Start to Finish Blueprint For Building and Selling Digital Products
Exactly how I'm building - in real time
I would have killed for a resource like this when I started building my online business.
Five weeks ago, Quillkeepers (my new writing program) was just an idea in my sketchbook.
Now it’s a live writing community that will generate over $15k in revenue this year.
I’m going to give you the 5 step playbook of how I built the digital backend:
going from a handwritten idea to test product for my existing community
turning the test product into a free Educational Email Course (for people outside my community)
Plus…
how I built the landing page and email sequence
how I built the lessons and what I present on calls
I share my screen and show you everything - my lesson deliverables, email sequences, landing pages and more.
But that’s not all…
I’m having fun making these build in public resources.
And I believe they’ll be a huge boost for many beginner creators who share my obsession with online biz.
Plus… this is me living out the new Tribal motto: Run. Write. Build.
In future videos, I’ll share updates on the branding and design of Quillkeepers - and how I’m creating “Magic Moments” for my users.
And I’ll share some things I’ve observed as a student of writing courses that I think sabotage the user experience (and how I’m avoiding that happening in Quillkeepers).
But for now, let’s talk DIY Digital Biz.
Side Note - if you learn best with video, here’s the link to watch a video I made on all this (watch this on your next indoor ride).
And if you’d prefer to just listen to the podcast, here’s the Spotify link:
Now on to the written version…
Step 1: It Started With An Idea
It was a bone chilling day in late December.
The air was sharp, the ground was rock solid and all my excuses had frozen over…
I was also 68 hours into a 72 hour fast with the mental alertness of a lion on the hunt in the savannah.
That’s when the idea hit me…
I need to build a writing course.
I’ve had the idea for years. But it just never felt like the time. I thought I needed to wait.
But at hour 68 of my fast, it hit me…
I was lying to myself.
I didn’t need more time. I was afraid to start.
I was…
afraid no one would care about what I built
afraid I wasn’t a good enough writer to help people
afraid anyone that did check out what I made would think it was a waste of time
I was tired of fear stopping me from taking action on this dream I had.
So I took out a sheet of sketch paper and brain dumped my basic ideas for a course.
But why writing? And why now?
Two reasons:
#1. Over the past year, 15+ Tribal athletes started writing on Substack after receiving encouragement/inspiration from the Team
My endurance philosophy guides athletes toward becoming more reflective, insightful, and drawn to clearer thinking.
How?
seeking challenge
spending time in solitude
tripling down on what’s going well in life (while quickly plugging blind spots)
This post from Tribal athlete
sums it up well:
Writing is the like pouring gasoline on an already roaring flame of personal development.
#2. I committed to 2025 being the year of relentless creative output
This is a fun, creative project for me. I don’t care if I’m known as “the endurance guy.”
I got more skills than that DAWG!!!
There’s something in my soul that demands I create more boldly in the world and teach more of my skills.
BONUS #3…
I can get better at the fundamentals of business through the build of Quillkeepers.
And that can help me strengthen my biz operations for endurance coaching/community building.
Step 2: Offer Free Work
I’m going to show you exactly how I built the lessons and calls.
But first, I have to share a mistake I made back in September.
I started building a new running eBook - and I caught myself doing the same thing that has derailed me on a dozen other eBook built attempts…
I started building the eBook in Canva
Then I was spending all my time formatting the PDF
I suddenly had a 25 page eBook that was a jumbled mess (no clear structure or depth)
And what happened?
I felt overwhelmed and got pulled away from the initial ideas I wanted to teach.
After 4 hours lining up text borders in Canva, I scrapped the whole thing.
I remembered what my Biz Coach
kept telling me:“Less is more with this stuff".”
And so I thought to myself:
“I need to just ship this fkn thing”
I put the run workouts into a Google Doc and posted it to X.
What happened next shocked me…
I got 7 people to download it!!! I expected to post it and hear crickets.
I kept promoting it over the next two weeks and ended up getting 33 total downloads.
That’s when I realized…
Talking about your stuff…
Making it available for people to download…
It actually works…
I remembered all the times I felt scared to promote my products and just tweeted into the void instead.
That running eBook experience was a huge unlock for my mindset as a digital builder.
And I applied the exact process to Quillkeepers.
Here’s how:
Step 3: Build The Product One Layer At A Time
I did start with sexy intro slides in Figma (online design platform that’s a bit over my head).
But they were mostly just pictures that set the stage for story telling.
I also used these to give direction on where the workshop was headed.
I started each writing workshop call by spending ~15 mins in the Figma slides.
Then I shifted to Google Docs and taught right from the page.
A big part of Quillkeepers calls are:
creating space for writers to WRITE (exercises above)
prompting them to think more CREATIVELY (worksheet below)
helping them unlock new ideas, see where they’re already an authority, hear from other students on what’s interesting about them/their process (breakouts rooms)
So that was the structure of the calls:
Figma Slides… roadmaps… story telling… presenting concepts
Google Docs… writing exercises… worksheets… tactical lessons
Breakout Rooms… group discussions on exercises and worksheets
Run. Write. Build.
Step 4: Automate and Expand (Turning Recorded Calls Into A Mini Course)
I wanted Quillkeepers to grow beyond my existing community, so I set up:
A free email mini-course for non-Tribal members.
A ConvertKit automation to deliver the course.
A Carrd landing page to capture signups.
I committed to using Quillkeepers to develop the skill of turning something I created once into an evergreen resource.
Then I added the recordings, Google Doc lessons and bonus worksheets to the emails.
Run. Write. Build.
And once I hosted the calls, recorded them and loaded them into the email drip, I promoted the landing page line on X over the 3 weeks of the workshop.
And guess what??
I got 18 people to sign up!!!
(21 if you count the two emails of my own that I put in - and my wife’s)
Step 5: Save and Systematize
I saved everything—slides, worksheets, recordings—knowing that in a few months, I could transform it into a paid course, onboarding roadmap, or full-scale community.
That’s it for this edition of building in public.
See you next time,
Ryan
P.S.
Looking to start writing online - and communicate with authority?
Starting on March 14th, the Quillkeepers group is taking on a new challenge together.
Everyone inside is building a digital product.
I will be taking them from start to finish
Choosing your Idea
Creating a Table of Contents
Picking format (PDF, eBook, video mini-course, etc.)
Building it and creating short form content along the way
Promoting it and launching it as a group on April 25th
Creating future content that directs people back to it
When I shared this with our group of 14, almost everyone said they were immediately nervous about this.
And that’s exactly why we’re doing it.