And as we're going through this building process, what keeps coming to mind are all the similarities that I experience through launching digital courses with my clients compared to what we're doing building our house.
If we haven't met before, I'm Chelsie Hayes, The Course Pro. I'm a launch strategist and Kajabi expert and I've done over 100 course launches for my private clients.
So the moment I'm recording this, my husband is out at our property working on the house.
I don't know how it's going to work out because we haven't gotten to that point yet. Um But that's how it happens with courses, right?
We don't actually know what's gonna happen till we get through the launch. So before I would get into it, I want to give you a background of like how we got to this point.
What's been going on for us before I get into some of the lessons learned, there's six different lessons learned that I want to share with you.
And I think it's helpful to know where we're starting at. So my husband and I live just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. Um Two years ago, it was Thanksgiving Eve 2021. The time I'm recording this is August 2023.
So Thanksgiving Eve, the day before Thanksgiving 2021 we purchased two acres of land and it's this fun little pocket where we're kind of, it feels like we're in the middle of nowhere, but we're actually just half a mile down the road from a grocery store and a gas station and a Walgreens and like city living.
So we have had this dream of having land. Um, at the time we were living in an area a where you're very restricted on what you can do.
And we wanted to have space and we wanted to be able to expand and just let our kids run around and not have to worry about the, you know, the street is only 10 ft away from our front door. So we decided to, we purchased these two acres and then the plan is to build a Barn Domini.
So it's a metal structure building um that we are erecting. So the thought initially was going to be let's build this barndominium kind of small space, cheaper build.
We live in it for 3 to 5 years and then eventually build like a traditional home on our property. And what has transpired, we probably won't get to the point of building that traditional home.
This is where we are at and we're happy with the decision thus far, but it hasn't been an easy road. We purchased the land, Thanksgiving 2021 and we quickly purchased the materials.
It was, we worked with a custom builder. They give us the materials because it's a metal structure building and it was delivered May of 2022.
And so we had thought great, let's get it in because it's going to take several months for the, the building materials to come and all we need are permits and once we get permits, like it's go time. And we thought that it was gonna be a fairly smooth process.
But does it ever happen that way? No. Uh, in June 2022 this is when we're thinking, oh, we're, we just need to get the permits and our county is notorious for being really slow with this kind of paperwork. So we thought any day now, any day now and in June, somebody reached out to us and offered to buy our house.
It was a friend of a friend. They knew that we were eventually going to build and move. We close the day we closed is the first day that the interest rates started going up.
So we were like, ok, this is a really good decision and because it is a metal structure building in the Barn, Dominions Barn Domini style, the bill actually is supposed to go really fast, much quicker than your traditional bricks and sticks home.
And so we thought we will move in with my parents while we, uh, work through the building process, the six or seven months and we'll be in by Christmas Christmas 2022. So we move in with my parents.
But again, we thought it was temporary and just a few months, so time went by and we still didn't get our permits.
And then it was about August of 2022. So literally a year ago, we finally got word from the county saying we don't pass uh the permitting process because there was an issue with our septic tank.
And so we figured, ok, that was our option. A, let's go to option B that didn't work. Option C we finally figured out option D um, to kind of bypass the situation or rectify this situation.
Now we will get the ball rolling, but it took us until February of 2023 to actually get our permits.
So much, much longer process than what we had anticipated. So we get the green light finally and we get our GC uh in the mix and we think like, ok, now things are really gonna rock and roll and, you know, we've got to work out our schedule with our GC and the guy that's gonna um create the plot of land and pour our concrete so we can have our foundation and it's April by the time they actually broke ground.
So like dug the plot where our house is gonna go, where the bar Domini is gonna go and then we hit more roadblocks. So we had a scheduling snafu. Um Our GC, his dad passed away.
So obviously like that's more important for him to be with his family than with us. So that pushed us back a couple of weeks. Rain has been the biggest thing that has stalled us out um Because our soil is very spongy.
So when it rains, it just holds the water, it doesn't drain, it doesn't dry, it just holds the water, which is part of the reason why we had so many issues with our septic tank as well.
And it just felt like, oh my gosh, this is taking forever. We even spent several weeks trying to anything we could to keep the soil dry because since the soil is wet. They couldn't dig. If they can't dig, they can't pour the concrete and it was just holding everything up.
So, Kyle, my husband and I would go out, we purchased these huge tarps like 50 by 100 ft tarps to try to cover our pot of land. So that when it rained, we wouldn't like, the soil wouldn't be so wet, it would dry quickly.
I can't tell you how many hours we spent out there trying to cover, trying to pump water just really doing anything we could to help this process along. And finally, uh in July, we ended up switching crews. Uh the, the people that were supposed to pour the concrete just were not reliable.
So we switched crews, the new crew came in and they remeasured, figured out we had measured, the initial crew had measured wrong. So that was like a thankful situation.
They came in and they poured concrete on July 17th. And then in August, they were able to start erecting the frame or we were start, we were starting the process of erecting the frame.
This is something that we had decided that by purchasing this kit for the Bardo Minium, that's something that my husband would put up with our GC who is actually a friend of ours and um another person that he knows through his work.
