What’s The First Frigging Step Of Breaking Free?
I’ve just completed an intensive 5-day training program to become a corporate trainer.
I’ve always loved teaching my strategies in my personal workshops.
However, more and more companies have asked me to share strategies tailored to corporate clients.
There is also a government grant in Malaysia, HRDF (where I am currently based), which covers corporate training for companies, but I need to be accredited.
Anyway, the training was awesome. But one HUGE thing stood out
Most of the people there had been teaching workshops for years.
Some for more than a decade.
They were incredibly knowledgeable.
But during breaks, a theme kept coming up in conversations.
Many of them were exhausted.
Not because they didn’t enjoy teaching.
They loved it.
The problem was how they earned money.
They only got paid when they were actively working.
One workshop.
One payment.
Then they had to find the next client.
And the next one.
And the next one.
It reminded me of something I see everywhere.
People stuck on a time-for-money hamster wheel.
It doesn’t just apply to trainers.
It applies to corporate jobs too.
You work.
You earn.
You stop working… the income stops too.
That’s why I’ve always been fascinated by something different.
Income that continues even when you’re not actively working.
And one of the simplest ways to start building that is through digital products.
Digital products are things like:
- Templates
- Guides
- Checklists
- Mini courses
You create them once.
Then they can sell again and again.
But whenever people hear this idea, they immediately ask the same question:
“What’s the first step?”
Most people think it’s building a course.
Or learning complicated tech.
But the real first step is much simpler.
Ask yourself this question:
What is something you could talk about for hours that would genuinely help someone else?
It doesn’t have to be complicated.
In fact, the best digital products are usually very simple.
Here are some real examples I’ve seen people sell online:
- A Notion budget template for $19
- A wedding planning checklist for $15
- A meal planning guide for busy families for $12
- A travel itinerary template for $9
- A resume template pack for $29
- A Pinterest pin template bundle for $25
- A beginner’s guide to vegetable gardening for $17
Note- I’ve bought most of these!
Here are some real examples of people selling simple digital products
A Google Sheets template seller made about $280,000 selling spreadsheet templates on Etsy in under two years.
The templates help people with things like wedding planning, bookkeeping, and habit tracking.
Another creator shared how they reached $5,042 selling Notion templates and ebooks on Gumroad starting from scratch.
See the case study
There are also Etsy sellers making nearly $100,000 per year selling printable planners and digital downloads.
Example here
Even very simple products can work.
None of these is a huge course.
Most are simple products someone created in a weekend.
But if a $15 product sells 100 times, that’s $1,500 from one idea.
And the product keeps selling.
That’s how most successful digital products begin.
Not with a huge idea.
With a small, useful solution.
In fact, that’s exactly what I teach inside my course:
It’s designed for people who want to create their first simple product and start building income that doesn’t depend entirely on their time.
You can learn more about it here:
If you want help turning your knowledge into a digital product step-by-step, I put together a course showing exactly how to do it.
For the next 4 days, it’s 50% off with the code: HAMSTERWHEEL
And I’m curious about something.
What’s something you could talk about for hours that might help someone else?
Just hit comment and tell me.
I read every response.
Thanks for reading
Aisha Preece from Outandbeyond.com
PS I share my bare minimum low effort strategy to grow my blogs on my Instagram stories — if you want more behind-the-scenes like this, come hang out: @aishapreece
