Create the Thing. Talk About the Thing.

How Intentional Content Can Turn What You Know Into Income

A $37 digital product launch reminded me about using what you know to create income + impact...

Over the last several weeks, I have been following a creator on Instagram whose content journey has absolutely lit a fire under me. Then yesterday, I watched the digital product she had been building launch in real time and generate $44,578 in its first 12 hours. Before you read that number and think this is another story about how you can throw together a $37 digital product and magically make $44,000, let me stop you.

That is not why I'm sharing this story...

Yes, her results are extraordinary, they are her results, and there is no guarantee that someone else will experience the same thing.

What has inspired me isn't simply what happened during those 12 hours. It's everything she did in the months leading up to them. This story started with a decision to use her voice more intentionally, share what she knew, pay attention to what people needed, and allow her content to create both income and impact. And that is something every one of us, especially as entrepreneurs, can learn from.

It Started With a Decision to Show Up Differently

In May, Jessica decided she was going to go all in on content creation. She wanted to use her social media platform more intentionally, not only as a place to post, but as a tool that could help people and eventually generate income from the knowledge and experience she already had.

On June 1, with fewer than 10,000 followers, she joined the YAP Challenge with Jessi Jean and began creating more talking-head videos.

In other words, she started yapping. But she wasn't just talking for the sake of posting more content. She began intentionally sharing what she knew and paying attention to what happened when she did.

People started responding to her videos and asking questions. She answered those questions in additional content, which generated more questions and more conversations. Her audience began growing because what she was talking about was resonating with the people who were finding her.

And then something particularly important happened… People repeatedly started asking how she was editing her videos. Instead of simply answering the question over and over, she recognized the opportunity sitting inside the conversation. Her content had become market research.

She Let the Questions Lead to the Product

This may be one of my favorite parts of the entire story because Jessica didn't disappear into a room and try to dream up a digital product she hoped people would want. Her audience was already telling her.

People wanted to know how she was creating and editing the simple talking-head videos they were watching. She knew how to do it, they wanted to learn how to do it, and that gap became the foundation for her product. So she created a landing page and began generating a waitlist for a mini course she started creating around her non-techy video editing process and priced it at $37.

Even better, the delivery itself wasn't some wildly complicated tech setup. She created the guide in Canva, recorded video tutorials, privately listed those tutorials on YouTube and linked the videos from the guide. That's it.

She took something she knew how to do and packaged it in a way that could help someone else learn it faster. She collapsed time for someone else, and that's where the value of a digital product really comes from. It doesn't have to contain everything you know. It needs to help the right person solve a specific problem, achieve a result or get from where they are to where they want to be more efficiently.

She Marketed the Product Before It Was Finished

Another piece of this story that I have personally underestimated in my own business is the importance of talking about the thing while you're creating the thing. Jessica didn't disappear for months, build everything behind closed doors and then suddenly return to Instagram with a graphic announcing that she had something for sale.

She continued creating content around the topic while she built the product. She showed pieces of what she was working on, shared behind-the-scenes updates, explained what she planned to include and continued answering the questions people were asking.

By the time launch day arrived, approximately 3,500 people had joined her email list because they were interested in what she was creating and her following on social media grew. Think about the difference that makes.

She wasn't waiting until the product was complete to start looking for people who might want it. She was building the product and building the audience for the product at the same time. By the time she finally said, "It's available," thousands of people already knew what it was and had raised their hands to say they were interested.

Then Came Launch Day

The $37 product went live at 9:30 in the morning on 8/21/26. Within the first 20 minutes, 173 people had purchased. At 30 minutes, 217 people had purchased, and Jessica reported more than $11,000 in sales. By 90 minutes, she reported $21,221... with screenshots to prove it. I was enamored with her level of transparency.

She also continued sharing her progress on social media throughout the launch. People began cheering her on, celebrating the milestones and following the launch in real time. It was fun to watch. Those updates created excitement, but they also continued putting the product in front of people who’d seen the earlier content, hopped on the waitlist and simply hadn't purchased yet. Even the launch itself became content.

By the 6.5-hour mark, 839 people had purchased the $37 mini course, representing $31,043 in course sales based on the listed price. Remember that little $9 add-on created from those additional audience questions? At that same checkpoint, 711 buyers had added it to their order. That's an 84.7% grab rate and $6,399 in additional sales from a simple, relevant resource.

Then came the 12-hour update. By 9:30 that evening, 1,002 people had purchased the $37 mini course and 805 had added the $9 resource. She had also sold a few of her existing $9 Trello board downloads. Her reported revenue after the first 12 hours was: $44,578.

It's an incredible number, but again, the number isn't the part of this story I want us to copy... although that would be incredible if we were able to meet or exceed that.

I want us to pay attention to the process that came before it (talking to myself here…)

The $44,578 Wasn't Where This Story Started

It's easy to look at a successful launch and focus on the revenue because that's the flashy part. But this launch didn't begin at 9:30 that morning.

It began months earlier when Jessica decided she was going to take content creation seriously and use her platform differently.

She started talking about what she knew. People responded, and she listened. They asked questions, and she answered them. As she continued talking, patterns emerged in those questions. One of those patterns revealed something people wanted enough that they were willing to pay to learn it.

