How To Build An App With Replit: You're the Product Manager. The AI Is Your Engineer.

speaker-0: If I can do this, you can do this too.

speaker-1: Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I think I think my my biggest piece of maybe advice for others is start smaller than you actually think. And don't try to build the whole thing ⁓ in one go and just start.

speaker-0: Jocelyn was gifted three chickens. She had nowhere to put them, raccoons in the neighborhood and no coop she could buy anywhere. So she looked up how to build one, and the plans were not perfect. They were too complicated and she gave up on the plans. So instead of buying, she thought maybe I can build it. She found the tutorials complicated and out of the blue decided to build an app that solves her own problems and helps her chickens out. And that is how Josling App Building Story started. Her first submission to the App Store got rejected. She fixed it in fifteen minutes and resubmitted it, and three days later Bildara was live on the app store.

speaker-1: ⁓ so a little bit about me. I am ⁓ pretty much ⁓ a SEO strategist by day. I just actually made the jump from in house to ⁓ at a SaaS company over to agency life. and outside of that I've been kind of diving headfirst into, you know, building stuff with AI. I think as we all have been ⁓ and then, you know, I'm I'm also kind of like the person who kind of usually has ideas, but like I have so many ideas. and then I get stuck, right? So ⁓ but I have zero coding background, ⁓ and vibe coding kind of changed the whole game for me. Honestly. I I've been playing around for so long now, ⁓ a few years now. And ⁓ the things that have come out of it are pretty pretty unique. So

speaker-0: Yeah, I can't wait to hear more. ⁓ may we start with you mentioned Bildara. So that has a little unique starting story. So how did it even start? It was a quite quite a journey before it even became an app. There was a problem that you had to solve.

speaker-1: Mm-hmm. Yes. ⁓ it definitely ⁓ came from frustration. ⁓ I was trying to build something ⁓ which I have a kind of a unique story for it maybe. ⁓ I had just been gifted some chickens. and I haven't owned chickens since I was a young girl living in the countryside. So ⁓ living in city life is a little different because now you have to make sure they're house properly and ⁓ we also have raccoons that love to try to get to our precious chickens. ⁓ and so I have these three hens, but I have no home for them. so immediately I go into survival mode with I need them to survive. ⁓ so I'm like looking on like local you know platforms to try and see if I can find a chicken coop.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: And I cannot find anything at all. So I start researching how do I build one? ⁓ and the things that I came up with were not great and more complicated than I thought that I could actually achieve. ⁓ so out of frustration, as I was driving, I stopped the car on the side of the road and I said, you know what? Why don't I create an app or something that can solve my own problem? And so I went home about an hour later and I started going crazy on Replit. ⁓ and Replit is like kinda like my vibe coding prince, so to speak. ⁓ that is the the the one place I love to go to get all my ideas out and be like, help me. I need this to come out of thin air, no. ⁓ so yeah, Bildara actually was born and ⁓ you know, it went from like a kind of like a vague idea to like, I well, I have no clue what materials I needed, you know, I didn't know measurements for sure. and then even if I were to do it myself, who knows if it's gonna turn out great. So ⁓ you know, my my thought process for Bildara was actually What if I could just snap a photo of ⁓ my ideal ⁓ chicken coop ⁓ that fits three hens comfortably. and then, you know, materials appear, measurements, a shopping list, safety notes of all things, 'cause I'm a ditz. and then giving me like step by step instructions. So, like, that's Bildara, like it you it's your build plan essentially from Just a single or up to four photos. So yeah.

speaker-0: Yeah. And it's a quite journey from thinking like, ⁓ I'm gonna DIY to like I'm gonna build an app. I I love it. ⁓ did you initially like did you you said you wanted to build an app, but was it like a mobile app or just you know, how did you come up? Because it's in the IO app store right now.

