reels go viral all at the same time.
- [08:21]
Abigail Pugh
Oh my gosh.
- [08:22]
Kristin
We're all targeting my baby registry guide for non toxic swaps. And so my account grew from 18,000 to 130,000 in six weeks from those three reels. And then also that's fast.
- [08:38]
Abigail Pugh
Oh my gosh.
- [08:39]
Kristin
Like having a baby at the same time. Oh my gosh. It was a lot of like emotions because it was like exciting and also like so many people were commenting on my reels asking for the link to my non toxic baby registry guide. And I was getting a ton of customers and I was like, this is life changing. This is Literally life changing. My husband is. Was at the time, halfway through medical school, and it's literally $40,000 a year. I think it's a semester per semester.
- [09:09]
Abigail Pugh
It's a lot. It's a lot of money to become a doctor.
- [09:13]
Kristin
I was the only breadwinner and I was just doing, like, photography and like, whatever I could scrape by from social media. So, like, having all of those people come in all at once and then like buying my guide and then DMing me and being like, this guide is life changing. Like, this has been everything I needed in my pregnancy. Like, now I know exactly what products are safe. Like, just getting all that feedback from people was so motivating to me of like, oh my gosh, I actually can make a huge difference in the world by these digital products. And then I went on in 2024, after I had my son. I went on to release five more guides in 2024. And that's when I became an Abigail Pugh student. I took Rich Girl Launch and used your techniques from Rich Girl Launch to really prime my audience better and launch things better. And then the stats of my launches for each guide got better each time as I was seeing what I learned from your training.
- [10:06]
Abigail Pugh
Oh, my gosh, that's so cool. I knew you'd bought one of them, but I didn't. I couldn't remember which one. I probably should have looked it up before, but we've become, like, friends now, so I didn't even think. I totally forgot. You use Rich Girl Launch. That's so cool. It's crazy when, like, you can totally launch without a plan and just see how it goes. Like my first one, I didn't have a plan and I. I don't necessarily recommend that, but I'll never be like, you need this to do this. Like, you can figure out anything on your own. But I do think, like, having a plan and being able to follow something when you don't necessarily have the data yet for, like, this works or this doesn't work. Like, I have so much data on what works and I poured all of that into Rich Girl Launch. So I love that. Also backtrack a little bit. I love that you took off when you were having your baby. Like, that is like the epitome of what digital products can be. And like, I've said this before, like, I don't really use the term passive income because, like, the work and the time was put in just at a different time. And that's exactly how it happened for you. Like, all this work and all this learning was poured into this and then it took off. While you were able to go and be with. What do you call your son? Is it Marshmallow?
- [11:10]
Kristin
Oh, that's my daughter. My daughter and my son is Casserole. We have their little like Internet nicknames.
- [11:17]
Abigail Pugh
She doesn't call them by name or show their faces, but she calls them Casserole and Marshmallow and it cracks me up. But the fact that you were giving birth to Casserole and your digital products and your reels were just taking off, like, I love that part of your story.
- [11:31]
Kristin
Oh my gosh, that was so fun. Literally. So I had a home birth and if you haven't picked up on this, now I'm like basically the world's crunchiest mom. But I had a home birth and after I gave birth, I'm like back in my bed holding my baby. This is like a couple hours after birth and I pull up my phone and I opened up Stan and I was like, hey, babe, look how much money I made while I was giving birth.
- [11:51]
Abigail Pugh
Oh my gosh, that's like the coolest thing ever to be able to do. And just knowing that, I love the way that you created it too. Like going straight into baby list and seeing like, okay, these are the products it's recommending. This is full of chemicals or toxins. Like, here's a better option. That's so genius because that took so much work off of your plate too. Instead of thinking like, what do people need? Like, that was such a smart move. I used Babylist for my daughter who's almost five, so sick almost six years ago now. Like, crazy how long ago that was. But you're right, there was not some. They have some. I will say I think they have more non toxic options on there now, but it's hard to tell, like with non toxic stuff. Like, I think Kristen's probably the only person who's like slightly crunchier than me. If you didn't know that about me, I am a very crunchy person. And again, a lot of it came from not feeling good years ago and just feeling like crap and diving into like, I eat normal, why do I feel like this? And then realizing, oh, I wasn't really taking care of myself the way I thought. I digress. It's a long story, but just seeing that you kind of took all that and realized, hey, people don't know. They don't know what to buy. And it's such a simple digital product, but one that is like life changing for people that don't know how to do the research. And like she was saying, like her husband's about to become a doctor, like he's about to start his residency. Right. So I love that you're also coming from a side of, like you understand the other side of it too. Like you're not, your family is not against using, you know, things in the medical system when necessary. So I really loved that you kind of, you're coming from a background of both almost, which I love that. And I feel like a lot of people in the space of non toxic are not. And it can, it can get dangerous. Like I do like feel like some people like recommend things where I'm like, data doesn't support any of that. Like I don't, you know, so it gets a little dicey. So I love that you are coming from both sides when you are kind of doing your research and helping other moms to know, like, okay, this product is better than that product. So you launched that one. It did. Amazing. What did you do after that? Like you launched your first product. Did you have like your whole product suite in mind or did you kind of let your audience tell you this is what we need?
