<aside> 👉 Jump to a section: Status Updates | Community Comments | Video Updates | Tasks | Designs
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<aside> 🧭 What we’ll be trying to accomplish on this Behind the Build day:
We believe one of the best ways to learn is by watching others work.
We also know it can be hard to find the motivation sometimes to tackle a big project in your business, whether due to overwhelm or just not knowing how to get started. How many times do we over-complicate things because of our own perfectionism or put things off because we make them out to be such huge undertakings in our own heads?
We’re guilty of this sometimes too, which was the inspiration for this Behind The Build idea.
We’ve wanted to update our main lead magnet on our website for a while now, but other projects kept taking precedence. In our minds, updating our lead magnet and our home page was a BIG project that would require many, many hours of work… and so it kept getting put off.
Until we finally thought to ourselves…
“WHAT IF instead of a month-long project, we could actually complete this in just one day? What would that version look like?”
Of course, the version of creating a quality lead magnet and home page redesign that we can complete in a day is NOT the same version that we could create in a month… but the truth is that by not getting the best, first version done, we’re not moving any closer to our goals.
On February 16th, we’ll be taking you behind the scenes for one 10-hour sprint where we aim to complete the one-day version of this project. Will we succeed? Will we fail miserably? You’re going to watch as we find out!
We’ll update this page throughout the day on Feb 16th with our plans, our tasks, our designs, and even our feelings throughout the day in the form of update videos.
By no means do we think our way of doing things is the “right” way, but we hope by watching us, you can get the motivation to tackle a project like this in your own business and fight the perfectionism, over-thinking, and stalling that holds us all back from our goals.
Hope you enjoy following along! 🤜💥🤛
<aside> 📅 Live Build Day = Thursday, February 16th, 2023, 9am - 7pm GMT
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| ⏰ **9am GMT:
Kick-off!** | ✏️ ✅ Look out for updates in the planning and Tasks section where we’ll break down our ideas into actionable steps for the day
🎥 Kick-off Video added | | --- | --- | | ⏰ **9:30am - 12:30am GMT:
🏗️ Build Block 1** | ✅💬 We’ll be tackling our first group of tasks. Check back for updates in the Status section to know what we’re working on, and we’ll cross things off our task list as we accomplish them. | | ⏰ **12:30pm - 1pm GMT:
Update 1 and Lunch** | 🍽️ We’ll break for lunch, record an update video on what we worked on, what challenges we encountered, etc. and we’ll add sections here to show you any images, designs or deliverables we managed to finish!
🎥 Update 1 Video added | | ⏰ **1pm -3pm GMT:
🏗️ Build Block 2** | ✅💬 We’ll be tackling our second group of tasks. Check back for updates in the Status section to know what we’re working on, and we’ll cross things off our task list as we accomplish them. | | ⏰ **3pm - 3:30pm GMT:
🎥 Update 2 and Outdoor walk break** | 🚶☀️ We’ll break for a short walk to clear our heads and get some (hopefully) sunshine, plus we’ll record another update video for you!
🎥 Update 2 Video added | | ⏰ **3:30pm - 6:30pm GMT:
🏗️ Build Block 3** | ✅💬 We’ll be tackling our last group of tasks! Whatever we can accomplish by the end of the day will have to be good enough! Check back for updates in the Status section to know what we’re working on, and we’ll cross things off our task list as we accomplish them. | | ⏰ **6:30pm GMT:
🎥 Update 3 and Wrap-Up!** | 🎉🖼️ We’ll update the bottom of this page with whatever we were able to accomplish!
✅ You’ll see be able to see every task we accomplished as we accomplished it!
🎥 Update 3 + Wrap-up Video added |
We’ll do our best to update this “feed” regularly as we work on different tasks so you’ll be able to know what we’re up to throughout the day. Click here to start from the bottom (oldest update).
