You’ve clicked on the title because you’re dying to know what chickens have to do with message discipline, right?
Well, in order to raise chickens – especially in a state like Minnesota, you need to have patience and knowledge. It’s not enough to just have chickens and that’s it; you have to know a variety of things like are they eating chickens, egg chickens, or both? Are they heritage breeds or barnyard breeds? Sexed or straight run? Rooster or hens? Free range or enclosed? What are city codes? What type of housing do they need, access to food and water, are they cold hardy? And that’s just scratching the surface of what you need to do before you even the chickens!
From there, you have to build them a coop and run, buy them, raise them, watch them grow up, feed them, make sure they don’t get sick and die, and frankly, they free load until they’re ready to lay eggs nine to 18 months later.
In the same way, message discipline requires patience and knowledge. First, you need to be knowledgeable in the area you’re seeking to be an expert. In the day and age of Twitter, Threads, Facebook, and frankly the internet, it’s not hard for someone who spends way too much time online to find a clip of you saying something different six months ago or worse, willing to prove you wrong in the matter of hours, if not minutes. Being knowledgeable in your area is the greatest safety blanket you can have when it comes to your message because it’s rooted in fact and if you’re thrown a curveball question, asked your opinion, or even challenged on your position, you have the knowledge and information needed to determine the necessary answer needed to move forward.
Similarly, patience is required for message discipline as well. Just as a chicken coop isn’t built in a day (when you’re building from the ground up, that is), your message and the authority in which you deliver it isn’t built in a single interview, op-ed, or news piece. You’ll need patience to do the work and build your knowledge, to put yourself out there as an expert, and to build a reputation as an expert.
So take a lesson from this new chicken owner, with a little patience and knowledge, you’ll be able to level up your message development skills.
-Preya Samsundar
P.S. – Meet some of the ladies who inspired this post!