- [14:01]
Kristin
Yeah. So I had some ideas of what I wanted to do next and I really thought like, what's the best way I can nurture this new audience? Because the audience was literally brand new to my page at that point. So I was like, I have all of these new faces, literally over a hundred thousand new people here. How can I go from here and really prove to them that I am an expert on non toxic swaps and also earn their trust at the same time? So I really did start asking, like, for those of you who purchased my baby guide, which I call Organa Baby. And I kind of love that because my like Instagram name is the Organa Mama. And then I used that kind of tag for every guide. So I have like Organa Baby. And I was like, all right, the next installment in this lineup of guides is going to be Organa something. But I need to figure out what do people need? And so I started just asking people and I started kind of paying attention to the questions I was getting in dms. What kinds of things are people asking me for the most? What kinds of swaps are people interested in? And it really was a lot of kitchen questions, like what kind of blender, what kind of air fryer, what kind of dishes? What about like, you know, paint for my house? What about, are there any non toxic rugs? Are there any what, what kind of cleaning products do you recommend? So I was like, okay, all of these I can lump together into like the home category, like home goods and furnishings. So I'm going to make Organa Home. And so that's what I did. So I had Organa Baby that was doing really well and I continued to promote that. But then I like started teasing that Organa Home was coming and I started trying to get feedback on like what specific things people wanted in there. So if Organa Baby was like very expansive for baby products, Organa Home was like three times as long because literally had everything in it, like every kitchen product, paint, flooring, electronic devices, like how to reduce EMFs, how to prevent mold, like it covered all the things that somebody would want on a wedding registry. That was kind of where I went first because like baby registry. What other big events are people looking to like fully furnish a home? A wedding registry. So I have that in mind. But then I added more too because I know there's people who already own a home, who already have all these things that also want to have a guide like this in their back pocket anytime they need to make a switch to something new. So that was Organa Home. That one I launched like four months later. I think I was like three months postpartum maybe when that one came out. And then people loved it. I got like all kinds of great reviews and, and also some, you know, critical feedback too of like, hey, this formatting thing was a no for me, or like I wish there was more pictures and stuff like that. So I took all that feedback and then went back to the drawing board again of like, okay, now my loyal customers who have bought Organa Baby and Organa Home, now what are they asking for? And it was personal care products because that was not part of home. So then I launched Organa Beauty and that's when I use Rich Girl launch. And that was great because I actually ran a pre sale for that one and allowed people to get. I can't remember if they got a special price on the pre sale or if they got to submit products that they wanted me to include. But anyways, they had like a special benefit to like pre ordering. And then so you made money before.
- [17:13]
Abigail Pugh
You even created it, which is amazing. Oh yeah, Genius. Oh yeah.
- [17:18]
Kristin
It was so great. And I was like, okay, this is, this is literally genius. And it's motivation for me to keep making it because I'm like, people have already pre ordered and the guide is only like halfway written, like, and it.
- [17:29]
Abigail Pugh
Gives you a deadline that you're like I can't. There's no. I remember you DMing me then I think where you're like, okay, like the pre sales hopping, like here we go. It really makes you finish it faster because you committed to it.
- [17:41]
Kristin
And I'm like the ultimate procrastinator. So I work very well under pressure. And when I'm like several hundred people pre ordered this and they're all expecting it on this day at this hour, like that is good motivation to me. But I will say that also met multiple like almost all nighters where I was trying to finish and like sending it to like four different people to proofread it for me and all of that stuff. So a little stressful right at the.
- [18:03]
Abigail Pugh
End, but yes, absolutely. And I'd probably never recommend doing pre sale for your first product. Yeah, I think down the line when you're like, hey, I know I want to create this, but I want to get paid to create it and you know what it takes to deliver. Like you'd already done what, two or three products at the time when you launched this, so you knew what it took. You will rarely see me recommending making a pre sale for your first offer. A. Because people don't know you, they don't trust you. Like you had all these people that knew you and trusted you from your previous products. So it was kind of like a no brainer to be like, oh, of course I want the next one. I loved the first two.
