Create Your First Digital Asset in 60 Minutes
A step-by-step playbook: Canva checklist + Gumroad listing (free or paid)
Most people overthink “digital products.”
They imagine courses, long ebooks, communities, software, funnels, and months of work before they ever ship something. That mental model stops people before they start.
A digital asset is not a format. It is a tool.
It is something you create once that helps someone make progress without you being present. That is the entire definition. If it removes friction, saves time, or prevents mistakes, it counts.
Your first digital asset does not need to be a course, a 40-page ebook, or a complicated membership.
It needs to do one job well: remove friction for someone who is already trying to get something done.
That is why checklists work so well.
People are already trying to finish things. Publish the video. Launch the newsletter. Set up the page. Onboard the client. They don’t want more theory, they want reassurance that they are not missing a step.
This is also why you need many digital assets, not one “perfect” product.
Each asset solves a narrow problem for a specific moment in someone’s journey. One checklist catches someone at the beginning. Another helps them avoid mistakes halfway through. Another helps them finish faster.
Individually, they are small.
Together, they compound.
They become:
Lead magnets that grow your email list
Low-priced offers that convert cold readers
Trust builders that prove you know the terrain
Entry points into higher-priced products later
Digital assets stack leverage. You build them once, and they work every day without meetings, calls, or delivery.
Examples of digital assets that work especially well:
Checklists
Templates
Swipe files
Setup guides
Decision trees
SOPs
One-page frameworks
Notice what is missing. None of these require being an expert in everything. They require being one or two steps ahead of the person you are helping.
A checklist is the easiest place to start because it is:
Fast to create
Easy to understand
Immediately useful
Easy to update
Perfect as a free lead magnet or a low-priced offer
In this guide, you are not “learning theory.” You are building something real.
You will create a simple checklist in Canva, export it correctly, and publish it on Gumroad in a way that actually gets downloaded and used.
What you are making today:
A one-page (or two-page) checklist that helps one specific person complete one specific outcome.
Examples:
YouTube Upload Checklist (from script to publish)
First 50 Substack Subscribers Checklist
Homepage Copy Checklist (so people actually understand your offer)
Etsy Listing Checklist
Affiliate Link Compliance Checklist
Podcast Launch Checklist
Client Onboarding Checklist
If you cannot explain the result in one sentence, the checklist is too big.
The goal is not perfection. The goal is shipping your first digital asset and proving to yourself that this is simpler than you were told.
Let’s get into it.