She created the solution, talked about it while she built it, gathered interested people onto an email list and eventually gave those people an opportunity to buy. The launch was the culmination of those intentional actions, not the beginning of the story. That's the part that has me looking at my own business differently.

We May Be Making the “Digital Thing” Too Complicated

I think one reason many of us continue putting off creating a digital resource is that we imagine the technology and the product itself have to be far more complicated than they actually do. Look again at the tools Jessica used for these resources: Canva, YouTube.

Her tech stack consists of StanStore to deliver the products, FloDesk to deliver the email, Zapier to connect them and ManyChat to automate the INTERESTED keyword feature to help send messages in her DMs.

For many of the entrepreneurs in my own community, we don’t have a complicated tech stack because we use GetOiling/AttractWell. The platform gives us the ability to create landing pages and custom pages, collect and tag contacts, create email campaigns, accept payments, upload digital downloads and deliver resources.

In other words, we may already have most of what we need besides ManyChat which is recommended.

The missing piece isn't necessarily another platform, subscription, certification or piece of technology. Sometimes we simply need to stop underestimating what we already know and start using the tools we already have. And I can already hear someone saying, "Great, Brandi. Jessica knows how to do this. You know how to do this… But I don't. I’m not tech-savvy"

I understand. That's one of the reasons I'm sharing this journey as I go. I'm not standing on the other side of a massive digital-product business telling everyone else what they should be doing as an expert but I am a professional. I'm looking at my own business and realizing I need to take this advice too, especially as someone who is in the digital marketing space.

My Income Has Been Tied to My Chair

For the past few years, much of my ability to generate income has been tied to my chair.

When I'm sitting at my computer designing, building websites, brandifying digital products, strategizing or doing client work, someone can pay me for that work. I'm exchanging my time and expertise for money, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I love serving my clients and don't intend to stop.

I’m sure you can relate. What I have failed to do consistently is take the knowledge I'm already sharing and create resources that can serve people beyond my available hours.

What could I create once that continues helping someone when I'm not sitting at my desk?
What could someone purchase while I'm spending time with my family?
What could serve the person who isn't ready to hire me for a larger service?
What am I explaining repeatedly in one-on-one conversations that could help hundreds of other entrepreneurs if I stopped allowing that knowledge to disappear when the call ended?

Those are the questions I'm asking myself now. I’m asking myself the same questions regarding the caregiving resources I’ve been wanting to create for years! And I'm asking you to consider them too.

What Knowledge Are You Sitting On?

Maybe you're a coach, practitioner, massage therapist, photographer, designer, network marketer, fitness trainer, farmer, yoga instructor, real estate or another kind of service provider. Maybe you've simply spent years learning something that someone else is trying to figure out right now.

Think about the questions people already ask you. What have you spent hours googling? What has kept you up at night that caused you to make radical changes in your life? What do you explain repeatedly? What process have you developed? What mistakes could you help someone avoid? What took you months or years to figure out that you could help someone understand in an afternoon?

Instead of beginning with, "What digital product should I make?", try asking a different question: "What do I know that could collapse time for someone else?" Start talking about that.

Teach pieces of it. Share your experience. Pay attention to what resonates. Listen to the questions that come back and answer them. Those conversations may eventually show you exactly what you need to create. Then create the thing.

And once you create it, don't quietly put it on your website and hope someone magically discovers it. Talk about the thing.

I'm Taking My Own Advice — Come With Me

Watching this story unfold has inspired me because I can see places in my own business where I've been sitting on knowledge instead of packaging it, sharing it and allowing it to serve more people. So I'm changing that.

I'm creating. I'm talking. I'm listening to what people are asking. I'm implementing what I'm learning, and I'm going to continue sharing the process as I go.

Not because I have all of this figured out, but because I don't think we need to wait until we do.

We can start with what we already know. We can create something genuinely useful. We can give people somewhere to go when our content resonates with them. We can listen to what they need next and continue building from there.

There is no promise that your first $37 product will generate $44,578, and that shouldn't be the goal you take away from this story anyway.

The opportunity is much bigger than one launch.

What could happen if you stopped sitting on what you know and finally gave your idea the opportunity to help someone?

Ready to Create Your Thing?

If this has something turning in your head and you're already thinking about what your thing could be, I created something to help you work through it.

Grab my Create With Intention: The Income + Impact Action Guide.

It will walk you through identifying what you already know, the transformation you could help someone create, your simple free-to-paid offer path, the math behind a small digital offer and what you can start talking about to bring the idea to life.

GET THE FREE INCOME + IMPACT ACTION GUIDE

I'm taking my own advice and building this alongside you. It's time we create with intentionality so we can generate more income + impact.

Cheering you on, xo - Brandi

Follow Jessica's journey on Instagram here --> https://www.instagram.com/the.jessicacarter/

AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER:

I’m a proud affiliate for some of these tools and products that are suggested on this page and throughout my site. Meaning if you click on a product and make a purchase, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. My recommendations are based on knowledge and experience and I recommend them because they are genuinely useful and helpful, not because of the small commission that I may receive.