speaker-1: It is in the App Store. ⁓ I had no clue that I would actually end up, you know, launching it in the App Store. ⁓ I didn't even I couldn't even fathom how that was possible for me. ⁓ but the more that I, you know, kept building, the more like Repit was like, Hey, you know, if you ⁓ really want to turn this into like an app that people can purchase, you know, ⁓ or utilize. h you know, here are one, two, three steps, you know, to do. And so I was like, wait, what? That's a possibility for me? ⁓ like I know you can make a website. I've made a few websites with you, Replet. But wow, that this is this is insane.

speaker-0: Yeah. So how did you I mean, I'm sure Replit helped you to figure how to build an app, but app building has quite a lot of different things. You need to think about different screens and buttons and functionality and features. How did you tackle that?

speaker-1: Right. So like I have a little bit of a background, ⁓ because I work in SEO about, you know, and from managing a website previously, I kind of have a small education around like things that n you know, ought to be ⁓ on a website, right? So translating that into kind of like, okay, I would like to perhaps have this feature or this feature You know, and then simply asking the repa agent like, what do I need to do in order to have this feature? ⁓ how complicated is it? What is the time it takes? You know. ⁓ so the thing I love about vibe coding as we call it, right? So vibe coding is basically, you know, building, you know, s you know, some kind of software or ⁓ app by describing essentially what you want and, you know, kind of letting the agent like write the actual code for you, since I do not do that. And we don't that's kind of the point. You don't need to know how to code, right? So like you're basically like a product manager and the AI is your engineer, right? So you simply describe the idea, it builds it, you tell it what's broken or what to change, and then you know, you just kind of keep reiterating from there. and before, like I had spend hours and hours ⁓ and days and days at which extended into weeks. ⁓ but when I built this app, I was so headstrong and so like I knew what I wanted. I had this idea in my mind, and I just knew I needed to bring it to fruition. So I think that I was heads down for maybe two days, for about eight hours each, ⁓ until I found a viable product that I was like, in my mind, this is good enough. to launch. ⁓ and historically I think I've, you know, gotten so in my head about it has to be perfect. Everything has to be perfect. ⁓ or it's not good enough. You know, and so I I really tried with this project to say, you know what, good enough is good enough. ⁓ and I shipped it, ⁓ essentially. And so I think with with building it on like Replit itself. ⁓ it it's I use the browser base version, right? ⁓ so you can basically build and kind of run code without having to set up anything on your computer ⁓ look like so. ⁓ I think describing what I wanted to the agent and watching it just kind of like generate and like getting to see the actions live time on the right hand side screen, like it just keeps me going. and then I get to test it right there, you know. ⁓ and for like someone who's not a developer, I think that's a a kind of a a nice to have for sure and kind of like a big deal. Cause there's no like, you know, local environment stuff that will like get in your way, essentially. So that being said, that's it's not by any means like a magic button. ⁓ I want to preface that. there were definitely moments where like I'd describe something and the AI would build it.

speaker-0: It is

speaker-1: But it break it something else entirely, you know. ⁓ or I'd get stuck like trying to explain ⁓ a more technical concept that I didn't fully understand yet myself. And then that's kind of where I learned a little bit ⁓ about being just a little more specific, you know, ⁓ with with the kind of prompts that I was putting through and, you know, what I was actually getting out. And I think it it definitely got better over time. So

speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. How did you tackle ⁓ bugs and errors and things that because it's it's always gonna break at one point or another, multiple times often. Like were you just trusting Replit to fix it or