- [18:35]
Kristin
Yep. And I will say it was mostly people who had bought Organababy and or Organa Home that pre ordered Organa Beauty because they already knew what to expect.
- [18:43]
Abigail Pugh
Absolutely. Okay, so you launched that one and then I feel like you also do a really good job of. So she is also an affiliate for a company called Crunchy, right? Is that what it's called?
- [18:52]
Kristin
It's.
- [18:53]
Abigail Pugh
It's an actual name. It's like a makeup company. Um, and she's an affiliate for that, so she talks about that a lot in her content. So you're kind of like double, double dipping almost. Well, you're selling affiliate products but you're also selling your guide for those personal products. Do you link your affiliate products within your digital product?
- [19:11]
Kristin
Oh, absolutely. My digital products are full of affiliate links and some of them are just like Amazon links and some of them are through like, like to know it and. But anything that I can affiliate link I will. But also that does. I don't not share a good swap just because I don't have an affiliate link for it. Like that feels like wrong. So if there's a good swap, I'm going to share it. And then if there's a way for me to like make that an affiliate link, I will. So I'll reach out to like 50 different companies as I'm writing a new guide and be like, hey, can I join your affiliate program? And you know, some of them will add me and some of them will never respond. But yeah. So I do affiliate linking in my guide. So it is kind of a double whammy because I have people who buy the guides and then they go in and they're like, okay, I need a new liquid foundation. So they'll go into my Organa beauty guide. They'll look under the makeup section, they'll go to the foundation section, and then they'll click on the one that says that I use it because I give multiple options for every category that I can. But I'll also denote, like, this is the product that I choose to use.
- [20:11]
Abigail Pugh
Got it.
- [20:11]
Kristin
A lot of times that goes a long way for people. They're like, I want to use what she's using because I trust her.
- [20:15]
Abigail Pugh
Absolutely.
- [20:15]
Kristin
I, that's a blessing that people trust me.
- [20:18]
Abigail Pugh
Well, and like, when someone's used something, you know that you'll probably like it if you align with them a lot of other things. Right. Like, you would. Wouldn't recommend something that you don't love. So it goes a long way.
- [20:27]
Kristin
Yeah, absolutely. So then people will buy that. And it's my affiliate link there. So then I'm making commission on that. So it's like basically anytime someone purchases a guide, I don't expect that, that, you know, $25 they spend on that guide is going to be the only commission I will make off of that purchase because then I expect that they'll reuse it and go back through and buy another affiliate link. So it's, it's the gift that keeps on giving.
- [20:49]
Abigail Pugh
Was that your, that was your most recent product, right?
- [20:52]
Kristin
Actually, no.
- [20:53]
Abigail Pugh
So I have one more.
- [20:54]
Kristin
I've done two more since then. So I, in the fall I launched, I took a break from my Organa guides and I wrote a massive guide on pregnancy and birth which covered like so much information. And that one was super fun. And that was actually, that was my second best selling guide.
- [21:11]
Abigail Pugh
Oh, wow.
- [21:12]
Kristin
Because so much of my audience is moms or aspiring moms. It's like super long and it has like literally every topic you could imagine covered. And it's kind of doing pregnancy and birth from a holistic point of view, but without being like judgmental of your choice and kind of like laying out what are your options for all kinds of things. So I launched that in the fall and then in December of this past year I launched Organa Wear, which was non toxic. Clothing, shoes and accessories.
- [21:40]
Abigail Pugh
Dang, even our accessories are toxic.
- [21:43]
Kristin
Yeah.
- [21:45]
Abigail Pugh
Oh my gosh. Everything. You guys will go down the rabbit hole. If you look on her page. It is. It's amazing. Her content's really good too. And very. You do such a good job of edutaining where you're educating, but also entertaining, which I love. She started doing some skits recently, or not skits. Like she takes the melody from a popular song and she'll write her own version about something non toxic. And it is hilarious. I love it so much. So, okay, you have all those products out, which first I want to know the pricing on them because they're all low ticket. Right. And then I'd love to know which one, I think you mentioned already which one has been your best seller because I feel like you just shared somewhere that you had like over 10,000 sales. 10,000. Which is insane. That is incredible. Like so many lives you're impacting. But yeah, I'd love to know the pricing and which one has been your best seller.
- [22:31]
Kristin
Yeah, so the pricing has changed a little bit, I think. Like when I first launched Organa baby, it was $18. I think it was like 17.99. So super low ticket. And I used to promote it by saying that it costs less than a single organic cotton baby onesie. $25. Thanks. And fleet.
- [22:50]
Abigail Pugh
Oh my gosh.
- [22:52]
Kristin
But yeah, that was always what I would be like, it's cheaper than a single organic cotton onesie.
