5 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Creating My First Digital Product

From flopped offers to five-figure launches: what I learned the uncomfortable way

(Icon by Freepik - Flaticon)

Our new online program, Mini-Course Accelerator, is now live. 🎉

In Mini-Course Accelerator, you’ll learn the exact system we used to build, launch, and automate profitable mini-courses (and generate over $1M in sales), so you can build your own income-generating mini-course.

---

I've been creating digital products since 2017.

My first products were online courses on platforms like Udemy, where I barely made a few thousand dollars. While I’m not particularly proud of those initial courses, they were a crucial step in my journey because they allowed me to learn quickly without many risks.

Over the past five years, I’ve worked with thousands of writers, creators, and entrepreneurs, and one mistake I see over and over again is that they wait way too long before monetizing their knowledge, expertise, and ideas.

They think they need a bigger audience, more views, expensive tools, or a groundbreaking idea.

But that’s not true.

The beauty of digital products is the freedom they create for you.

You can literally create your first digital product today, put it up for sale tomorrow, and receive your first sales notification within 24 hours.

Over the years, I’ve created digital products that ranged from $7 challenges to (group) coaching program that cost over $2,000.

I’ve sold Notion databases, mini-courses, self-study programs, live cohorts, memberships—and anything in between.

This means I’ve made every mistake you can imagine.

So if you’re about to create your first (or next) digital product—here’s what I recommend you (don’t) do:

Smaller Product, Bigger Impact

When you’re just getting started, it’s tempting to create the ultimate course on your topic.

You want to pack everything you know into your course so that it's full of value.

If you haven't sold anything else before, you might find it hard to actually charge for your knowledge, so you’re thinking that the more information you put into your course, the more valuable it will be.

But that's not true.

Long, complex courses take weeks (or months) to produce.

Plus, they’re often overwhelming for the student, which means the completion rates are low and unsatisfying.

I'm not saying you should never create a big course, but for most creators, it's not the best choice to start with.

If it takes you half a year to create your first course, you’ll be so burned out that you won’t want to work on your next offer for a while.

Instead, focus on creating short, specific resources that give your audience real results. Think of:

• A 60-minute workshop.

• A 2-hour mini-course.

• A 5-day challenge with one action per day.

The faster someone can go from buying to getting a result, the more valuable your product becomes.

In the best case, your first digital product gets great feedback, you collect amazing testimonials, and you feel confident about your work.

Once you have that confidence and the validation, you can move on and create other products which can be more complex and expensive.

---

Start with a Problem, Not a Passion Project

Here’s a harsh truth most creators don’t want to accept: Your audience doesn’t care what you’re passionate about.

They only care about how you can help them.

But as creators, we’re naturally drawn to the topics we find exciting. We want to create products around what we think is cool, inspiring, or important. But that can quickly become a dangerous trap—especially if you’re creating your very first product.

When you build something purely based on your interests, you’re guessing.

When you build something based on audience pain points, you’re solving their problems.

Do you see the difference?

You can spend months creating stunning slides and carefully editing your videos, but if the core promise of your product isn’t compelling enough, the product will flop no matter how much effort you’ve put into it.

To build successful products, you want to go from a creator-first mindset to a customer-first mindset.

So many creators launch “passion projects” that never gain traction, and then they start questioning their skills, their product, or their potential.

Here’s the mindset shift:

Your first products should be valuable to your audience, not exciting to you.

To find out what your audience is interested in, pay attention to:

• Your most-read posts

• Common questions in your DMs

• Replies to your emails

• Real conversations you're having in comments, chats, or coaching sessions

This is your gold.

Your goal is to find one specific pain point your audience keeps mentioning, then build something that helps them solve it—quickly and effectively.

Do that, and your product will sell even if you don’t have a massive audience. Skip it, and even the most polished product can collect dust.

Passion is important—but it’s better used as a lens to deliver your product, not as the starting point.

Start with the problem. Let your passion shine through in how you teach, serve, and support. That’s the winning combo.

---

Validate Before You Create

Similar to the previous lesson, skipping idea validation can cost you dozens of hours.

In the worst case, you’ll spend months creating a product nobody wants to buy.

I know it sounds harsh, but I’ve been there. It’s one of the most common (and painful) mistakes I see:

Creators invest tons of time designing beautiful slides, recording polished videos, or building fancy Notion templates—without ever checking if their audience is actually interested.

The result?

A shiny, high-effort product that barely gets a handful of sales.

Not because you’re not talented.

Not because the idea isn’t “good.”

But because you didn’t validate it first.

Idea validation is your safety net.

It protects your energy, time, and confidence.

When you validate your idea before you create it, you move from “I hope this works” to “I know there’s demand for this.”

Here’s how you can validate quickly and effectively—without a huge audience:

• Talk about the idea publicly – Share a Note, a post, or a question related to your product idea. Pay close attention to how people react. Are they saving, replying, or asking for more? Or are they scrolling past?

• Start a waitlist – Create a simple form and invite your audience to sign up if they’re interested in what you’re building. No pressure, no big commitment—just a signal of intent.