speaker-1: So I I did a little bit of research on my side ⁓ on the side ⁓ as well. ⁓ and I remember doing bug bashes via my job, ⁓ and having everybody kind of joined together. And so like I kind of like brought together like that ⁓ experience in my head and I was like, Okay, everything from like ⁓ there's not a there's a button that doesn't work or the image isn't loading properly. The one issue that I think I really ran into was it would so I'm I'm telling too much here, but it's okay. It's it's for informational purposes and education purposes. So there was a point where I had the image uploader, ⁓ and then what it would do is because it was l using the AI chat version. was a lower version of Chat GPT. And so what it was doing is spitting out what was in the photo, ⁓ which was not helpful. ⁓ and so like I had to iterate of reiterate a few times ⁓ to actually get it to, you know, okay, the image appears to be, you know, a chicken coop. it has this angle and this angle and it looks to be about these dimensions, right? And so then I would keep submitting photos and testing ⁓ to see if it was correct. ⁓ and I would measure the items out or I would get the specs from online ⁓ that like I just kind of generated from another ⁓ chat ⁓ AI what the specs were. And so I was like, okay, that's realistic or that's not realistic, right? And so making sure that it's realistic, making sure that it I understands like the ask ⁓ is like an entirely different thing because you're relying upon a chat ⁓ GPT version and hopefully you know you you can instruct the dev agent to actually pull in a higher performing one but being cautious of tokens right and like usage so that's a whole thing in itself. ⁓ and I think I ended up just giving in and, you know, making sure that I was covered for ⁓ the the token usage. so that was one of the issues I think that kind of arose. and then so going back to like the ⁓ just a few things, ⁓ I think being clear about what you're looking to do or how you want it to perform is very, very vital. ⁓ it's fun to play around, but also you don't want to eat up all your tokens and all that ⁓ because then you have to pay more. ⁓ and as someone who was out of work at the time, I didn't I could not afford that. So being very, very ⁓ detailed, more detailed for what I was inputting ⁓ to get the output that I was looking for. ⁓ so and the I mean AI is beautiful, but it can only, you know, spit out and build what you like tell it to, essentially. ⁓ if if your idea is like not clear, I would say, you then your output's gonna be, you know, it would they say garbage in, garbage out, right? So yeah, I think a lot of

speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent.

speaker-1: I don't it it's weird to call it a s skill even, but I guess it is a skill these days. It is. Yeah. And vibe coding I think is actually like more about the the product thinking, right? You know, and knowing what you want before you start. ⁓ and I think one of the hard lessons that I learned with Bill Dara is ship small. wanting to go from A to Z.

speaker-0: Yes, definitely. Yes. Yeah. ⁓

speaker-1: in two seconds flat is likely not going to be the best viable product.

speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Did you ⁓ split it in the beginning or did you try to one shot the app initially? I was like, This is maybe not working. Did you then go back and start building in features or sections or views?

speaker-1: Yes, I did that four or five times actually. and the first time I was just like, Yeah, I want this I want this app and I wanted to do this and I it's simple. Like I'm trying to keep the user interface like so so simple in my mind that I'm like, there's a place for a photo upload and then there's you know, you out these four or five things and put them into tabs so that way people can ⁓ end users can actually choose what they want to look at on the screen. And so my my problem at first is I just wanted to like get the thing done, the biggest thing done. And then I wanted that to be that. You know, I'm like, okay, I just need to build this chicken coop and I need to do it now. but you know, I I think I learned to kind of like, you know. Do this the do small bits ⁓ and then keep updating, keep, you know, translating things into actionable things for the AI. ⁓ I I didn't want it to be like a barrier for myself. ⁓ because like I said, I was very heads down with this. ⁓ yeah, and I I would encourage people not to get into the trap of ⁓ it has to be done right now. ⁓ and I want this big beautiful product in front of me in two iterations. Yeah. Likely not going to happen. ⁓ and if it does happen, you know, it will not perform the way that you are hoping or expecting. You have to bring your dreams to life through the AI. So

speaker-0: Yeah. Do you have in your app backend? Do you have database where you store the images or is it like you're not even storing them or do you have things like that?

speaker-1: Yeah, so not currently storing. ⁓ it is like a feature that I would like to add. ⁓ so well technically, so the images come from the end user, right? The end user, you know, is probably taking a screenshot on their phone, ⁓ which saves it to their camera role. ⁓ and then so when they upload into Buildara, ⁓ it it's if they save the project. then yes it would be saved, but it's just storage from their phone. It's not anything else. So

speaker-0: Is that something that's c coming up later or it

speaker-1: it it's it's it's on the list. I think I'm on V seven right now ⁓ of Vildara. The other feature the other cool feature ⁓ along with the storage ⁓ for images and ⁓ projects ⁓ is so right now it's pretty solid as an app, right? ⁓ but and it does the core thing that you know it does really, really well.