- [22:56]
Abigail Pugh
So funny.
- [22:57]
Kristin
So yeah, that one was like 18. And then after it had been kind of out there for a while, I decided to increase the price to 25 because I felt like at that point I had had enough reviews that it was worth more than I was selling it for. So I increased the price and also had a huge influx of orders when I announced that the price was going up. So good tactic if you're like, I'm having a low month. Just like increase the price of one of your products and give a countdown to it and you'll get a bun.
- [23:23]
Abigail Pugh
Let people know.
- [23:24]
Kristin
Yeah, yeah. And then pretty much everything was scalable from there. So I kind of took like the concept of what Organa Baby was worth and kind of like use that as a template for how I would price everything else. So like Organa Home had a lot more stuff in it than Organa Baby. And so I think Organa Home landed at. I think I launched it at, like, $50. Oh. Or maybe 45. I can't remember. But it sold really well at that price. And then I eventually ended up knocking that price down a little bit when I launched my pregnancy guide in the fall, because that one was even longer, and I wanted to launch that one at 50. So anyways, everything has shifted around a little bit, but it's all low ticket. Most of my guides are, like, between 18 and 25. And then I have a couple that are in, like, the 4050 range.
- [24:12]
Abigail Pugh
I love that. Now, let's switch gears a little bit. I want to talk about your Instagram growth first. I would love to know those reels that went viral. Do you remember which ones they were and kind of, like, what they were talking about? And then I want to talk about series, because I feel like you absolutely crush it with your series that you do. And I feel like series right now are kind of the way to grow and create community on Instagram. But tell me a little bit about the first ones that kind of went viral and kind of skyrocketed your growth. Like, that's insane.
- [24:42]
Kristin
Yeah. So the first reel that really took off was. It was a trend back in January of 20, and it was one of those POV trends where it's like, POV and then you, like, film, like, it was little footage of me from. From a trip to California. I was pregnant, and I'm, like, standing in front of this, like, cute arch, and I'm, like, posing with my pregnant belly. And the caption was, POV, you're having a baby in 2024, and you want a low tox registry. And you find my page so simple. Very simple.
- [25:15]
Abigail Pugh
So simple, but so specific. That's the key there, is that it's so specific for who that reel was for.
- [25:20]
Kristin
Yeah. So that reel and it had, like, the trending audio that was like the Kanye west and Backstreet Boys remix song. And I don't know why. I mean, I just picked it because it was trending and I didn't, which is. It's so funny because then I listened back to it. I was like, oh, my gosh. Because multiple people had commented on that reel and be like, why would you choose this audio for this reel? It's, like, so inappropriate. And I was like, what do you mean? And then, like, I really listened back to it, and it's like the clip of them going, am I sexual? And I was like, oh, my baby bump. Oh, my Gosh, I literally like did not even like register that that was what the lyrics were. But it was like a. It was a five second reel. It was super short, so obviously like looped a lot. And as people were reading my very long caption, it like pushed it out to the algorithm because the caption was kind of like explaining exactly what I would offer to people and what problems I would solve to them by them buying organization. And so that brought in. That reel alone probably brought in close to 70,000 followers. And it had, I think it was maybe 5 million views. And you know, so it went viral.
- [26:28]
Abigail Pugh
To the right people for sure. Because 70k for that amount of views, like, obviously that's an insane amount of views, but a lot of time I feel like people get these crazy views and then the followers are good. But 70,000, like that's insane.
- [26:41]
Kristin
It was nuts. It was truly nuts. And like, I remember because I had been at 18,000 and then the reel started kind of getting some traction and I hit 20,000 and we had like a party with my family to celebrate 20K on Instagram. And then literally the next day, 5,000. And I was like, another party celebration.
- [26:58]
Abigail Pugh
Guys, maybe we should have waited. Yeah.
- [27:03]
Kristin
And like I ran like, I ran a giveaway on my Instagram for like 20,000, like celebrating 20,000. And it was like a five day giveaway so people could enter for five days. And by the time the giveaway was over, I was almost at a hundred thousand followers.
- [27:16]
Abigail Pugh
Oh my gosh.
- [27:19]
Kristin
Are you gonna do another giveaway? I was like, I guess so.
- [27:24]
Abigail Pugh
Oh my gosh, that's so great.
- [27:25]
Kristin
It was really funny. But yeah, so okay, so that was the first reel. The second reel was I literally took the exact same concept as I was writing Organa Home like a month later. And it was a video of me drying dishes in my kitchen, like clean dishes. And it said, pov, you want a non toxic kitchen? And you found my account. And that one like similarly did like maybe 50,000, had like 4 million views. Oh my gosh. And it got people on the wait list for Organa Home.