<aside> 👨🦲 7:07pm - AND WE’RE DONE… kinda 😆. As you’ll hear in the final video update, today was a SUCCESS ✅ and also not fully a success 👀. But hey, we had a blast doing this and we hope you all enjoyed watching! 👋 👋
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<aside> 👨🦲 6:58pm - Uploading the final video update for this project! This screen grab from the video summed up our final emotions nicely…
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<aside> 👩🦰 6:31pm - Okay, real talk, the home page design is nowhere near where I’d like it to be, but I’m very proud that we have something to start with! Surprisingly, the copywriting part (which normally comes easy for me) was really difficult, and I think that’s just proof that the training session curriculum took all my good brain juice. But hey, we can go back over all the copy and punch it up in the future. I also plan to replace the images for a more cohesive look. But what we have will definitely will do for now, though!
I am really happy to have gotten the CSS tweaks done to style the Drip signup form because that is always a pain. Celebrating the small wins!
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<aside> 👨🦲 5:58pm - His stomach grumbles as he copies, pastes, and formats the 3-email welcome series folks will get after signing up for the lead magnet. Send pizza!
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<aside> 👨🦲 4:32pm - If anyone needs me, this is where I live now 😆.
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<aside> 👩🦰 4:21pm - Gear shift! Okay, upon further review… we decided recording the mini-coaching session during this time block would probably ❌ NOT be the best use of our time and energy, mostly because we’re kind of pooped and would need to add a slide or two (we forgot to have a slide about who we are!) Trying to force that would only end in a sub-par lead magnet SO… I’m going to shift over to the home page design. We’re going to record the session (probably) first thing tomorrow when we’re fresh and we can just drop it into the new home page. 👍
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<aside> 👩🦰 4:07pm - Ready to get back into it! We just went through all the tasks that didn’t get completed in Block 2 and changed the “Block” property in our Task database to Block 3. Then we went through each tasks and realistically made a plan for the order in which we’ll tackle what’s left. I moved the checklist that will accompany the training session to “Not Today” since it’s just not realistic to get that done and I’d rather prioritize the home page design. The name of the game is just to be constantly reprioritizing and shifting things based on how much time and energy you have left in the tank!
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<aside> 👨🦲 3:59pm - Walk completed! Now it’s time to hit record and knock out the free coaching session. Then, we’ll be moving on to the homepage design and connecting all the technical stuff together.
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<aside> 👨🦲 3:31pm - Video update #2 is 🆙. We may not hit our goals today… but that’s okay!
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<aside> 👩🦰 3:27pm - Video Update for Work Block #2 is uploading. We’re headed outside for a walk to get some sunshine and give our brains a short break. When we get back, we’ll re-assess everything left and figure out what we think we can accomplish in our final work block!
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<aside> 👩🦰 3:03pm - Hooray! Slides are FINALLY done! Took wayyyyyy longer than we wanted, but that’s the way these things go! I’d rather be really proud of the content we’re teaching and deliver on value so we can start building that trust right away with new subscribers. Going to try to export the slides so you can take a look at them in the Deliverables section below!
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<aside> 👨🦲 2:20pm - Please bask in the glory that is this hilariously crude mockup for the lead magnet coaching session video thumbnail layout 😅😅.
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<aside> 👨🦲 1:57pm - Finished writing the homepage copy! Huge thanks to previous Jason and Caroline who created a “Page Layout Library” with copy prompts 😍.
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<aside> 👩🦰 1:23pm - Current goal is to have all the training session slides done and ready to take Jason through at 2pm. By then hopefully he’ll also have a great head start on the home page copy so we can record the training session in the 2-3pm hour and shift over to website after that. 👍
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<aside> 👨🦲 1:23pm - A task re-assignment has happened and I’ll be working on the first version of our home page 😬😬😬😬😬😬 (everyone, hold on to your butts!) You can follow as I create the page here:
Home Page Copy & Layout Brainstorm
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<aside> 👨🦲 1:13pm - The chef (👨🍳 it’s me) made some (read: heated up) chicken wraps with “Sun Bites” (Sun Chips for our U.S. friends) annnnnnnd the Update #1 video is UP!