And it has been nearly a two year process up until this point. We do hope to be done by Christmas 2023. Um, my husband is Christmas Kyle. He loves Christmas.
So it would be fantastic if we can, um, have the holiday season and holiday time in our new home. So that's the background of what has led us up to where we are today.
So I want to talk through six different lessons learned or lessons I'm learning, um, that are paralleled between building a house and launching a digital course. So the first one is that the timeline is not guaranteed.
Obviously, we know that by now it has flexed and changed and there was a moment when we had just week after week of rain where I finally threw up my hands and I said, ok, like I surrender whatever the reason is that we are not supposed to be in this house yet.
We're not supposed to have this house yet. I I release the stress and pressure of trying to force it and that just gave me a sense of relief that I will continue and we will continue moving forward with this, but it will happen whenever it happens.
And with course launching and creating courses, there are definitely things that you can't account for or you just don't expect things like recording your course modules always takes longer than what you expect.
Maybe you have a personal matter that comes up and you realize, mm you know, I need to spend time doing that and then to pause on my course or just, I can't be building my course at the speed that I want it to.
There also might be things where you decide, you know what I actually want to build my list a little bit more before I open the doors to my course. So I'm gonna push it back three more months to give myself time to build my list.
There are things that happen when creating your course that your timeline just is not guaranteed and when you can flex with it, it does release some of that pressure. So number two is that there is a triad of service.
You have good, you have, you have fast and you have cheap, you can only pick two because if you are doing a service, whether it be building a house or you know, whatever it may be. Um If somebody is good and fast, they're probably not cheap.
If somebody is fast and cheap, they're probably not good. And if they are good and cheap, they're probably not fast. And so you just have to pick two and realize that third one is that's, it's just not your priority because the first two are so with us, we have been building the frame this week, this past weekend, we are building the frame and it has been a lot of trial and error.
My husband has a painting company and a handyman company. So he's very much in this world. But erecting this metal structure building is not something he has done before.
So if we had hired a construction company, I do think it would have gone a lot faster, probably the whole process. But that was the thing that we were, that was the lowest on our priority list.
We wanted good quality and we wanted it to be inexpensive. Um And so we gave up that fast timeline and same goes with launching a course.
So for me and my business, we do one on one services for our clients to launch their digital course, we are very good at what we do. We are extremely quick.
Some of our clients are like, how did you build that sales page so fast? It's because we do it all the time, but we're not the cheapest option because we can only work with so many clients at a time.
The same goes for you. If you're in the DIY route, you want this good quality course and a launch, you might be focused on the cheaper option or the DIY option, which is great, but you're just not gonna go as fast.
So there's give and take within building a house and within launching a course. So let's dive into number 30, I see a type on my screen. Sorry about that. The prep on paper only goes so far. So for us building the house, literally this morning, Carl was at the breakfast table reviewing the plans.
There's only so much you can do on paper and he's been reading these plans and he's been researching, but until he goes and sees it in person and holds the building materials in his hands, he doesn't really know what to expect, right?
When it came to the tarps and trying to hold out the water for us, we had talked through this. And we thought, OK, let's, let's try something.
We just need to like, do something with our hands and, uh, we tried it and it actually didn't even work because once we lifted the tarps away, we found out that there's so much water that had seeped in underneath anyway, that it kind of was all for nothing, but we had to try it in order to do something.
Otherwise, neither of us would have been very happy if we had, we just like, sat around and waited and thought, you know what if and the same goes with your launch plan.
There are so many things that we do for our clients and that you probably do for your course as well in advance to prepare to write good copy, to know who your audience is to really craft your offer, to set it at a price point that your target audience wants or is willing to pay. But until you actually launch it, you really don't know what to expect.
But until we get it in the real world and real people's heads and real people's email inboxes, we just don't know what's gonna happen. So number four is I pause because it's, it's definitely a lesson that I'm still learning is it's supposed to go wrong.
So Jen Cerro, in one of her books, she gives this analogy where uh things are supposed to go wrong, whatever it is you're trying to do, especially if it's big and important, it is supposed to go wrong because that's the universe telling you or testing you how bad do you really want this thing? And so, um that kind of showed up for us this weekend.
So Kyle was putting up these pearls, these metal beams and he was attaching them and he, they had done a bunch and then they realized that they were off like the measurements weren't lining up the way that they were supposed to.
And I kind of had this moment of panic like, oh my gosh, this is, this is a mistake. And I look at him, I look at Kyle and he's totally cool as a cucumber and he just says, ok, we need a tweak, we just need to like fix this and he wasn't phased at all.
And in my head, in that moment I realized it's supposed to go wrong. That's just how it is and you can handle the situation and move on from it instead of wallowing or panicking or whatever, you know, emotions that come up may be.
And he was just like, so not fazed by it. And I thought, OK, this is part of building, this is part of construction, this is part of the process and it is also part of delivering a digital course, especially if you do a full launch because there's so many different components to it.
So it might be something like an affiliate doesn't promote and you are really like banking on that person or maybe the audio didn't turn out for your live webinar or you didn't get enough sales or the amount of sales you wanted for your car open day.