- [27:53]
Abigail Pugh
Oh, genius.
- [27:55]
Kristin
Yeah. And so that was like those were the two biggest ones. And then I had like two or three others all at the same time that were in like the 2 million view range that brought in, you know, like 10 or 15,000 a piece. So that was really nuts. And that's wild. I feel like it was disappointing to me when that trend started not working so well anymore because I tried to make more like in those following months and I was like, this trend is kind of fading.
- [28:23]
Abigail Pugh
Yeah, I feel like they don't go mega viral anymore, but I feel like they still bring in, like, I notice when I do those types of ones, like, as long as I'm super specific and kind of call out unique things that I teach. Because what I teach, like, a lot of people now, especially with, like, master resell routes, like, everybody talks about digital products now, right? And so I have to get, like, definitely way more specific. But I feel like they're still good for letting people know, like, exactly who you are and what you are going to get from following you. So now, I think I just checked, you're at like, 235,000 followers now. What is growth looking like now? Is it like a slow and steady now? I feel like there's a lot of the time it's like really big pivots forward and then slow and steady for a while. At least that's how I've grown. But I think the way for me, Instagram growth has worked is it's like big spurts and then slow and steady, slow and steady, slow and steady. Big spurts. And I'm curious, like, is that how it's been for you?
- [29:18]
Kristin
Yeah, it has been like that for me. I think definitely when I was a smaller creator, I think the algorithm was a little friendlier to me. And now that I have a lot of followers, it's a lot slower. Also, I post a lot of hot takes. And so whenever I post something that I know is going to be slightly controversial, I see a dip in followers because there will be people who are like, ah, this girl's trash. They're, like, unfollowing me. But I mean, hey, I feel like posting those, like, hot take kind of things actually helps because it means I'm nurturing my community. I'm keeping the people that really like should be there.
- [29:53]
Abigail Pugh
And honestly, like, your content should attract and repel. Like, if you're not repelling, you're not getting specific enough because you want people to like you and not like you. Like, there has. It can't be lukewarm. You never want people in your audience to feel lukewarm about you. Like, that is. That is not the goal. So, okay, you're growing like crazy. You have all these digital products. You've done over 10,000, like, sales. Like, you've helped over 10,000 people. What are you kind of looking to next? Like, I'm so excited to see, like, are you just. Just like, I don't know. Where are you going?
- [30:27]
Kristin
Yeah. Okay, well, you're gonna be the first one to know the official plans for the rest of the year. And I guess everyone who listens to this, but here we go. Actually right now, at the end of, I don't know what when this episode's gonna air, but it's currently mid April. At the end of April, I'm actually teaching a master class on Instagram growth and monetization just because I get so many questions about it. And I have a lot of people who reach out to me and they're specifically asking like, I want to learn this from a content creator who's not specializing in growth and sales. I want to learn it from somebody who has a niche that's like specific and it's not like, like social media expert. I guess I'm like, well, I'll be happy to compile. Like I'm not an expert on this, but I do feel like I have a lot of things I've learned over the last year and a half that I'm excited to share with people. So that's my first like high ticket item and I'm really excited to kind of cultivate a community of like aspiring content creators from, from this launch. And I plan to also sell the recording of that training if it goes well. I like all of all my words and I'll be like, eh, maybe not. But I'm planning to sell it on my stand store in retrospect. And then the next big project is that I am currently working on launching a cookbook. This has been like much requested and highly awaited by many, many, many people.
- [31:46]
Abigail Pugh
So I've seen you priming, I'm like, oh, here we go.
- [31:50]
Kristin
Gathering a wait list for people that want the update on it. So I'm writing a cookbook and then I'm also going to turn that into a subscription based community for that recurrent revenue. Currently all of my like income streams are like resetting every month. You know, if I'm like working out a month to month basis, it's like, okay, I need to sell X number of guides to hit my goal for the month, whatever. So I really want to have a place where I can pour into people and know like they're subscribing and unless they're like leaving the community, I can count on that recurrent revenue. I know you talk about this all the time, so yeah, that's, yeah, it's going to be for like relating to food. I still have to hash out some of the details, but it's essentially it's going to be like A group for people to get meal planning and grocery lists delivered right to them every single week. Because I feel like a lot of moms are struggling to come up with healthy meals for their family. And then you get to 4pm and you're like, like, well crap. I. Well I guess moms or dads or whoever cooks for the family because I know your husband cooks for you guys.
- [32:49]
Abigail Pugh
I'm like, I don't do the cookie.