speaker-0: Yeah, okay.

speaker-1: ⁓ but my vision is actually to keep making it like a you know, a go-to tool for like anyone who wants to build something in any DIY projects ⁓ that you're like, ⁓ I have a broken dresser that I've been looking at for eight months ⁓ and I don't know how to fix it or I just don't have the supplies or tools, you know, take a picture and build Dara and you know, say, I need to fix this dresser. ⁓ and you can even describe things like that. You know, it appears that the second drawer, you know, stem part is broken and I need to replace it. ⁓ but I don't have this. You can you can chat with it because it has that function built in and describe things and ask it questions as well. ⁓ or one, two, three, you know, take a photo, have it generate. ⁓ but the the vision is I want to keep keep people ⁓ fixing things, keep you know, save them money. and I think ⁓ if it's a if it's a weekend, you know, woodworking project that they're, you know, trying to get through, or maybe they're just trying to survive another IKEA box product. ⁓ so that is like my second feature that I technically have available on the web app version. ⁓ Because I spit out a web app version as well so that folks who don't want to download maybe, they can technically use it right now for free via the web app version. ⁓ and you get three free analysis ⁓ without having to pay anything just for downloading it. ⁓ and then after that it's $3.99 a month. ⁓ or I think it's ⁓

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: I put 1999 for a year. So ⁓ I would like to expand it though on the iOS version to be able to handle specific use cases. ⁓ and the use case that I'm working on right now as a feature is you can take a picture of the IKEA instructions.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: I know are not the greatest ⁓ usually because I myself have spent many hours and broken like wrist ⁓ trying to do what the instructions are telling me and just it's not working out. So you can snap a picture of the instructions and it will simplify it for you with check mark boxes that you can check off as you complete each step so that we don't forget where you are. So that's kind of a a different one as well. ⁓ and who knows, maybe IKEA will wanna do a deal with me.

speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ Yeah. How did you ⁓ man how are you managing because you have three free tri like you can try three times. How have you managed it actually in the app? How does the app know it's free tri like?

speaker-1: So it's according to like so you can upload up to four images, right? So if you upload four images and then you say like help me build essentially, each time that unfortunately that's how it is currently, that's another version that I'm working on improving. But each time that it does a prompt and runs through, that is an analysis. So if you just take a picture of a wall, it will it will count as an analysis. ⁓ so ⁓ I would like to improve that though. ⁓ and that's another thing I'm working on because I would like it to be able to ha save the products, ⁓ the projects ⁓ not only as you take it, because if someone if an end user it doesn't take photos, ⁓ in the way that maybe is like the most helpful for ⁓ the app to help them. ⁓ I don't want that to count against them. And I don't want someone to have to pay for an app that isn't helpful and doesn't provide value before they actually commit. You know, ⁓ originally when I was building this, the ⁓ another thing that I ran into was I was sick and tired of all of the paid subscriptions, paid apps. And so in my mind, I was like, I want to make this app free because I know that the women builders of the world would love this. and so because I wanted to make it free, I had a few options essentially with launching it in the iOS App Store. I can either charge a very, very low fee, ⁓ like 99 cents or something. to download and you have it for life. or unless you delete it and then you have to re-download. But or I could have it as a free download, give end users a certain amount of tries ⁓ or trials, right? ⁓ or I could provide discounts as well, which is something I didn't realize that I could do for like an app. ⁓ I myself know that I've seen, you know, ⁓ I get a discount, like, or someone's, you know, letting me test an app or something. So I figured all of this out within a matter of like hours. and I I found out that doing in app purchases was the way to go, actually. it made things ⁓ more streamlined and ⁓ better for release as well. And so that's why I chose to not charge an arm and a leg, so to speak, ⁓ for the app itself. I want it to be accessible to just about anyone in any country that needs it. So

speaker-0: Yeah. How have you built the paywall and how did you actually d do the monetization?

