For those of you who have been following us for a while, You’ll have noticed a few things have changed around here. We have a new name, ( Buildit123 has become The Zen Reno) and are taking the business in a new direction.
So I want to explain the what and why and the reason for all of this.
Let me tell you a story...
So, let me tell you a little story. This is the condensed version – otherwise i’d probably talk for an hour and nobody got time for that.
So in a nutshell, Buildit123 was a 1 to 1 coaching consultancy aimed at helping people renovate the home successfully, to give unbiased advice so they could confidently do the way that wanted and have the knowledge and the tools to interact with the player of this game and understand how it all worked and fit together.
But, being a 1 to 1 consultancy, we were limited in the number of people we could help and to put it bluntly we were out of financial range of many too. Even though our fees would have paid for themselves 10x over.
I don’t know about you but whenever the word Renovation is raised – the general consensus is negative – it appears that people feel there is a price to pay to get the home of your dreams, and that price is overwhelmed, chaos, budget blowouts, time blowouts, the prospect of getting ripped off or not getting the home you’ve been dreaming of . I’m telling you now it doesnt need to be this way – but we’ll get to that. Bear with me for a minute or two.
It's harder when it's YOUR dream...
So back in the day, a few years ago now, my husband and I renovated our forever home. We’d done it before personally a number of times and I have been involved in the building industry for 20 + years, but this was it – our forever home.
Finally, this was it.
But even with my experience and know how, I got caught up in the excitement, and pretty much ignored my own advice and got distracted by every shiny object and was in the process of coming down with a severe case of FOMO.
You get the picture.
So there I was, stressed out, overwhelmed, constantly second guessing my decisions when it all came to a head.
Reality check
Make no mistake, renovating is a big thing and most of us only do it once or twice. You have so much riding on it – the least being your hopes and dreams -you’re thinking things like – this might be your one opportunity to do it and while i’m doing this i may as well do this too…. So back to the story.
Needless to say, things got out of hand and during the design process ( as i was getting a costing – at least i got that right. We got the price in and of course it was over budget – scarily so.
Major dose of reality right there.
Our dream was suddenly in mortal danger. My husband was working away from home alot at that point and I remember spending many sleepless nights worrying and wondering and dreaming making that call – and telling hime id failed and we were going to have to find way more money or severely compromise our dream. Neither choice was appealing to me at all.
Our 'lightbulb' moment
So after confessing my sins to him over the phone….and after lengthy discussion about what we should do.
He said to me – and I vividly remember this – he said if it was a client what would you do – what would you instruct them to do? So, so obvious, yet when you’re in the thick of it sometimes the most obvious things are the most difficult to see.
Light bulb moment right there.
I knew exactly what i would advise a client to do so that what I did. I went back to the beginning and treated my project like it was a client – i ran through all the steps i would with a client and after a bit of jiggling and moving and changinging we were back ontrack. And for the record – 5 years later, I have zero regrets about any decision we made- except no dimmers in our outdoor entertaining space but.. That’s it. 😉
A lesson learned
The lesson i learned from that experience was that it’s much easier when you’re doing this as a bystander, it turns out it’s an entirely different experience, when it’s your dream on the line, your money at risk and your busy life that you’re trying to juggle.
This left me wondering what people who have no experience do when their projects go awry… and they do , way too frequently.
Many people I knew and know were also renovating and it was the #1 discussion topic at pretty much every social gathering. We relayed our story at said gatherings as you do and people would say to us ‘ I wish i knew what you know or had somewhere to go to learn how to do this.
These feelings of overwhelm and confusion really resonated with me.
There is a misconception in society that reinforces that people should be able to pull off a successful reno without any experience. When nothing could be further from the truth.
This realisation led to us looking to find a way to share our experience and our mistakes and to help would-be renovators so they had a way to learn ‘how to’ renovate.
A business is born...
So we started a renovation consulting and coaching business – enter Buildit123 Renovation Masterplanners that worked one on one with clients to guide them through their renovation journey.
But even with the success of that business, we realised that even this service was out of reach of many, and as a result we were not achieving our ultimate goal…
It was spelled out to me over dinner one night, with a chance meeting and a revealing convo with a lady seated next to me, After introducing ourselves and talking about our backgrounds, the conversation inevitably led to home renovation…and after sharing her horror story she finished by lamenting that there wasn’t somewhere to go to learn ‘how to’ renovate and said ‘I wish I knew then what I know now – why does nobody tell you this stuff- before you start’
But we wanted to do more...
We realised to help more people we’d need a new plan. To take this one step further.
So we decided to create a safe place where people can learn ‘how to’ renovate their homes so they can make smart decisions and take control of their projects.
Enter The Zen Reno...
And thus The Zen Reno was born.
Through The Zen Reno, through our online courses and community, and through our social media channels, we can now show everyone (no matter their experience), no matter the size of your budget, or complexity of their project how take control of their reno project and how to bring their reno project in on time and on budget, with minimal stress.
The name The Zen Reno encapsulates everything a renovation project should and can be – controlled, balanced and fruitful, inspirational.
So I hope you’ll join us for the ride.