- [32:51]
Kristin
But like for whoever it is that's like meal planning for the family. Who wants to be like a saving money on food because eating out is way more expensive than cooking. Which like that always confuses people because I'm like, no, literally if you buy all organic groceries, you will still spend less if you eat only at home than if you eat out at all. So anyways, I'm trying to help people like do that on a more practical level and have a community where they can toss around recipes with each other. If they're like, like, hey, this recipe this week had dairy in it. Does anyone have a recommended substitute for the cheese? And someone can be like, oh yeah, I use this. And just more of a collaborative cooking group. And then everybody who joins that community will have access to the cookbook in addition to the weekly meals and meal plan, like grocery list that gets sent out.
- [33:36]
Abigail Pugh
So that's amazing. I feel like that's such a natural progression. It's the same that I took where I did all these one off offers to see what do I love, what am I passionate about, what is like my, I don't know, like what lights me up the most. And then after, what was it like? Think like two years of selling products where it was like a one time payment, like there was no reoccurring. I then went mainly to reoccurring because I figured out what I love and I actually recommend that to people. Like I would say spend a few years, like one or two years growing your audience, launching the things you want to launch, see what goes well, see what you enjoy creating and then go to the reoccurring thing once you've kind of seen what you enjoy, what your audience loves from you. Because one off digital product sales are amazing and you're still able to help people and they're still wonderful. And if you don't have reoccurring yet, there's nothing wrong with that. But at some point it's just really nice to have it within your business and it gives you a lot more flexibility to try other things. If you're like, okay, I kind of know the base that I make every single month from the reoccurring things. Now I can go and try something a little bit different. Like I've been working in more like food content into my stuff and not necessarily like turning into a food blogger, but like I love food and I love eating food and turning things that are not usually healthy into something healthier. So I'm not necessarily showing up and being like, here's this recipe. Like I just the other day I like tested these aren't super non toxic, but they're not the worst. But they're these like sour grapes. And they had them at Costco. And it's not something like I would probably, I'll probably buy the bag once. Like I just wanted to try them. But I like reviewed them while I talked about digital products. And it was like really fun to kind of work in some of my other passions into it because I have the reoccurring revenue so I can take a little bit more risk on my content, which I've had a lot of fun doing that. So I really want to talk about your series though. I feel like you do such a good job and you created one that like has endless possibilities for it. And I want to know like, has the series helped you grow and nurture people? Do you feel like it's bingeable to where people come to your page and they're like, oh my gosh, this is part whatever, like 30. That means there's 30 before this that I get to watch.
- [35:43]
Kristin
Yes. Okay, so for those of you who are like what I series back in October of 2024 and it was 31 days of swaps. So for all 31 days of October, I filmed a talking head reel of myself talking about one individual thing and giving like talking about why it may not be the best for your health and then providing a non toxic swap. And then it was comment for the link on every single one. And so that series, because it was so concentrated and that was like the only thing I was posting for 31 days. It did amazing. And probably I had out of all 31 of those reels, I had one that went viral. It was for shampoo and conditioner and it brought in probably 10,000 followers. So I was like pleased with like 31 days of swaps that provided not only bingeable content for my current audience, but one of those went viral and brought in like like 10,000 new followers. I thought that was a great outcome. And people seem to really enjoy that style of video of me talking and For a lot of them, I was, like, being really silly. And actually the one where I was, like, the most silly was the one that went viral because it was like a clip of me, like, in the shower, like, really covered. It was just like, my chin. I was like, I always post my double chins on the Internet. People really seem to like. So I. I'll just like, have like, a cute photo of myself and then the next slide will be just like, me, like, making an ultimate double chin and be like, gotcha. Keeps people on their toes. But anyways, so for this reel, I was in the shower. It was like an angle that was very, like, unattractive from, like, beneath my chin. And I'm like in the middle of shampooing my hair. And, like, the shower's running, it's kind of chaotic. I'm like, scrubbing my head aggressively. And I'm like, shampooing should be a cleansing and relaxing and experience rather than slathering yourself with toxins. And then it like, cut to me, like, not in the shower anymore. And then I'm like, explaining why certain shampoos and conditioners should be avoided. And then I'm giving alternatives. But when I first list listed the alternatives, I like, joked and gave, like, three really toxic ones. I was like, head and shoulders. Pantene. No, I'm just kidding. And so that one, because it was so, like, unexpected, like, people were like, watching the whole thing be like, what is she gonna say next? That was the one that did really well. But I found that people really enjoy when I'm silly and authentic. Like, and so that. That whole 31 days of swaps, honestly, it was so exhausting for me because if I got. If I woke up and I was like, I did not pre film this reel at all. I have to, like, come up with a whole 30 second reel right now where I have to talk on camera and like, you know, oh, my gosh.
