If you've been following me on social media, this won't be news to you... my chicken eggs hatched this week.

And yes, it was a silly side quest from my main job as a Digital-Marketer-Business-Coach-AI-Student-In-Training-Thought-Leader.

I saw the news on bird flu and egg prices and promptly told Ac, "We need to make more chickens."

I honestly feared I was annoying my audience who decided to follow me once upon a time because of my expertise with writing, KPI's, growing wealth, scaling....and now was having to sit through eleventy billion IG stories on the drama with my hatching chicks.

But I couldn't help myself.

There is nothing that pulls you into the present world the way animals and nature do. And even in this high tech world, I find myself amazed at the power of our natural one, and how many lessons there are that apply to business as much as egg laying.

So if you're bored of the chicken stories... they will be wrapping up this week don't worry. No more eggs to hatch and within a few weeks the cute chicks will look like ugly dinosaurs, so... not as much fun for IG. 🤣

But if you're curious what bubbled up for me, I have some stuff to share.

#1 - We are designed to reproduce.

Everything is. Seeds turn into trees which give more seeds. Chickens give eggs and then become chickens again.

So much of our world is set up with non-sustainable practices, and yet -- with our flock of hens (and a rooster), we realized we could... in theory... if we played our cards right... would never need to buy eggs again.

I know this is the root of the self-sustaining model, but it's one thing to read about it and another thing to live it.

Look at your business. What is set up to truly scale in a sustainable fashion? Where are you reproducing your genius? In your customers, clients, and team?

#2 - Your environment matters a LOT.

It was wild watching these baby chicks grow in the eggs we gathered from our hens.

The only difference between an egg that gets fried and eaten, and an egg that turns into a real live chicken within 3 weeks? Temperature. AKA -- Environment.

The eggs were all fertilized when we gathered them up each day.

Some went into the fridge.

Some in the incubator.

60 degrees of temp difference leads to WILDLY different outcomes.

What's the temperature of your environment? Are you set up to succeed? Produce? Grow?

Or are you set up to be frozen in time? Paralyzed? Eaten and consumed with no future legacy.

#3 - Not every egg will hatch.

We had 11 eggs and only five hatched. Not every idea is a home run. Not every hire is a rockstar. It's just math. ChattyG told me a backyard flock first time hatching would be about 50%. I was close. 45%.

Many of our problems are mismanaged expectations and not factoring in math.

#4 - The ones that struggle the most might surprise you.

There was one little guy that wasn't doing well. It was stressful and required a lot of intervention. And we honestly thought he/she wasn't going to make it.

We were wrong.

And at the point of near giving up (preparing to bury the little thing), there was a small chirp and that one spark of hope gave us energy to keep fighting and trying.

When things are hard in business, look for a small win. Any kind of win you can find. Think of it like adrenaline or a spark that can re-light the fire you need to keep going.

#5 - There was a lot of nothing for a long time, and then intensity for 36 hours.

We put the eggs in the incubator and waited (not so patiently) for 21 days. And then as soon as they started cracking, it was all hands on deck for a solid day and a half. More so because of the sick little chick.

There are seasons in business where it might feel like NOTHING is happening. But keep going. Those ideas are incubating. That audience is slowly growing. There will come a critical juncture where all that effort leads to a new opportunity or phase that might be intense.

#6 - AI pulled me into nature, not the other way around.

This will be a hopeful note for those who are annoyed and tired of all the AI hype and potential doom & gloom.

AI not only has helped me optimize my schedule to have time to do things like hatch chickens, it was my step by step guide through this entire process.

AI is algorithms and data. Hatching chicks is biology and nature.

I didn't have time to google when I realized the chick was in trouble. The sick chick needed care. The humidity in the incubator needed to go up after opening the incubator unexpectedly. I needed answers immediately.

I sent ChattyG pictures of the chick to confirm that he needed assistance.

I'm convinced the little chick is alive because I had a chicken expert in my pocket.

AI helped me focus MORE on humanity, on nature, and biology. That's the paradox. And that's what I think the people who are going to with with AI are going to see.

Get your time back to do MORE things that are creative. Get your time back to give you the opportunity to invent new ideas and things to experience.

Where some will use AI to churn out generic bland content, others (like me), will use it to buy more time to do cool things that can turn into life and business lessons along the way that *hopefully* make my content more interesting.

I hope you do the same!

I have photos on Facebook if you want to see the drama in photos.

Enjoy your weekend!

xx Julie