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Homesteading, Homeschooling, Profit, And Priorities With Kody Hanner – Ep. 46
This interview clip comes from the Money Magnifier Toolkit designed to help you make more money! If you’re considering a homestead this is one to listen to but not only that the reasons that Kody created this curriculum and the choices that they made, I could really relate to. Then the determination and perseverance she talks about and displays I really believe are key in creating a long-term profitable business.
There are SEVERAL golden nuggets throughout so I think this is one to check out even if you don’t see yourself creating and publishing a homeschool curriculum.
LISTEN OR SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE IN YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSS
Resources:
Check Out The Full Money Magnifier Toolkit – https://aimeecerka.com/magnify
Connect With Kody
Instagram – @homemaderevelation
Podcast – Homestead Education Podcast – https://homemaderevelation.com/podcast/
Contact: kody@homemaderevelation.com
Instagram – @aimeecerka
Podcast Key Points
0:00 – Episode Overview
2:32 – What does Your Money Your Life mean to you? – Pursuing The Financial Endeavours That Are Important To You
3:29 – Getting Started Homesteading – Why Homesteading
4:51 – Starting A Homestead Science Curriculum
7:22 – Initial Costs For Designing A Curriculum
9:59 – Printing Yourself vs Publishing Company
13:17 – Age Curriculum Is This Geared Towards
15:22 – Day-to-Day Obligations Now
17:42 – Covering Ongoing Expenses With Skills You Already Have – Golden Nugget!
18:32 – Personality Traits Needed To Be Successful
20:02 – Quick Cash Infusions If You’re Looking To Create Your Own Curriculum
22:11 – Free Gift – 10% Off Purchases for 2022
22:50 – Connect With Kody
Frustrated that you aren’t making the progress that you should within your finances? Create an unshakable money mindset with the Money Mindset Mastery Checklist
Homesteading and Homeschooling: A Unique Journey
Aimee Cerka 00:01
Have you ever ended up doing something because it was kind of like a passion-led thing?
I really enjoyed this interview I’m about to share with you not only because we ourselves are working and growing and expanding our urban homestead now, instead of feeling like we have to continue to wait until we had the land that we want to, but because of the reasons that Kody created this curriculum and the choices that they made. I could really relate to and then the determination and perseverance that she talks about and displays I really believe are key and creating a long term profitable business. There are several golden nuggets throughout I think this interview is going to be one that you want to make sure to listen to closely.
Kody Hanner is a homesteader and homeschool mom of six. As a family they run their homes homestead and small scale pig farm, she decided that she wanted to teach her kids more about homesteading and that’s how the idea of homestead science was born.
This is the Your Money Your Life podcast where ambitious women come together to have clarity prosperity and confidence with their money without sacrificing precious time and well-deserved fun.
Aimee Cerka 01:28
Welcome to the Your Money Your Life podcast. I’m your host, Aimee Cerka. After my husband and I faced three major financial roadblocks in the last six years, I felt like I wasn’t doing all that I could and I had let my family down. It always felt like life was a struggle, like I had to work harder than everyone else. It just came easy to them.
And I didn’t feel worthy of success, until a coach helped me see the successes in our experiences instead of our failures. This allowed me to create and implement systems to grow our network by 200,000. Plus, while spending time with my loved ones and on my priorities.
Now I help motivated women create the happiness, family life, financial security, and long term wealth they deserve. If you’re ready to eliminate stress, struggle, frustration and guilt within your finances, you’re in the right place. Welcome. I’m so glad you’re here.
A Conversation with Kody Hanner: Homesteading and Homeschooling
Aimee Cerka 02:33
Hi, Kody, Welcome to the Money Magnifier toolkit. And then of course the Your Money, Your Life Podcast. I’m so happy to have you here and looking forward to this conversation together.
Kody Hanner 02:44
Well, Hi, Aimee. Thank you for having me. Absolutely.
Aimee Cerka 02:47
So what the name of the show is Your Money Your Life. So what does your money your life mean to you?
The Beginnings of a Homesteading Journey
Kody Hanner 02:55
Well, I had to think about this one for a minute. But as a homesteader and homeschooler much of what I do is against the grain. So after years of allowing myself to be a victim to other people’s opinions, I now proudly pursue pursue my financial endeavors that my husband and I see fit for our family and I do it with confidence.