- [38:23]
Abigail Pugh
It's a lot.
- [38:24]
Kristin
I'm like, girl, the luteal phase be struck down right now.
- [38:30]
Abigail Pugh
Oh, my gosh.
- [38:30]
Kristin
Anyway, and there was literally only one day where I ended up making a carousel with the same kind of, like, cover photo. Because I was like, I cannot talk on camera.
- [38:37]
Abigail Pugh
Oh, my gosh. That's impressive though. 31 days.
- [38:39]
Kristin
But a lot of times I was like, batching them, so I would do like five or six in a row, and I would just change shirts in between each one or whatever, and then I would edit them, like, on the day that they were gonna go up. But I at least had all the clothes clips filmed. But some days I was like, I got nothing for today. Here we go. So that, yeah, that series did so, so well. And then as I started going into November and December, I was like, people are still dming me like, hey, can you do a swap video on, like, toothbrushes? Or can you do a swap video on air fryers? I'm like, I haven't done one of those yet. And then I was like, but I already finished my 31 day series. But also, like, time goes on and that 31 day series is getting lower and lower down on my feet. And I don't always want to send people, like, like 5,000 scrolls back to get there. So what should I do now? So what I decided to do was turn all of 2025 into a hundred easy swaps. So it's not the only content that I post. In fact, it's probably only about a tenth, like maybe one in every ten of my posts is one of those swaps. But every time I do a swap video, I use that same, like, cover photo style where it says 100 easy swaps and then it, like, says the name of the thing at the top. Like brooms or like, whatever it is. Laundromat. What? That's not the thing. A laundromat is a place like a laundry detergent or whatever it is. I'll just have the name of it there and then post it. And what's been interesting is because I've done it that way, I feel like the traction on those reels has not been great in 2025. Like, the views have been a lot lower than they were for my real series because I don't think people aren't waking up every day and expecting it. So then it's like a swap video comes up on their feed and they're just like, oh, it's another swap video. Like, nice. But they're not like, oh, my gosh, what's Kristen swap gonna be tomorrow? Because it's not a guarantee that I'm gonna do one of those every day. So it's definitely been an experiment and I do enjoy doing them, But I don't know that doing one, like, every single day is sustainable by any means. But I definitely may turn one of my months at the end of the year into cramming in all the rest. So I may go back and, like, finish my 100 easy swaps by doing one swap every day for a month or for, like, 40 days or something like that. If I, like, like it's November and I still have 35 more to do. Yeah. So I'm at, like, it's April right now. I think I'm at, like, swap 27, so I probably need to, like, do more.
- [40:52]
Abigail Pugh
Rev it up a little bit there. I love that. Such good feedback that the ones that are in a row, it is so hard. Like, it's hard to. Especially if you're creative, doing the same thing every day. Like, this is why we do what we do as creatives, because you're never doing the same thing every day. But when you do this type of series, essentially you are. And so that's what I struggle with the most, is I get bored by, like, day seven. I'm like, are you kidding me? I have to do this again. But I see how that would be more bingeable than doing something more spread out. I still think the more spread out works for nurturing people and getting them to binge, it's just maybe not as bingeable, but I love that. Such a good point that when it is in a row, they essentially wake up excited to watch it. Now, if someone is listening to this and they are struggling with Instagram growth, which essentially probably means they're struggling with sales, if they have their digital product out there, I'd love to kind of hear what advice you would give them that you kind of learned along the way. I love that. I love interviewing people that sell something that has nothing to do with making money, because I hear a lot of the time where they're like, of course you're successful. You teach about making money. And I always want to say, like, there are so many other ways to be successful. Like, this is absolutely not the only niche that is successful. I have hundreds of students that are in different niches that just absolutely crush it with their digital products. So what would you tell someone that is kind of struggling right now?