speaker-1: So ⁓ the paywall is kind of like built in. ⁓ it's built in with code, ⁓ but it's also built in ⁓ like App Store Connect. and the i i essentially like within App Store Connect, if I'm remembering correctly now, I'm div visualizing this. Yeah. You know, it has it has options ⁓ for like ⁓ how much are you looking to charge? And it also has ⁓ like for each country it has like a a translation of like what one dollar, one US dollar would be for other countries automatically kind of so ⁓ I try to set the precedent there, you know. and then I use Revenue Cat ⁓ as like a kind of like a my dashboard where I can see the amount of downloads, the you know amount of subscribers, what my monthly, you know, recurring revenue is. we're not there yet, but we're getting there. ⁓ and so I I think the actually toughest part for me in this ⁓ is because I live in a a marketing life, you know, as a day job, it's like really hard to come home so to speak and do that for myself. So marketing the app is something I'm really trying to ramp up on and do better. So I've, you know, started a TikTok and and started, you know, a YouTube. you know, I'm getting my content together to, you know, launch. and I I've got a little bit of traction on TikTok so far and I'm

speaker-0: Yeah, yes. Excellent. Excellent.

speaker-1: Trying to follow, you know, Sabrina's rules for the game, so to speak. And it it's working, I'd say. ⁓ but I I need to put a little more time towards it, so

speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. One platform I can also recommend is Pinterest. That's where a lot of DIYers live and users are usually in their they're trying to improve something in their life, so that might be ⁓ suitable for you.

speaker-1: That's a good call out, thank you.

speaker-0: Highly recommend that. Yeah, so that that's really good one. ⁓ so how do you balance because you are using AI in the background and you still have like s affordable monthly fee, how do you balance that you don't go in the negative if somebody's ramping up loads of images or you know, do you have some guardrails?

speaker-1: Yeah. ⁓ I have guardrails put in place ⁓ up to a certain amount so far and that's kind of ⁓ a ⁓ a nice to have that I kind of built in with it. ⁓ now because I haven't reached that limit, I I will find out when I get there, I think. ⁓ but I think by that time I will have been in a better position ⁓ regardless. ⁓ for the credits tokens, you know. I actually did kind of increase my my monthly amount for my creator, you know, Replit version. And then ⁓ I actually switched from Chat GPT to Claude full stop. because I think Claude Code helps me and Claude Cowork helps me a lot more ⁓ than Chat GPT did for the last three years. so I was one that, you know, with Chat GP ⁓ chat GPT rolling out, like I was on it. You know, I was trying to use it for as much as I possibly could. You know, if I needed to build a vacation schedule, like I used Chat GPT. ⁓ if I needed to plan a romantic date night for me and my fiance, I would do that. ⁓ so yeah. I try to use it as much as possible, but you know, I I don't think I ever had an a a credit issue with using it on the daily, ⁓ on the $20 a month plan. ⁓ now with Claude it's a little bit different ⁓ because I find myself using it for more complex ⁓ projects. And so depending on the prompt that I ask it, you know, or ⁓ input. ⁓ it may take more tokens kind of like replit does as well. So if it works for longer than 10 seconds, you're gonna see that reflect on your token count and your credit count. So ⁓ if you ask it things prompt it in a way that it can ⁓ actually get things done faster or ⁓ in a more efficient way for you, ⁓ then it will automatically do that from what I've found.

speaker-0: Minute. Yeah, yeah.

speaker-1: eats up less credits. So it's a it's just really about the balance is honestly about like being specific enough, giving it enough context and ideas, so to speak, to kind of bounce back at you, ask you clarifying questions, ⁓ to get the more viable product out to you faster.

speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. We've been talking a lot about kind of the coding or maybe the technical side. How did you tackle the visual side? You have to create an app icon and app store screenshots and decide a brand color and maybe even fonts. How did you tackle that?