Aimee Cerka 03:14
I love that and I’ll have to say like I’m really excited for this conversation because I guess I’m like a budding urban homesteader. I really didn’t feel like it was possible with a small as land of we have right now and our goal is to buy land, but this is our second, third year gardening and I’m just, I’m really excited for this conversation because of that, like my people hear you’re speaking my language like this is gonna be awesome.
Kody Hanner 03:42
I love it.
The Birth of Homestead Science Curriculum
Aimee Cerka 03:45
So how did you get started? And like really homesteading?
I know we’re going to talk a little bit about like the curriculum that you’ve created on the homeschool side. But why did y’all want to start homesteading is this? How did that all happen?
Kody Hanner 03:59
Well, I actually feel like an outlier because everybody that has these great stories about how they were city kids turned complete homesteaders. And I guess I’m a fraud because I grew up on a cattle ranch.
So I’ve been doing this all along. I was an AG major. I worked in agriculture for several years before my husband and I decided he’s a disabled vet. So he’s home all the time.
And we wanted to find a way for me to be home all the time as well. So we decided to become more self-sufficient. We moved to North Idaho. We bought a 40-acre ranch and we’ve just gone up from there.
Aimee Cerka 04:33
That’s awesome. I love it. And I, in Texas in the Fort Worth area, you know, the stereotypical-like cattle and all of that and like I had big aspirations, like took AG classes.
I used to want to be a veterinarian, and then I developed an aversion to blood so that wasn’t really gonna work quite well. No. But I was always looking on like with it like this is what I’ve always wanted to do and we’re finally feel like we’re going to be able to make.
Didn’t happen. So, obviously, that’s kind of how you knew that it would be a fit for your family. But I’d love to hear about like the developing the curriculum side of things, because you have a homestead science curriculum now, is that right?
Homeschooling and Homesteading Synergy
Kody Hanner 05:15
Yes. So when I started homeschooling my kids, I was so excited to start teaching them all the things that I had learned. And I was like, “I’m gonna base all of our science on agriculture. I mean, this is life. And this is awesome.”
And I started, I’d never homeschool before. So I started digging around online to find these curriculums that I was looking for. And there was nothing, like crickets.
I mean, I found a couple of like FFA, Advanced High School type curriculums, and 4-H has some curriculums that are great, but they’re more setup for like a group setting. So I started putting it together myself, and writing it myself, like one piece at a time. And I was just, I had this blog, because I was trying to like, make positives out of some home cooking things we had to do for some health stuff.
And I was like, “I need to find my voice in this really loud arena.”
There’s a homestead blogger on every corner. What makes me different, and I was listening to this homestead podcast, and they were talking about how this gal just really made it big designing stamps for her wedding. And I don’t know why but that just clicked for me like to I need to write a homeschool curriculum.
I don’t know how stamps and homeschool curriculum worked. But that’s what made it clicked for me. So I went home and I, you know, nervously told my husband because he isn’t always on board with all my crazy ideas. And he loved it.
He said, “Let’s do it.” So I pretty much just shut everything down for three weeks and wrote this homeschool curriculum from start to finish.
The Financial Aspects of Curriculum Creation
Aimee Cerka 06:48
Wow, that’s really impressive. Because like, I’m a Finance Coach and Money Coach. And there are a couple. There’s one main homeschool, like financial curriculum that comes to mind.
But it is definitely polar opposites of the way that I approach finances and everything like this, and I’ve had on my list to create a homeschool financial curriculum for a while. And actually later this year, I’m going to open up like a waiting list because it was like we have to get this figured out.
So the fact that you sat there and did it in three weeks is pretty impressive. So kudos on that.
And Kody has six kids as well. This isn’t like just a couple of kids running around. She’s got our hands full also. Just a little bit.
So what were like the initial costs, like getting started writing that curriculum, and then I guess hosting it, having it out there, putting it out there and marketing all of that. If somebody has this desire to create their own curriculum, and I guess I’m gonna be taking notes too now.
The Cost of Curriculum Creation
Kody Hanner 07:58
Right? I love that I actually was just talking to a friend yesterday who’s considering one readying curriculum herself. And I started putting together like maybe how to write a curriculum plan.