- [42:19]
Kristin
Yeah. Well, here's what I will say. And as I've been prepping for my own masterclass in a couple weeks, I've been thinking about this a lot. But if I were starting over from, like, square one with Instagram growth and with sales, what would I do? Knowing what I know now? And what I would do is I would get a lot more specific about what my. What problem am I solving for people and who am I talking to? And, like, I find that a lot of people, when they're like, hey, I'm. I'm not. I'm not having any success with growing my Instagram or like, how did you do it? I feel like my answer is always like, I got more specific. And it really was when I launched Organa Baby, I was targeting pregnant moms do in 2024 specifically that wanted like non toxic registries. I got like extremely specific and then like had crazy growth from that. And I feel like people are afraid to get specific because they're like, I don't want to get stuck in a corner and like not be able to pivot. And I promise you, you can pivot because your audience is going to grow with you and they want to see that you're changing over time. They don't want to see a content creator who's posting the same thing for five years in a row. Like they want to see someone who's growing and changing because as humans we grow and change. So I don't think you need to be afraid of getting stuck in the corner by niching down. But I do think that you're not going to see excellent growth until you can get extremely specific about what it is that you're solving for people. And then who are you talking to specifically? And so if I was starting over from square one, I would decide like, this is my topic, this is specifically the problem, the main problem that I'm going to help people solve. And then I'm going to like literally create an imaginary friend who is like my ideal follower of like, okay, so for me that might be, you know, a young wife or young mom in between ages 22 and 35 who is, you know, maybe either dealing with a chronic illness themself or they have someone around them who has chronic illness and they're wanting to either heal from chronic illness or prevent chronic illness in themselves or their children. That's like really specific. And then what problems do they have that I can solve for them? Maybe one problem is they're busy and they don't have time to spend time on the Internet trying to read peer reviewed studies and figure out is polyethylene more toxic than polypropylene. And I'm like, I can solve that problem for you by giving you a guide that literally explains it all like at a beginner level and then tells you what products are safest for your house. And the more specific you can get, the better success you're gonna have. And, and the right person is gonna follow you. I don't think you just want like the masses to follow you. You need the right person who's following you that has already their wallet in hand, that's ready to purchase. When you can say, I have this product that is going to solve this very specific problem that you have. So, like, if I was going to start over and I was like, I want to teach people, like, how to yo yo. That's like, really niche, and that's, like, really random. But, like, then what I would do is I would create a digital product, a simple digital product that, like, literally walks people through, like, the ABCs of yo yoing. And then I would create content for six months. I would try to do one reel or one carousel every single day that touches on a different aspect of yo yoing. And then I would Repeat content every 30 days, and I would just, like, take a carousel and turn it into a real style instead of carousel or vice versa. Take a reel that I made, turn that into a carousel. But you reuse that same information. And, like, every third or fourth post would point people toward my digital product, and that's what I would do.
- [45:41]
Abigail Pugh
Boom. Right there. You heard it from Kristen. No, I think the specifics are so, so important. I feel like a broken record saying that. Cause I say it all the time to my students where I'm like, you have to be more specific. Like, this is talking to the masses. And while some reels, yes, I think being a little less specific to see what works, get visibility, those types of things. But, like, I'd say 90% of your content needs to be speaking directly to the person that you are trying to help. And kind of, if that person was you five years ago or 10 years ago, I really want you to think back to what you struggled with and speak to that in your content. Because I can pretty much guarantee your ideal customer is struggling with that now. And they want to know that you have made it from point A to wherever you're at before them so that you can help them. So if you take anything from this episode, please get more specific in your content and have fun with it. I think that's something else I love about your content, which I do the same in mine is, like, I let my quirky personality out on my content, and I think people are afraid to do that, and they're afraid to kind of, like, let the curtain down a little bit. And I've been leaning into that even more this year. And now, like, people send me pickle recipes and send me, like, the funniest stuff related to pickles, because I talk about loving pickles. And I'm like, people want to know more. They want to know your personality. They want to connect with you on a deeper level. So, Kristin, thank you so much for coming on the show. Everything. All her products and the ways that you can learn from her will be linked in the show notes for you guys. I. I love Kristen. I have, like, a few of her products and I'm, like, gonna get as soon as I'm not pregnant yet. But you all know I want another baby soon. Um, I just love. I love that you break it down and make it so easy for people to kind of dive into low tox living. That's another thing. Side note, I love that you say low tox instead of non toxic because I just use the word non toxic because it rolls off the tongue and, like, that's what I've heard. But truly, like, non toxic doesn't exist. There are toxins everywhere, and the best thing we can do is lower them in our life. And I just. I kind of love that. I feel like you're the first person I saw saying low talks instead of non talks. So if you coined that, go you. I love it.
- [47:53]
Kristin
But I. I also prefer saying it that way because I feel like it's unrealistic to say, like, 100 non toxic.
- [48:00]
Abigail Pugh
It's impossible.
- [48:01]
Kristin
They're toxic.
- [48:02]
Abigail Pugh
Yeah.
- [48:03]
Kristin
Your aura is toxic. I mean, not you specifically, but, like, people in general. You know, humans release electromagnetic radiation.
- [48:11]
Abigail Pugh
Yes. It's. It's wild. We could go down such a rabbit hole on this. Maybe I'll go on your podcast and we can dive in that rabbit hole. Okay, you guys, thank you so much for listening. I hope you have a great rest of your week, and I will see you next week on the podcast. 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. Tag me at Abigail Pew until next time. Love you. Mean it.