Ok. Let's dive in and figure out how we can adjust how we can pivot what we can do differently because does it all go perfectly?
Sometimes it does. But most of the time there's usually a little area that's not what we expected.
That was not what we planned for and we pop in, we jump in and adjust what we can so we can be off and running. So things are supposed to go wrong, it doesn't feel good. Um But when you realize like this is just par for the course, you're able to reset your expectations and then move on. Number five, there is a reason why not everybody does this.
So the past few days I have been sorting these pearls. So these metal beams, they were delivered on a couple different pallets and they were all jumbled together.
There's a 10, 11, 12, 13 14 16 22 24 ft long pearl. These like long metal beams all jumbled together. So when Kyle and his crew need a certain size, they're like having to sort and dig and um, and it just is very inefficient.
So my job has been to sort these metal beams and it is hot. It's 90 some degrees outside. These things are heavy. I was also stung by a wasp and broke out in hives uh a few days prior and then there's all these wasps around these metal beams because they've just been sitting on our property for over a year now.
And so I'm kind of freaking out every time I see a wasp when I've got the wasp spray and I realize not everybody does this because this is not enjoyable, but I am willing to do the work. I wanna get my hands dirty. I'm ok with that because I wanna be part of the process.
I want to be part of the solution and the, the effort that I can do to help sort and organize these beams is going to make the process easier for Kyle and the guys to actually build.
That's why a lot of people buy homes that are already built or they hire a construction company to just do all this for them with digital courses. It is a lot of work. There are simple ways, uh, to get your course up and running but simple doesn't always mean easy.
That's not, they're not synonymous and it's something where those that commit to do it little by little day by day for their digital course. Those are the people that get it done. They have the grit. It may sting a little along the way.
Literally sting for my wasp bites, but it's, it's something where if you want it and you can see it and you're willing to do the work, you can absolutely change your business, change your life, change who you are, but not everybody is gonna do this and there's a reason why. Ok, so our sixth and final step is to remind yourself why you are do doing this.
I had a moment like maybe two weeks ago where I was really second-guessing our decision. So they had finally poured the concrete slab and we are walking out on this just giant square and Kyle and I are walking through and we're like, ok, this is where the living room is gonna be and this is where the kitchen is gonna be and this is where the bedrooms are gonna be in the bathrooms.
And I thought, gosh, this is really small like this is what we want to do because we are downsizing. I don't think I told you that at the beginning, we are downsizing.
So our whole barndominium is 50 by 50. So it's 2500 square feet, but half of that is gonna be for is going to be a workshop for Kyle. So the other half ends up being about 1213 100 square feet is the living space for Kyle and I and our three kids.
So it is small, right?
Society tells us we need this big giant house to be happy, successful. That's not something that we want or at least that was our initial thought in this planning process. But walking through it, I'm like, dang, this does feel really tight and really small.
Is this really, was this a good decision? And so we kept walking and then we walked to what will be our porch what will be our, we kind of have an l shaped porch around, around the house.
And we started saying, ok, this is where we can put our patio table. This is where we can put our outdoor couch and our grill and like those big ball chairs that hang and you can kind of sit inside of them.
He was pointing out like this would be a really good spot to hang one of those chairs and he loves Christmas. So here's the little, here's the spot where he could put a Christmas tree on our porch um for the month of December.
And then he was saying like, ok, we could put a fire pit over here and we like outdoor movies so we can put in a permanent structure for the outdoor screen, right? And there's this perfect spot to do a giant slip-and-slide.
When we had those 50 by 100 ft tarps, we had to lay them out. And I'm like, oh my gosh, you put some soap and water on this. This would be a perfect slip-and-slide.
So walking through that with Kyle and really like picturing what this could be that got me excited again, that reminded us about why we're doing what we're doing.
But I had to physically walk into this space and really see each piece at a time to get myself back into, OK. This is why we're going through so many months of waiting and testing and kind of heartache because we know what's on the other side.
We can see it, we can feel it, we can picture it, we can envision it. And for you and your digital course, you have so much potential. potential.
Once you get through this phase of creating your digital course and launching your digital course, you have so much to gain.
Yesterday my coach had said Chelsie what have your clients been able to do since working with you and launching their digital course?
And there's one particular person I thought of right away. I said she has generated so much income that she's only working, she's a physician, she's only working part-time. She doesn't really need to work beyond that.
She has put aside so much for her kids. She has donated a lot. She has traveled to places like the North North Pole and she's having all these experiences she's created now.
She has created two other digital courses because what she had created that first time in 2020, it's just kind of like rinse and repeat and it has just allowed her to do so much more in her business and so much more in her life because she reminded herself why she wanted to to do this.
And that is available for you too. But again, not everybody's gonna do it.
Not, it's not gonna be an easy road. Your timeline probably is going going to change.
You do need grit to get there. So I hope one of these experiences helps you move forward with creating and launching your digital course. I know it's helped me in the real world, especially to reset and kind of reshift my perspective.
I promise I will keep you updated on how the rest of the build goes. If you want to share your good vibes or your prayers or your happy thoughts, I will receive those with open arms.