So we’ll see where that was. Because I feel like a lot of people just think that if they’re not teachers, that they don’t have something to offer. And that’s not the truth.
So as far as startups, I was hardly anything. I mean, I already had my website going, but you know, there was hosting costs with that. But of course, you know, WordPress was free. There was a couple of small plugins that I got for WooCommerce.
I mean, I think total, I was looking at a couple $100. From there, I just sat down and started writing. I mean, I Oh, I use Canva. Canva makes it so wonderful. I mean, I’m not a graphic designer, so to be able to have a really professional looking product. And I didn’t want someone else to do it.
Because there’s so many things with science that you need the photo to show certain aspects that somebody else who this isn’t their niche wouldn’t understand what I need. So I did that all myself and Canva, you know, I mean, that’s cheap, it’s $12 a month, or you can even do it for free. And then I had this big plan of I was going to release my digital and use all the cash flow of my digital to start having it printed.
And after a month, I hadn’t sold a single one. And I’d been advertising that. “Yay, my print copies are coming out in a month like preorder and stuff.”
And I had a glitch on my website and nobody bothered to like tell me that they’ve been trying to order and they couldn’t order. So if you ever go to someone’s startup website, and it doesn’t work, let them know, because they may not know.
Aimee Cerka 09:45
Yes, and not even startup like I had a glitch not that long ago and somebody was like, “hey, this happened” and it was like, “Oh my gosh, thank you for telling me.”
Kody Hanner 09:54
Right? Because I was so disappointed and thought like nobody loved my product. And, yeah, that was a huge bummer. But I had a set date already.
So I mean, I put a new printer and some printing supplies and my shipping supplies on a credit card and was able to kind of relaunch both a month later. And they just, I mean, they flew out of here, and I was printing them all myself. And I mean, this is a 250-page curriculum.
I was printing in my office with my kids all night long, it was insane. So, luckily, I have sold enough where I’ve been able to save up enough and have it professionally printed through a self publishing company.
Aimee Cerka 10:36
Awesome. What is the cost look like on that to get to the point and using a self publishing company, because I’m betting it’s not as far out there as a lot of people would think?
A Financially Conscious Approach
Kody Hanner 10:47
It’s really not. When I first started looking, I found a local publisher and or a local self publisher, and I thought, “Oh, this is so great, I’m gonna use them.” And the prices were just in a place where I couldn’t afford.
So I started printing at home, and it worked out to about $10, a book to print. And I was really excited about those numbers. And I mean, they, you’d asked me, Well, I was really excited about those numbers.
And if I had hindsight at this point, I probably would have went ahead and paid a little bit more because I wasted a lot of money with like, mistakes printing at home, and the just amount of hours that I had to spend sitting there babysitting my two printers running for hours straight.
And so I think I could have kept my prices the same as they are now, but just ordered a smaller amount I just had like smaller margins, and then eventually would have been able to order larger margins, or larger prize amount of products that gave me a larger margin. So I think I print at about $11 apiece right now, for a 250 page full color curriculum.
So I mean, I ordered 250. You know, it costs me about the 3000 range, right? But for a startup company, that’s really not that bad. And for somebody who mine is a kit, so like I it comes to the house, and then I add other stuff to it and ship it back out. For other people that wouldn’t have a whole kit for that.
There’s a print-on-demand companies out there, where they print it, they get the money, and they give you the difference. And so I think that could really be a great option for a lot of people that don’t have kits that go with it. There’s also a lot of options where if you’re just going to stick with digital, I mean, there’s Teachers Pay Teachers. They’re selling on your website, there’s Etsy, and I mean, I even sell my print copies on Etsy. So there’s a lot of options.
Aimee Cerka 12:55
I like that. Now, um, I guess Teachers Pay Teachers does do they have the option to, for you to purchase the physical as well? Or is that just the digital copy?
Kody Hanner 13:06
Just the digital?
Aimee Cerka 13:07
The digital, okay. Now for the homeschool curriculum, I didn’t even ask what like age range is this then like family style. So variety or versions.
Kody Hanner 13:27
The one I have right now is it’s for about preschool through third or fourth grade, depending on your child. I mean, a fourth grader who’s grown up on a farm would probably be a little thinking it’s too below them. They prefer the preschool version, I have just an alpha, it’s called the homestead alphabet. And it’s got coloring pages.
