30 days ago, I didn’t have a blogging course. Today it exists, and in 10 days, students will finally get access to everything I’ve been building.

Honestly? I’m still processing that I actually did this.

But instead of giving you a “here’s my success story” post, I want to tell you what those 30 days actually looked like: the breakdowns, the breakthroughs, the moments I wanted to quit, and the one lesson that made me rewrite everything three times because I was so terrified of getting it wrong.

So, let’s get into it.

It Started With Actually Listening

For months, I’d been thinking about creating a blogging course. Every time someone asked me how to start a blog or make money from one, I’d have to tell them I didn’t have anything dedicated to that, just some blog posts on the topic.

It felt disappointing, both for them and for me, because I knew I had so much more to teach but nothing packaged up in a way that would actually help them.

However, two weeks before I decided to pre-sell, I did something different. I sent my email list a survey asking what they actually wanted to learn. I gave them multiple options to choose from, and overwhelmingly they said: blogging (again).

That was my greenlight. My community was literally telling me what they needed.

So I decided I’m doing this. Now.

The Pre-Sell Email That Changed Everything

After the survey, I sent one email to my list. Very human, very honest.

I told them I’d been listening to what they needed, that so many people wanted to learn blogging, and that I was finally creating something specifically for that.

The course didn’t exist yet. There was no curriculum outline, just me saying: I’m building this, it’ll be ready on December 20th, and if you trust me before I’ve even created it, you can get in early for $47.

After launch it would be $127, and during Black Friday I had offered it at $67.

Within one week, 20 people enrolled. I sat at my laptop in a cafe watching the enrollment notifications come in, and I felt this strange mix of emotions I wasn’t expecting.

Relief that people actually wanted this. Terror that I now had to deliver.

And this overwhelming sense of responsibility, because it wasn’t just an idea sitting in my notes app anymore, these were real people trusting me with their money and their dreams.

Week One: The Brain Dump

I opened a Google Doc and just vomited everything out. Every single thing I knew about blogging, every lesson I’d learned, every mistake I’d made, every template I wished someone had given me when I started.

I didn’t edit or second-guess myself, just got it all out of my head, and by the end of week one I had this massive, chaotic document that looked like a disaster but was actually the skeleton of everything.

I remember sitting back and thinking okay, this is real, I’m actually building this.

Week Two: When Perfectionism Hit Hard

This was the week I started actually creating the lessons, recording videos, writing the worksheets, designing the templates.

And this was also the week the pressure really set in.

I was working on the tech setup lesson, teaching people how to build their blog using Showit and I kept thinking about how important it was to get this right. This is where most people get stuck and give up.

If I didn’t explain this clearly enough, if I missed a step or made assumptions about what they already knew, they might spend money and then feel lost. The weight of that responsibility was real, and I ended up rewriting that entire lesson three times to make sure it was as clear and beginner-friendly as possible.

Some days I worked for eight hours straight, other days I could barely manage two. I’d sit in my room with my laptop open, recording voiceovers, rewatching them to check for clarity, making sure every step made sense.

Past me, the version who spent two weeks perfecting a single blog post would’ve been horrified by how fast I was moving, but there was no time to overthink it because students were waiting and I had a deadline.

Week Three: The Part I’m Most Proud Of

By week three, something changed.

I stopped panicking and started building. The panic didn’t disappear completely, but it got quieter. I was deep in creation mode now: Pinterest pin templates, blog post calendar, bonus worksheets, supplementary guides.

The tech setup module I’d rewritten three times? I tested it again. I walked through every single step as if I’d never used a computer before. Thought about where someone would naturally want to click, what questions would come up, where the confusion would hit.

I rewrote parts of it again. Not because it wasn’t good, but because I wanted someone who’d never built a website to feel like they had a patient friend sitting next to them, walking them through it with zero judgment.

And somewhere in that process, I realized: this is the best thing I’ve ever created. Not because it’s perfect, but because it’s made with so much care for the person who’s going to use it.

Week Four: The Night Before I Wrapped It Up

The night before I finished everything, I didn’t sleep much, not because I was still working but because I was panicking. What if it’s not good enough? What if they regret trusting me? What if I missed something important? I kept opening the course platform, checking every lesson, making tiny tweaks that probably didn’t matter.