speaker-1: Well honestly say I I relied upon Replit for that, ⁓ a little more heavily than I care to admit. ⁓ but it took probably about f eight to ten iterations ⁓ because, you know, I wanted the B for Bildara to kind of look like tools or like plywood, you know, and be fun and playful. So that way when someone visually saw that on the app store, ⁓ they would be like, ⁓ that's kind of cool and unique. And then as far as the colors, I I like like the navy blue and orange colors. Naturally I'm a neon green girl, but with the with accessibility and understanding accessibility because I come from that background as well.

speaker-0: Okay.

speaker-1: that would not be nice for, you know, anyone with eyesight issues or, you know, ⁓ so I wanted to be more ⁓ inclusive ⁓ if I could with, you know, the orange and the navy blue and then like white text or darker text so that way it's visually more ⁓ like easy to see. ⁓ but also I think the font I wasn't as picky about. I wanted like a f I just knew because I don't know all the fonts, right? Not as familiar. I just knew that I wanted a fat B. Yeah. ⁓ and so that's the visual ⁓ the what was going on in my mind. So it went through like three iterations for that and till it landed on one that I was like, okay, that's it. I like it. ⁓ and then I think

speaker-0: Okay.

speaker-1: For I I just kept the color scheme the same, the the palette ⁓ throughout the app ⁓ itself. ⁓ I think primarily because it felt not gender specific to me and it felt like an inspiring palette, if that makes sense. I kind of went with my gut with it and I was like, okay, this is

speaker-0: Yes.

speaker-1: This is beautiful in my eyes. ⁓ and so I think in the past when I've, you know, launched other ⁓ products or websites, I've gotten too, too carried away or, you know, ⁓ just left myself kind of unhappy and it stopped my progress for something as simple as like, ⁓ my logo sucks or I don't like my logo, nobody else is going to like my logo. So I think not overthinking the little things like that, because you can always update over time. Companies do it all the time. what their logo was ten years ago is likely not what their logo is today. It doesn't look the same, you know. So it's okay to change and to upgrade over time. ⁓ so I would encourage ⁓ folks to kind of take on that mindset as well.

speaker-0: Yeah, you said it was like if I can do this, you can do this too.

speaker-1: Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I think I think my my biggest piece of maybe advice for others is start smaller than you actually think. And don't try to build the whole thing ⁓ in one go. And just start. Yeah. Just just start playing around with it. I before I started I had all these, you know, misconceptions in my own head. For no reason, you know, and I sat forever on these ideas that were in my head because I didn't feel good enough, I didn't feel technical enough, I like who would care about my little app, you know? ⁓ or my website. Who cares? You know? But also at the same time, who cares? Like, you have something that you want to do, just do it, just get started. Because otherwise you might sit for a year on it and then somebody else has done something. You're like, I could have done that. Yeah. It was that easy. I could have I vibe coding has changed the game for me and I know for many others because it's set the bar, lower the bar to entry is it is at the floor. And anyone can do it now. So I think, you know, y you don't have to have a set s ⁓ a specific set of skills. ⁓ you just have to have a curiosity.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: I think.

speaker-0: Yeah, absolutely. And I totally agree that ⁓ the best first app is the smallest problem, even if it's mundane problem that you can try to fix with an app. ⁓ and then just see how you could fix it because the building process, like there's no course or like it's hard to put in a course format because you just have to go through the process. and realize what you don't know and what you still need to learn, and then just move on to the next thing and the next thing and ship fast as soon as it hits like reasonably usable app. Just put it out there and and put it on the hands of a user and see what happens.

speaker-1: Right, right, agreed. And even with ⁓ shipping like an iOS app, ⁓ when you submit to like App Store Connect, for example, like you have to provide screenshots and you know, workflows essentially to show that the app actually works and produces something. But also they test, they have developers and stuff that test on their end. ⁓ and If like the first time, I think the first iteration I got got rejected within a day. And so they gave the reason why. And I just simply fixed that thing. And then I said, Okay, well, here you go. Take it back again and take another look because it's fixed. You know? ⁓ I think I did that within like 15 minutes because I was like, No, no, no, no, my dreams have to come true with this. ⁓ and so I I resubmitted it back and it got approved. Like my approval timeline I think was three days essentially from submission to and I thought it would be weeks. I submitted it and I was like, okay, like I'll keep an eye on my email. and yeah, I was just fascinated that I was like, wow, I have an IOS app. I have an app on the app store.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: What? This is mind boggling. I'm just a little person with an idea. So it was very exciting.