And it’s got facts about each letter and then a whole list 26 hours of homestead activities. That’s that one actually comes with the main text. So you can have an option if you have like a three-year old that wants to do it with your older kids. All the activities could be family style.
And then I’m actually writing the middle school and high school versions right now. The middle school version fingers crossed, we’ll be out in about a month to six weeks from when this has been recorded.
Aimee Cerka 14:19
That’s exciting. Trying to think now if I can convince mine that like this is something that we should do right into our science curriculum.
Kody Hanner 14:29
You know what, it could be a science it could be a life skill, it could be a social skill. I cover community attributes with it and family settings and things like that. So that’s why actually it originally wasn’t called homestead science.
It was like build your own homestead little learners. And I realized that it’s a science. Like I just didn’t think of it that way when I first started writing it. And as I’ve been marketing it and talking to people it’s 100% as I am.
Aimee Cerka 15:00
It’s science is so much more like, the way that everything has. I mean, like cooking is science and those are all life skill. Yeah, at the same time.
So we are definitely a science household, their dinosaur paleontology, all the animals, all the things. So I’m thinking this would be up their alley.
What is the day-to-day look like for you now? Obviously, you’re working on the middle school version and the high school version. But other than that, what does like day-to-day look like, now that the curriculum is published.
Balancing Homeschooling, Homesteading, and Entrepreneurship
Kody Hanner 15:37
So I mean, when I’m writing, it’s, it’s all the time. I mean, I squeezed in every minute and because I’m a crazy person that has six kids, a farm, a side business, and I’m a realtor. A lot of times my writing is jotting things down on my phone while riding in the car with my husband going to showings or something.
I’m like, you have to drive me because I have to keep working. Once everything’s printed, like we call it “the hurry up and wait time.” And once everything goes out, my day is only maybe two to three hours working on my side business. And when that shipping, advertising, social media, writing my blogs, recording my podcast, those types of things.
Kody Hanner 16:21
Well, that’s a pretty. Yeah.
Aimee Cerka 16:24
Marketing, ongoing stuff. And yes, I’m totally the one that’s like voice clipping to myself. I’m driving down the road like this was a really good idea. And then later, I’m like, “What the heck did I say?” Because it didn’t turn out at all, like what I said.
Kody Hanner 16:38
And we live in a really rural area where there is no cell service once you leave your house and 90% of our roads are dirt. So I yeah, I’m recording things as I’m driving down some crazy back road.
Aimee Cerka 16:54
It’s fun the day in the life. Right. So ongoing costs.
Have we talked about the shipping website, some of those things? I think I’d see that they just take a fee off of like purchases, right? There wasn’t like an upfront cost to set up the Etsy shop was there?
Kody Hanner 17:11
There’s not an upfront cost. I do pay for the additional advertising.
Aimee Cerka 17:15
Okay, cool.
Kody Hanner 17:16
So sometimes if I only sell a couple there a month, I don’t have a lot of profit. But I think it’s a really great advertising tool, because it pops up on Google.
Aimee Cerka 17:24
Yep. And Google is everybody’s friend, because you’re Googling that’s when people are interested.
Leveraging Skills
Kody Hanner 17:30
Uh huh. As far as my other ongoing costs is just my software’s. Really, at this point, my shipping costs, you know. Of course, when I have to order new bucks or something.
But I was worried when I first started my startup that I wouldn’t have enough money to cover all the software’s that I was paying for on a monthly basis. So I worked out a deal with my broker at the real estate office that I would do all of the marketing and social media for the office and make a little bit of side money that actually covers all of my software now and some of my advertising for the other company.
Aimee Cerka 18:03
I like that you’re leveraging the skills already and using them
Kody Hanner 18:08
Because maybe make my business work for itself.
Aimee Cerka 18:11
Yes, and I was the same way. I probably like I built my own website, I’ve done like a lot of those things. I have a lot of that techy knowledge.
And it’s like, “okay, yeah, you can go do that, too. You can go do that, too.”
And those skills can definitely be monetized. So yeah, I love that you did that. That was another really good nugget, people.
You’re listening, make sure you’re paying attention. Um, are there any personality traits that you feel would be helpful to successfully like, write and publish your own curriculum? or ones that you’d be like, no. Maybe you should figure out something else?
