← The Abigail Peugh Podcast
The Abigail Peugh Podcast
67. My First $35 Digital Product Sale and How it Changed Everything (FBF)
00:15:20
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Unknown
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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.
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Products on social media.
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And guess what? I did it all with my 3.
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Year old daughter no less than 3ft away from me at all times. Now I'm bringing you everything I've learned.
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About building a wildly profitable online business that supports your life while allowing you.
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To truly live it.
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Get ready for raw, honest conversations with entrepreneurs making thousands per month selling their own digital products and people just like.
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You who ditch self doubt to create.
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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.
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I thought it would be fun to do an episode today on how I made my first three $35 selling a digital product. Not my first 10k or six figures, literally my first $35. Because honestly, my results over the past two years absolutely weren't typical. Which is why I don't share them as much anymore because I never want anyone comparing their journey to my journey. Because at the end of the day, we all have our own unique journeys and comparison truly is the thief of joy and we don't have time for that around here. Okay? Okay. So my first 35 digital product sale was on August 2nd of 2022 and actually after processing fees, it actually came out to 34 bucks and 78 cents. But it is so crazy to think where my business has gone since then. But honestly, even two years later, this is probably exactly how I would start again if I were starting from scratch. So. So first we need to rewind back to the summer of 2022, June to be exact, because I think it was. I think it was the end of June. I should have pulled up a screenshot for this, but I know it was the end of June because we all know there's always a lot of work upfront before you make that first sale. And honestly, I would argue that even the 10 plus years of me working random jobs before this led me to this success, or, you know, whatever you want to call it, because I was by no means an overnight success. So I just want to clarify that. So June of 2022, I got on a free introductory call with a business coach and basically had a come to Jesus moment, if you will, with Her. Like, I could feel it in my bones that it was time for me to put on my big girl panties and just go for it. I had been playing it small and freelancing for years and never really fully believing that I could be a personal brand or a successful online business on my own. I always felt like I had to work for someone else or, you know, be the behind the scenes person. And it's funny, like all my past jobs, that's what I did, right? Like I was everyone's right hand man, or right hand woman, if you want to say that. And it just like became my mo. I felt like I had to live in someone's shadow and that was all I was good enough for. I literally just kept talking myself out of it and I was, I was stuck, right? I knew of digital products, I had seen the potential of them, but I had no idea what to create one on, right? So I got on this call with this girl. Her name was Ashley. So shout out to Ashley for changing the entire trajectory of my life. And we were talking about content creation and me getting more one on one clients for content creation, right? Which isn't really what I wanted to do, but I knew I was good at it. I knew I could get more clients and bring in more income and honestly our family just really needed that at that time. So we got to chatting and then she mentioned UGC or User Generated Content and asked me if I had ever thought about teaching other creators how to become UGC creators, right? So other content creators or influencers, things like that, how to become a UGC creator. And honestly, at the time I didn't even know people were interested in learning about that. I had been a UGC creator part time for around five years at that time. So I had a ton of firsthand experience and it was totally something I could teach others. Then she told me to get my butt on TikTok and start a personal brand. Teaching others how to become a UGC creator, right? Like, she very strongly believed that that's where I needed to be. And I was mortified. I didn't even have TikTok downloaded on my phone at the time and I felt like I was way too old for the app. But she convinced me that this was where my audience was and that is where I needed to be. And it's so funny to me that, like, I had never even thought of teaching that to people, even though I'd been doing it for years. I feel like we get in our head and we have these like, experiences and things that we've done and problems that we've solved for ourself and we don't, we don't think that other people want to learn them. And she literally on the call, I remember her being like, abby, this is what you need to be doing. Like, people would love to learn this from you. Like, you have experience with it, you're good at it, you enjoy it. And to me, I was like, no, no, nobody's, nobody's going to want to learn that. So, very reluctantly, I got my butt on TikTok. And I'll never forget my first TikTok video. It was so cringe. I was sitting in the backyard of our rental while my daughter was napping and I was still wearing my PJs, holding my daughter's monitor. And I decided to also hold some colored pencils in my hands and move them around as I was talking for some movement in the video. I'm, I'm like mortified. I'm laughing so hard in my head because literally I had seen a TikTok that said you need movement in your video to keep viewers watching. And I thought, oh, this is a great idea. Oh my gosh, I've, I've come so far, you guys. So I probably posted, I want to say, like two to three times a day for 30 days or probably, I think just a little bit over 30 days on TikTok, because I wanted to learn faster. And I mean it, it definitely worked, right? The more I posted, the more I learned what my audience liked and what the algorithm was pushing. And I'm trying to remember what I posted back then, but I remember it being a lot of trends, like with educational content mixed into the trend. And then maybe I feel like I did like one talking head video a day, sharing more of my story and my journey as a UGC creator. And while I knew I wanted to create a digital product from the beginning, I really used my audience like their feedback to help me create the perfect digital product.