speaker-0: Yeah. It is and it's a huge achievement. I mean, sometimes when you you are in the process, you don't think it's that much because you just move you almost like a blinder or so on and just go into the next thing. But ⁓ with these chats, I've gone through the process myself at many times, but when I listen to like you, how many things you've had to tackle to actually get to app all the way to the app store and just not give up? And just like, I'm gonna do this. And I think because it's such a process, the feeling you get, the first email you get, it's approved, and you're like, Whew. How did I do that?

speaker-1: It's true. It's true. I I think that I was a little bit in disbelief. So I took screenshots. I took screenshots for myself of like my approval email. And ⁓ I take screenshots of everything. My camera roll probably has like a hundred thousand images of just screenshots. Yeah. ⁓ that I hardly ever reference, but you know, ⁓ when I need it it's there. But ⁓ yeah, so it it it's pretty it's pretty amazing to me that something like this can happen for me. So I know that it you know, if it happened for me, it can happen for anyone. ⁓ because I'm not special. I'm I'm I'm just a nobody. Like I have a specific set of skills, ⁓ but those skills ne aren't necessarily needed for this, you know. ⁓ and so I I think I just want to encourage others to kind of get on the train and, you know, build what's been on your brain. Just y build and and iterate and have fun with it. Because if you're not having fun with it then it's gonna feel more like a chore anyway. And, you know, then maybe you won't finish it, you know. So, I think that's one of the things that kinda helped me is, you know, I had a vision. ⁓ It's the quickest I think I've ever worked on a project. ⁓ but that's okay because I can always update.

speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So what do you think is next for Buildera? What's next for the app?

speaker-1: Goodness. I think my marketing needs to take a take a up step. and I think there are a few more iterations that I would like to get to. And you know, hopefully, you know, something comes from it. Like I said, maybe IKEA will want to work with me. Maybe Wayfair will want to work with me. ⁓ who knows? I have a specific vis a vision of what I hope to happen with. with it. And that vision is just simply that people can use it at their whim. ⁓ they enjoy it. They think of it as like the best for the the DIY best friend in their pocket. ⁓ and, you know, like I said, I hope it saves them money and time and frustration ⁓ that I was feeling. ⁓ so I think what's next is just launching it to the world. ⁓ and getting the word out there and taking feedback from end users, you know. ⁓ I am not afraid to add features. I am not afraid to accept criticism of it at all. I I welcome it. So

speaker-0: Yeah. Have you noticed now that you've built and shipped an app, like are your friends or co workers or family like Should I do that too?

speaker-1: ⁓ I have a a few friends that are like, Whoa, wait, what? ⁓ and I think ⁓ seeing your name, you know, as the developer is like kind of special in of itself. But I think when I I I share the app with ⁓ a few of my family members and a few of my friends and they're like, Wait, what? What what happened? Like, when did you do this? How did you do this? and I didn't give my secret away at first. But then I realized why am I why am I I'm not someone to gatekeep how I did this because I you know, just because I had to figure it out on my own. You know, I don't want others to have to fight in their minds and like w waste time, so to speak, precious time, when they could take some advice from me, get going on it, and then themselves produce something that they're really excited about. You know, we the greatest business of businesses of all time, you know, in this world that have stuck around for a very long time, you know, started from somebody's idea. You know, we think about Facebook or Meta Meta, ⁓ where, you know, or Google. Like where did these ideas start? In someone's garage and like while someone was taking a walk in nature, like and so I think People have ideas and the world needs to see those ideas come to life. So

speaker-0: Yeah. And yeah, and I really like now that with vibe coding, the people who weren't able to create those ideas, actually make them something real, they can now experiment. And what I found that if you do that one app, it's like your brain goes like, ⁓ I just did an app, like what else can I fix? And the list, at least for me, it just Like I have such a long list of things I'd like to build now that I've ⁓ you know, my mind going like, ⁓ I can actually do this. You know, it's com it's completely a different starting point now and I'm just hunting for problems I can fix.

