Business Analogy Stories: What Do Your Business & a Crow Have in Common?

[00:00:00] Jen: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to Women Conquer Business, I'm your host, Jen McFarland. And it's been a really long time. In fact, I'm sitting down today recording because it's been exactly one year since the last episode occurred. I interviewed two young women, brilliant young women who started a business called COVIDnineteen Project.

As far as I know, it's still going on. They're tutoring students from around the world filling a gap that occurred after COVID-19 hit the world. And after the interview, I thought, wow, this is great. How am I ever going to top this?

And one thing led to another and another and another. And there just weren't any other episodes. It just didn't happen. I call it COVID time. And when I talked to people about COVID time, they really do seem to understand, and that resonates with them what COVID time really means. It's this kind of weird paradigm this weird.

World that we live in where everything is in so much flux that you don't really know what's going to happen from minute to minute, day to day, year to year. And how many of you out there have been experiencing this same thing? For me, it feels like at times time is elastic and maybe just a suggestion.

The truth is there were, a lot of obstacles that kept the show from continuing. Yet, I still have a desire to keep it going. I am curious what you've been up to over this past year. If you'd like to email me, please email me at hello@womenconquerbiz.com and I'll either address it on a future episode or hit reply and talk to you about it.

In fact, this is the. Second time today, I've tried to record this episode and I feel like it's actually a really good example of the business analogy stories I've experienced for the past year has been like, at least for me. And I think [00:02:00] it resonates a lot in the business context, even though it has absolutely nothing to do with business as you'll see in just a moment. I sat down, I recorded just.

Hello, welcome to Women Conquer Business. And all of a sudden I heard this scratching sound outside my office door, and I thought, what are the dogs into? It's a natural response when you have two Boston terriers that are incredibly busy all the time. And so I groaned and stopped what I was doing and walked out into the living room and my dogs are staring at me and then staring at the fireplace and I was.

What what's going on? It wasn't you? So I look in the fireplace, it has doors on it. It's like a 1950s fireplace with all this brick. And then I don't know, it's like almost like chainmail doors, and then over that are glass doors. And everything's moving around in there. And it turns out that there was a crow that had climbed down the chimney and got stuck in our fireplace.

And. I called every place I could come up with to try and help us resolve this issue. It's strange. And, and honestly, most of the places were laughing at us and no, we can't help you with that. Why don't you call these guys? And then the next person would say, why don't you call this person?

And the one, there was one place that said they would come out and the business name concerned me because I didn't want to. Harm the bird and it was called Squish, but we have an appointment with them tomorrow that we thankfully don't need. And I don't think they would've heard the crow either, but in calling everybody, we realized that nobody is really an expert on removing a live crow from your fireplace in your living room.

The crow sat there for quite some time, because we didn't know what to do. We couldn't even see it. Then we got a headlamp and we got, flashlight and we just started investigating. And how many times has this kind of thing happened to you in your [00:04:00] business? Something really wild happens

and then you're just like, what am I going to do next? And that's exactly what this felt like. It felt like. Holy cow. We're just, off-roading here. We're just going to figure this out. We don't have anybody because even the people who said they would come out tomorrow, said we're just going to inspect and see what happens next.

Even they weren't really guaranteeing that they would remove the crow from the fireplace. They're just going to come stare at it, which is what we had been doing all of this time. So we. Got a neighbor. We called our other friends and everyone's like, you might just have to do this. Like you might just have to grab a blanket and see if you can get him out. So we're like, okay. I, for one was terrified because I've seen The Birds by Albert Hitchcock a few too many times. So I was kind of like, what's going to happen now. So I'm standing out in the driveway, calling my friend Jeanne, who I'm supposed to be doing a webinar with today, which we ended up doing anyway and saying, I don't know if I can make it.

And we're all wearing like racquetball goggles. And then our neighbor got a soccer net that like his little kids use the backyard and we put that in front of the fireplace just in case the bird got out and we're like shutting all the doors and closing all the curtains, because we had heard that if we made the area dark then have a door open, then that might help facilitate it.

And then we come up with this plan for like, how are we going to help get the crow out. We go open the doors and the crow's like, yeah, I don't really feel like coming out. And how many times does something like this happen? Something really big happens. You come up with a plan and then it's yeah, no, that's just not going to work either.

So the crow decided that the he or she was going to burrow underneath the grate inside of the fireplace. So that happened. And then we closed everything back up and thought we'll just come back to this. So the crow comes back out and I can see him and I go to get my neighbor and he's on a business meeting.

I go to get my husband and he's on a business meeting and I'm just sitting there videotaping the crow and watching [00:06:00] him inside and just hoping that he's safe, and also that he doesn't come out into my living room so that I can remain safe. And after. Everybody gets free of time again, then my husband and I put on our racquetball goggles and still couldn't get the bird to come out.

And finally Jon said, you know what? I'm just going to put on these gardening gloves and I'm gonna see what I can do about wrapping the crow in this wool blanket and we'll carry him outside and see what happens. And. That's exactly what happened. That's exactly what he did thankfully to the bird was very calm and collected.

And as soon as he walked him outside and we shut the front door, my husband undid the blanket and the bird just flew away. It was like so grateful that he was free from our living room. We were so grateful that he was free from our living room. Then I went and did the webinar, had some lunch and here we are now, like what.

Five or six hours later than I had anticipated talking about why there hasn't been an episode in a year. So I think that you can see now that my year has been a lot, like what I suspect your year has been like. Can I guarantee that there will be podcast episodes every week? Certainly not. Like many of you, I'm also pivoting my business, making a lot of changes.

I've also had a lot of life changes over the course of the last year. All of that, all of which is to say there's been a lot happening in my world. Just like if there has been in your world that has really shifted priorities and things like that. I did feel however that beings as it's been a year, I felt like I needed to at the very least say hello, I'm thinking about you.

I know that many of you have been listening to this show over the past year, and I cannot express enough gratitude for how many people are still continuing to listen to the show. And I want you to know that I'm here and of service. And if you have anything that you would like to talk about in terms of business, in terms of [00:08:00] digital marketing, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to start answering all of those questions as much as I can, as often as I can on this show.

I also think that stories like this where, I'm sorry, I couldn't record my show. I had a crow in my living room. I think that when we acknowledge just how wild of a world we live in right now, not only in terms of uncertainty, which was always there before, but just in terms of the fact that everybody right now seems to feel like they're

off-roading to an extent. There's so much unknown and new ground being broken out there. I think the stories like this that have nothing to do with business are also a really great barometer so that we can all just be in touch and realize that we truly are not alone. And when these things happen, you can view them through the lens of

your business and kind of look at it and be like, XYZ happened in my business and that was really upsetting, but it was so wild and out there, and it's never happened before, so why would it happen again? And then you're more able to get out there and navigate the world and look at things through a different lens.

And that's why I shared the story of why today. We almost didn't have a podcast again. But we do and we're here. So thank you for being here. Thank you for listening for the last two years. I apologize for being gone for exactly one year as of today. And I hope that you are all safe and happy and well, and if I can be of service again, you can email me at hello@womenconquerbiz.com.

I'll do my best to answer on the show or reply personally, by email. Otherwise, I am so glad to be here so glad that you are here and are part of this journey and, have a wonderful day.

Thank you for listening to it. This talk. If you'd like to learn more about me, my workshops or presentations, you can learn more at [00:10:00] www.womenconquerbiz.com or follow me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/jensmcfarland. Thanks again.