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Unknown
Right?
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Abigail Pugh
They kept asking me, how do we get started as a UGC creator? Like, the more content I created, the more I got that question. And I very quickly realized that there was no entry level guide on this at the time, only like online courses that were like 300 to $500. And so many of the people following me didn't have that kind of money to invest. So I decided I needed to create an entry level, low ticket digital product to meet that need. Then I did what I still do to this day when I create a new digital product. I started Writing down everything I wanted to teach inside of the digital product on sticky notes. And then I just stick it onto my wall. Or sometimes I'll buy like a, like a poster board or something to stick it onto there so it doesn't get messy. And then I can take it with me wherever I want to do this. And then after about two weeks of doing that, right, you're kind of just like brain dumping ideas and things that you want to add. I sit down and I organized it all into like the order of my digital product or the guide.
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Unknown
Right.
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Abigail Pugh
So this one there was like a small introduction. I should also say this first digital product was like a PDF guide. So think in terms of a PDF. So there was a small introduction with me. You know, there was like a title page introduction with a picture of me, a little bio on me, my story, a table of contents, which is really important to make it easy to find stuff. And then it was like a 60 page, almost like 60 pages of information kind of in the order that they needed it. I feel like this one was definitely more, I should have made it like a day by day thing, but I kind of did it more of like an encyclopedia style. So my next digital product after this one, I went more into like a day by day thing to like break it up into daily chunks. But this one was definitely more encyclopedia style on how to become a UGC creator. And then the second I had this idea for what I was going to create and it was kind of like solidified based on the feedback I'd gotten from, you know, the people that were commenting, my TikTok videos, my community that I was building. I started talking about it in my content, you know, like taking them behind the scenes, sharing what I was excited about and asking them for feedback on things. So they really, really felt part of the process, right? Like I took them along the ride for the entire time that I created it. I didn't just think of the idea and then stay silent for 30 days and then say, okay, it's here, right? Like I took them along for the ride. I also created my first freebie a few weeks before I had launched my digital product, which was a UGC toolkit. And it was basically, it broke down all the tools that I used to run a successful business as a UGC creator. And to this day, this is my most downloaded freebie like of all time with I think it had over 59,000 people total having downloaded it, which is just insane to me. I feel like I'm so glad I got that up in the early days of TikTok, because before I had a product available, right? A digital product like that was the only way people could essentially learn more from me. And it really helped me build my email list. So I just kept posting every day, growing my community, growing my email list. And I actually, I have just checked, I wrote it down on the sticky note. And the day that I launched my first digital product, the $35 digital product I'm talking about, I had 1,139 people on my email list and just under 12,000 followers on TikTok. I want to say I can't find that screenshot, but I remember it being around that number and I remember being like over the moon when I made that first 35 sale. Because to me, that one sale was the only proof that I needed that I could do this. And I think I want to say I ended up making 23 sales that first day total. And my mind was blown. I had no idea that I could do this.
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Unknown
Right?