speaker-1: Mm. Exactly. Exactly. I think that's the biggest thing is I had a problem for myself, right? And I said, Well, if I have this problem, I know that others have this problem. And then you think back on like, okay, I've built how many things from Wayfair, I've built how many things from IKEA over the years. And man, I wish I had something like this back then, you know. ⁓ so it solves multiple issues, right? When you, you know, when you go looking for problems to solve, you're like, okay, what is a problem in the world that many, many people or you think many people would have, right? You just have to think that many people have a problem. And chances are they do because we're all humans. We're complex, but we all deal with the same issues and concerns and worries in the world. So solving someone's problem or your own problem will automatically, you know, help the end game, so to speak. Yeah. ⁓ and so letting your creative juices flow and I think just experimenting, you know, that that's what vibe coding's all about. You know, just have a conversation with Replit or lovable and just see where it takes you. I mean, you might just be amazed at, you know, the things that can come to fruition like instantly almost, you know. So Yeah.

speaker-0: quite a journey from gifted some chickens and then how are the chickens by the way?

speaker-1: Chickens are fabulous. They're loving their new coop. They are laying eggs every day. And so that is beautiful. Now my goal is to get a double yoke. I can't control that obviously.

speaker-0: Excellent. So now you have happy chickens ⁓ and you build an app. What has been the most unexpected thing that's happened in this journey?

speaker-1: think I'd have to say my confidence, honestly. My confidence and my ability and the understatement of the experience that I actually do have. ⁓ we think of we don't think of ourselves as having anything to offer the world, I usually I think, ⁓ or at least I do. ⁓ And so I think the I think the confidence boost that I've gotten has actually helped me, you know, from accomplishing getting an app on the app store. It's helped me to put other things into play and to keep taking action and keep showing up. And now I don't want to shut up about it. I just want to tell the world. I want to tell other women especially.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: You can do this. I I know you can do that. Yes. ⁓ so I think that's the biggest thing. It it and it feels good to build something. Because before it would have taken, you know, the thousands and thousands of hours and thousands and thousands of dollars ⁓ to have someone build a website for you and have a developer or an engineer work with you. ⁓ so I think, you know. We can we can build things out of thin air pretty much these days.

speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. That was very, very well done and and I totally agree. I wanna thank you so much for sharing your story. It was really inspirational. I loved reading it from the surprise chickens into app developer. That's a quite a you know, big change. ⁓ so I'm happy to that I I was I I got to hear what happened in the middle, in the messy middle ⁓ of building an app. And I wish you all the best. And ⁓ if you can quickly tell people how they can find your app and if they wanna contact you, where they can find you.

speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. So ⁓ you can find Bildara on the App Store, the iOS App Store. ⁓ it's B U I L D A R A. and also on TikTok. it's Bildara E-R-A. So ⁓ yeah, ⁓ that's where you can find me and anytime that anyone has ⁓ anything to offer ⁓ ⁓ as far as features or, you know, questions, they can also ask that as well ⁓ via emailing me, which the information will be on the app store. ⁓ so yeah.

speaker-0: Awesome. Thank you so much.

speaker-1: And thank you, Nina. I appreciate it. It was lovely getting to meet you, getting to have this discussion with you. And I I'm looking forward to hearing other women's stories as well of like everything that they've built or wanting to build and just encouraging each other and uplifting one another. So

speaker-0: Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. And that is wrap for today's episode. Huge thanks to Jocelyn for sharing her story. If you have a project sitting half finished in your garage or flat pack box you've been avoiding for eight months, go find Bildara on the iOS app store. She's also on TikTok as BillDara, and I'll link both of those in the show notes. Until next time, keep building.