Kody Hanner 18:46
Well, I mean, if you have a skill, find a way to teach somebody. I mean, I don’t think it’s a hard black and white on that one. But my husband and I were actually having a conversation about this last night.
And, you know, I’m pretty self organized and disciplined. And I keep everything together really nice. So that helps I keep my own timelines.
And my husband who isn’t as tight as me, sometimes has a hard time understanding, like, “Why do you have to meet that timeline? It’s your business. You’re your own boss.” I was like, “Well, I have my reasons.”
And then he’d actually heard something I think on the radio about, “you would show it for your boss, why don’t you show it for yourself?” And he kind of came home and was like, “Okay, I get it now.”
So I think that I think anybody can do it. You just have to have some discipline.
Having Discipline and Willpower
Aimee Cerka 19:37
Yes, discipline and willpower. I completely agree with that. But it takes that determination to kind of make it work because like we talked about there’s going to be hiccups. There’s going to be stuff that comes up and you have to keep going and you have to actually get the work done. Like to start with.
Aimee Cerka 20:02
This series is geared around increasing our income. So if someone is watching and they’re interested in creating their own curriculum, do you have any suggestions on either things that you love or things that work well for quick cash infusions in your business?
And then I don’t know if we didn’t even talk about if you pre-marketed the course any before it officially went live in the there was the tech issues?
Effective Marketing Strategies
Kody Hanner 20:28
So I did do some pre-marketing. I started talking about it about six weeks before my first launch, had a lot of really excited people. So that’s why I was bummed when nobody bought it.
And I’m pre-marketing the middle school one right now, along with my book, like actually on the back of the grammar school books as middle school coming in 2022. So whether they buy it now or later in the year, they’ll know that that’s available. So I’m kind of constantly marketing that.
As far as the quick cash infusions, I had mentioned before that if you sell on my your site, as you Teachers Pay Teachers, you can sell a digital for I mean, almost no overhead. I mean, I think your website setups, and then I think they just take a small percentage out of each, to cover the credit card costs.
So that definitely gets money in right away. Once I got my print books, you know, you’re having to market online. I immediately started going to, like trade shows. And I mean, even local craft shows because I mean, what’s homesteading, that’s definitely a craft thing.
But I mean, even the homeschool concept completely is kind of a crafty type group of people. This year, I just got accepted as a vendor at the homesteaders of America Conference. Cool, which we go to every year anyways.
So the money’s already saved for the trip. So I just have to bring some curriculum with me this time, we can actually, you know, maybe get my trip paid for.
Aimee Cerka 21:59
Yeah, become a write off there too,
Aimee Cerka 22:02
Right. Now, I know that you have a free gift for our listeners. So with why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you’re going to share?
A Gift For You From Kody
Kody Hanner 22:21
Well, I would like to offer everybody 10% off of any of the purchases off my site for the rest of the year, so that as the middle school and high school versions are released. You have the availability to get a discount on those as well. Also, if you go to my site, there’s freebies on all different parts of the curriculum so that you can see if it is the right fit for your family.
Aimee Cerka 22:43
Awesome, and I will make sure all the links are included below, discount codes, etc. So that you’re all set up. So make sure to check that out. And then where can our listeners connect with you online?
Connect With Kody
Kody Hanner 22:54
Okay, well, I you can find me at my website, of course homemaderevelation.com. I’m also on Facebook and Instagram @homemaderevelation. And then there’s always my podcast, The Homestead Education.
Aimee Cerka 23:06
Awesome. And again, we’ll have all those links below. So make sure to connect with Kody. Reach out check out that homes core homeschool curriculum because I know that I will. And we’ll see you next time bye for now guys.
Create Unstoppable Finances
Aimee Cerka 23:31
Thank you so much for listening to the Your Money Your Life podcast. Wondering what’s next? When you’re ready, there are different levels of support that you can use on the path to creating unstoppable finances and your unstoppable life.
After all, your finances are unique and your support should be to. Ultimately we’ll create a customized plan to ditch financial struggle for good that works for you. Your goals, your priorities, your life. Go to workwithaimee.com to get started with one of our most popular programs, or you can book a q&a call with me, and we’ll figure out what your next step should be.
Aimee Cerka 24:08
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