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Abigail Pugh
And that first day, again, was proof that I could do this. But honestly, even if I hadn't made another sale that day, that one sale was all it took for my brain to believe in myself and know that I could build a business this way, where I could build a business my way. An online business with a focus on selling digital products that gave me flexibility and freedom to decide when and where I wanted to work.
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Unknown
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Abigail Pugh
I think that's a huge misconception that people have around digital products is that they're passive income and only require two hours a day and wi fi and you'll be a millionaire. And that's just, that's not the case, you guys. I love digital products so much, but that is not the case. The thing with digital products is that, yes, they still require effort, work, trial and error, like all the things. There's no guarantee it's going to work for you, but they have the potential to continue making sales even when you're not actively working. And I think that's what a lot of people kind of confuse that with. Oh, passive income. Digital products are not passive income. For example, sometimes I make sales when I'm sleeping or when I'm at the store with my kid, but I put the work in for those sales the day before and the day before that and the day before that.
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Unknown
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Abigail Pugh
They don't just magically pass happen.
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Unknown
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Abigail Pugh
You're still actively selling and working, but you can do it from home or basically wherever you want. As cliche as that sounds, usually I'm Just working from my bed in my sweatpants. Not gonna lie. But my point here is that selling digital products doesn't mean you never work or that you'll start making bajillions of dollars in your sleep. Right? That's just how some people like to portray it on Instagram right now. But that feels like such a disservice to you. And overall, just. Just very misleading.
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Unknown
Right?
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Abigail Pugh
I always want to be honest with you with the work and the effort that this requires. Like, I work my ass off for this online business and my digital products, and honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. I absolutely love what I do. But digital products are not. They're not passive income.
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Unknown
Okay?
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Abigail Pugh
So the other thing I love, love about digital products is that you can push when you want to and kind of slow down when you want to as well, which wasn't ever really an option with any of my past jobs. Like, when you're working for somebody else, you are, you know, set to their timeline if they need something done. Like, you got to do it on their timeline. And something about owning. This goes for owning your own business in general, not just digital products, but, like, you're in charge of your time.
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Unknown
Right?
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Abigail Pugh
And before, for me, it was always just go, go, go. And yes, of course, my business still has phases of, you know, growth or slower phases, but it's my choice, and I. I love that. I love having the choice. And this was something that was super important to me as a mom and someone who has actively been dealing with chronic pain and mold detoxing for over a year now.
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Unknown
Right.
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Abigail Pugh
Like, no other job would allow me to work from bed during my migraine days or push tasks off when my kid needs me a little bit extra that day. Like, no other job would allow that. So I think that's something, I don't know, that's made me fall in love with digital products and having my own online business. So all that to say creating, launching, and selling your own digital product. It isn't hard. It's just new. And sometimes new things feel really, really hard. And even as I'm, like, thinking back to when I first launched this one two years ago, my. My first $35 sale, it felt really hard at the time. And so much of what I did back then wasn't necessarily strategy.
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Unknown
Right?
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Abigail Pugh
Like, I was just trying new things and trial and erring and learning from things and then taking what I learned from that thing and applying it to the next thing. And I think we've lost that art. We. We want to go into something and immediately be really good at it. And even for me, like, for example, when I started this podcast at the end of April of this year, I was so hard on myself for not being good at it at the beginning. I was extremely hard on myself and, like, really talking down on myself, like, why are you not good at this? Why is it taking you so much time? And my husband kept reminding me, like, this is very new for you, and it's okay to feel like it's hard. Like, in the beginning, you don't know what you're doing. You haven't practiced. Like, you haven't put the reps in and tried. So put those reps in. Try things with this idea that even if it fails, it's not truly a failure because you're learning. And the next time you do it, you won't be starting from scratch, you'll be starting from experience. Because creating a digital product and launching it into the world and building a personal brand or building an online business, this might be a new thing for you. And it's going to feel uncomfortable at the beginning. But like I always say, nothing changes if nothing changes.
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Thank you so much for hanging out with me today.
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If you learned anything from this episode.
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I would love it if you could share it over on your Instagram stories and tag me Abigail Pugh until next time.
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Love you, mean it.