• Presell it – This is the boldest and most effective way to validate. Offer a discounted pre-order version of your product. Keep it simple. If people buy before it even exists, that’s your strongest proof of demand.

And if no one buys? That’s still a win.

Because instead of spending dozens of hours on a product nobody asked for, you just saved yourself all that time. And now you can go back, tweak the idea, or ask your audience what they really want.

If you’re afraid to sell something before it’s created, just offer a 100% money-back guarantee.

Tell your early buyers they’re helping you shape the product. Give them something extra for the trust they place in you.

That’s not “scammy”—it’s smart. It’s how thoughtful creators build in alignment with their audience.

Stop guessing so you can spend more time serving your audience. Validation is the fastest way to know if what you're about to create will truly make a difference.

---

Don’t Hide Your Product—Promote It

You can create the most life-changing product in your niche, but if no one sees it, it won’t sell - even if the product itself is amazing.

Creators often make this mistake: They publish the product, create a page on their website, and move on.

They think people will magically discover and buy their offers.

But even if people would come across your product, they’d need to see it several times before they actually make a purchasing decision.

And if you don’t talk about your product often enough, it’ll just go unnoticed.

On Substack, you have various opportunities to put your offer in front of your audience:

• Pin it to your Start Here page

• Mention it in your welcome email

• Refer to it in relevant free content

• Create a promo series during launch

• Add it to your newsletter footer

And keep in mind: You’re not annoying your audience by repeating yourself—you’re reminding them you have something that can help.

---

Deliver a Transformation, Not Just Information

This is one of the biggest mindset shifts you need to make as a digital product creator:

People don’t pay for information. They pay for transformation.

In the online education space, more information doesn’t necessarily equal better.

The odds are high that your audience is already overwhelmed with information.

What they’re missing is clarity.

What they want is a result.

What they need is a step-by-step path to get from where they are to where they want to be.

The length or scope of your product isn’t the selling point—the outcome is.

Nobody wants to buy 3 hours of training. They want to buy the ability to finally solve a painful problem.

Nobody wants to buy a 50-page workbook. They’re buying the confidence to achieve their goals.

Nobody wants to buy a series of lessons. They’re buying the relief of not feeling stuck anymore.

Instead of trying to impress with volume, focus on creating a simple, actionable roadmap that leads to a very specific transformation.

Here’s what that looks like:

Start with a single transformation.

Before you create any content, write down this sentence: “After going through this product, my customer will be able to __________.”

Structure your product around action, not theory.

Each module, lesson, or step should move your customer closer to the outcome.
Ask yourself:

• What do they need to do first?

• What tends to hold people back?

• How can I make progress feel easy and rewarding?

Give them tools to implement.

People love frameworks, checklists, templates, and examples—because these make the path more concrete.

If your product only tells them what to do, they might still get stuck.

But if you also show them how to do it and give them what they need to take the first step, they’re much more likely to succeed (and thank you for it).

Remember: Clarity beats complexity.

Simple doesn’t mean basic. It means digestible. It means usable. It means focused.

The best products I’ve created didn’t overwhelm people with content.

They helped my students take one small but meaningful step as quickly as possible.

So as you’re building your first (or next) digital product, ask yourself:

Am I giving my audience a library to explore?
Or a path to follow?

---

Your First Product Won’t Be Perfect—Create It Anyway

I cringe when I look back at some of my early products.

But guess what?

They changed lives. They made sales. They gave me momentum.

Even if you spend months on it, your first product won’t be perfect.

But that’s not the goal anyway!

The goal is to start.

To learn.

To build your confidence.

To get paid for what you know.

You can improve the format, design, and delivery later. But first—you need to ship.

Digital products have changed my life.

Not just in terms of income—but in how I work, how I create, and how I serve.

They’ve allowed me to:

• Work with freedom and flexibility from anywhere in the world

• Build an offer once and sell it over and over again

• Reach people across continents who I never could’ve served 1:1

• Design my business around the life I want—not the other way around

But none of that happened because I had the perfect plan. Or the most polished product. Or the largest audience.

It happened because I started.

I created my first product before I felt ready.

I launched before it was perfect.

I made mistakes.

And I learned, adjusted, and kept going.

So if you’re sitting on the sidelines thinking:

“I need to figure out my niche.”
“I need a bigger audience.”
“I need to feel more confident.”

Let me remind you:

• You don’t need more time.

• You don’t need more credentials.

• You don’t need anyone’s permission.

What you need is momentum.

The clarity, confidence, and consistency you’re waiting for?

They come after you start—not before.

So here’s what I want you to do:

• Start with what you already know.

• Package your product in an attractive way.

• Share it with the people who are already waiting for you to help them.

Your first product isn’t just a product—it’s a signal. It tells the world (and yourself):

I take my work seriously. I’m here to serve. I’m building something that matters.

So let me leave you with this:

What’s one specific problem you can help people solve in 1–2 hours?

The answer could be the starting point for your first digital product.

Share it in the comments—I’d love to hear about your ideas for upcoming products!

Want the step-by-step system to build, launch, and automate your own income-generating mini-course? Check out Mini-Course Accelerator now before the deadline ends.