And then I thought about something my past self would’ve needed to hear — every single person who’s ever launched anything felt this way. They all hit send while terrified, they all wondered if it was good enough, and they did it anyway.

So I wrote the final lesson, uploaded the last template, and closed my laptop.

In 10 days, students would get access to everything, and I’d finally see what they will build with my help.

The Tools I Used

People always ask about the tech side, so here’s my exact process and why I chose each tool.

Thinkific is my course platform. I’ve been using it for years because they have a free plan that lets you host one course without paying anything, which is perfect if you’re just starting out. The interface is super user-friendly, you don’t need to be tech-savvy to figure it out. I can upload videos, add worksheets, organize modules, and it handles all the student management for me.

For recording my lessons, I use Canva. Yes, the same Canva you probably use for graphics. Most people don’t know this, but Canva has screen recording built right in. I can record my screen while I’m walking through something, or I can record myself talking through a presentation. It’s simple, it’s free, and I don’t need to download separate recording software.

Once I have the raw recordings, I use CapCut to transcribe everything. This lets me see exactly what I said, and I can easily cut out all the filler words, the “um”s and “uh”s, the parts where I froze or said something I didn’t mean to say. It makes editing so much faster because I can see the text instead of scrubbing through the entire video trying to find the mistakes.

Then I add subtitles using Veed. Subtitles are important because a lot of people watch videos without sound, and they also make your content more accessible. Veed auto-generates subtitles accurately and lets me edit them quickly if needed.

That’s literally it.

The whole setup probably costs less than $100/month if you’re using the paid versions of these tools, but you can honestly do it completely free when you’re starting out.

I’ve been creating courses for years now, and this process has become so streamlined that I can create a full lesson in under 30 minutes.

I also teach this entire course creation process from idea to launch inside Her Soft Digital Empire Playbook.

What I Learned About Myself

Creating something in less than 30 days instead of 6 months taught me things I didn’t expect.

I learned that I’m capable of way more than I think, and when I don’t have time to overthink, I just build, and what I build is actually good.

I learned that imposter syndrome doesn’t go away, but you can do things anyway, you can feel terrified and still move forward.

I learned that people don’t need perfect, they need helpful and real and someone who actually cares about their success.

Pre-selling worked not just as an accountability tool but as validation. When people invest before you’ve built anything, they’re telling you this matters to them, and that gave me the confidence to keep going even when I wanted to quit.

And honestly? I’m proud of myself, which is hard for me to say because I usually downplay everything I do, but I’m actually proud.

What This Means for You

If you’re sitting on an idea right now, a course you want to create, a blog you want to start, a digital product you’ve been thinking about…

Pre-selling is your validation tool. If you’re nervous about whether people actually want what you’re thinking of creating, don’t spend months building it in secret.

Announce it before it exists and see if people are willing to buy.

If they do, you know it’s worth building. If they don’t, you just saved yourself months of work on something nobody wanted.

You can pre-sell anywhere. Through social media, in DMs, to your email list. But having an email list makes it significantly easier because those are people who already trust you enough to give you their email address.

If you don’t have an email list yet, start building one now. Pick one platform, whether that’s Threads, Pinterest, blogging, LinkedIn, whatever and focus on turning followers into subscribers.

Because once you have even a small list, you can validate any idea in a week. Send one email, see if people respond, and let them tell you if it’s worth building.

Stop waiting to feel ready. Just test your idea with real people and let their responses guide you.

That’s how you avoid wasting time and energy on something nobody actually wants to buy.

What’s Next

Her Soft Blog Mini-Playbook aka the blogging course I talked about in this post, launches December 20th, and students who pre-ordered will finally get access to everything I’ve been building.

I’m excited and nervous and proud and still processing that I actually did this.

And I’m already thinking about what comes next. What else people need. What else I want to create.

Because here’s what I know now that I didn’t know 30 days ago: the thing you’re scared to build? Someone is waiting for it.

And the only way they’ll ever get it is if you stop overthinking and just start.

So that’s what I’m going to keep doing.