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<aside> 👩🦰 12:28pm - Okay! I feel like we’re at a natural stopping point with the slides. I’m about 85% done which I feel good about, but I need to tweak a few things and make sure the flow makes sense (without being perfectionistic, which is hard for me because curriculum slides are my favorite thing to create.) If I spend too much more time on them I think it’ll suck time from our next block and I don’t want that. Right now Jason and I are going to record the short Block 1 update video, eat lunch and then I’ll take him through the slides. We’ll likely shift gears and have him start working on the home page outline/layout/copy while I finish the slides so we can make progress on the next big deliverable.
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<aside> 👨🦲 12:05pm - With about 30mins left before we film our next video update, I wanted to capture the focused intensity 💪⚡. Also, in case anyone was curious, Caroline has her own playlist in her ears 99% of the time (early 2000s hits 🎵) and I have a lofi/chillhop video playing on our 📺 in the background.
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<aside> 👩🦰 11:51am - Still working on the free training session slides! Not surprised because I really want to make sure the content is high-quality and actionable since everything else rests on that first impression someone has with our teaching content. That lil brainstorm with Jason was really helpful to remind me not to overthink things, though!
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<aside> 👨🦲 11:43am - Just had a mini-brainstorm to tweak the main 3 focuses of the lead magnet we’re creating. This is where the flexibility of working as two people has to come in to play! After about 5 minutes of back and forth we sorted it out and are moving forward on the same page (also focusing on, “this idea is good enough!”)
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<aside> 👨🦲 11:14am - Finished the draft page of the lead magnet! Reused our existing “Coaching Replay” page we have in Wordpress and tweaked the colors, layout, and wrote some copy (all of which are just a placeholder until 👩🏻🦰 works her 🪄).
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<aside> 👩🦰 10:47am - Starting the design of the slides now. I’ve estimated 60 minutes and I’m going to use one of my favorite tools Pomofocus.io to do 2 pomodoro timer sessions to keep me on track and focused. 🍅
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<aside> 👨🦲 10:46am - Just knocked out the lead magnet session outline and beat our time estimate. (Might be the last time that happens today LOL!) Also #nutsnacks.
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<aside> 👩🦰 10:20am - You can check out our full task list for the day in the Task section below. One important reason we like to do time estimates for each task is you can see…my total estimated time for the day is 8 hours. 🤣 Which isn’t going to happen. So it’s important for me to try and take LESS time than I’ve allotted. This will help me stay on track and move on even if things aren’t perfect. Remember, the goal is just to get the one-day best version we can of this project out the door!
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<aside> 👩🦰 10:07am - Almost finished brainstorming our tasks list. Meanwhile, just published the first video update. Watch us talk through the messy beginning of any project! Also, YES, we’re starting our first work block about 45 min later than anticipated and that’s just how life goes! A schedule is just a guide, so you gotta roll with the punches!
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<aside> 👨🦲 9:56am - Uploading the kickoff video now! Should be ready in about 10mins ⏳. [It’s UP!]
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<aside> 👩🦰 9:39am - Phew! Just finished up the kick-off meeting and it will be uploaded shortly. We’re going to take a few minutes to brainstorm our tasks now and then we need to get going into our first work block!
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<aside> 👩🦰 8:59am - Getting started with our kick-off meeting! If you want to watch our notes as we type them, you can head to our brainstorm doc I just started in our Planning section below.
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<aside> 👨🦲 8:53am - Currently setting up our video recording gear so we can record our first planning meeting and get things started. 🎥 🎤 (Very sad that I didn’t think ahead to make a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls for today. 😢)
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<aside> 👨🦲 8:35am - Breakfast of lead-magnet-making champions! (Oatmeal.)
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👩🦰 8:33am - Business on top, party comfy on the bottom. If I’m going to be doing focused work all day, you better believe I want to be comfortable! Regular pants just aren’t gonna cut it.
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<aside> 👨🦲 8:27am - Jason is getting all his other tasks knocked out (Slack, emails, Teachery support), then breakfast, and finally doing all his luxurious hair 😅.
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<aside> 👩🦰 8:15am - Caroline is having breakfast and getting ready for the day!
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Jump to a video: Kick-Off Video | Work Block 1 Update | Work Block 2 Update | Work Block 3 & Final Update!