quirky bird newsletter: May + June edition

Here’s what I learned about hiring and firing a team:

1. Your vision needs to be so painfully clear. Don’t start anything, and especially don’t hire anyone, until you know truly what the goals are, where your stopping point is (if there is one), and how you will be measuring success.

2. If someone is showing you early on that they cannot commit to the time commitments that they agreed to, it’s okay to walk away early. You’re not “taking yourself too seriously” — and even if you are, who cares? YOU. It’s okay to take your work and passion seriously. That’s better than trying to pretend relaxed even though you are not.

3. The vision is yours. It’s okay to push back when you know how you want things done. If someone can’t do what you need — evaluate if that’s because it’s simply not possible, or if it is not within their wheelhouse. Given the latter, it’s okay to walk away and find others who will support you in making the dream come true.

While the team that I worked with were lovely people, their timelines and updates truly did not meet my expectations — making moving on to another team easy.

The team that I worked with to finish out my website truly were phenomenal. They were responsive, educational (even teaching me how to edit the website on my own), able to complete every niche request that I had, and excited to work on the project.

If you want to learn more about the team, drop a comment and I’ll link you to them 🙂

Quirky May + June learnings

• Friendships are everything. Make time for them. If you don’t have them, go to events to find your people. Here’s how I met the closest people in my life today:

  • Office Trivia Event hosted by my building

  • Values Discussion Event: Kindness

  • My Bird Walks 🦆

  • Work

  • A Conference

  You can meet people anywhere, but it’s definitely not going to happen sitting at home. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there! You are worth the shot at friendship 🙂

• Forgetting to-do lists often leads to a slip in mental health.
  On my worst days, my laundry is undone, dishes are piling up, and I can’t see into my kitchen because of the things that need to be put away.
  
  Often when we don’t care about the look (or rather, feel) of our space, it’s reflective of how we are feeling about ourselves in that moment too. Don’t forget to take care of you. Nurture you. You deserve it 🙂

• Having 2 different to-do lists is a major support in keeping yourself organized and on track with your goals.
  1 for at-home to-do’s
  1 for work to-do’s
  
  Maybe even a third for books, exercise, or social outings.

• I (AND YOU TOO) CAN DO HARD THINGS.
  This past month, I ran a half-marathon and those 13.1 miles felt so so so amazing. I completed the race 1 minute faster than I had completed it in the past — but it felt amazing to challenge myself with a completely new course, outcome, and temperature!
  
  My marathon is coming up in September and I cannot wait to share more about the training + lead-up to my run! Stay tuned for more fun run updates 🙂

Quirky bird girl upcoming events

• Thursday, May 28th: Neurodivergent Networking Event
  Register here!

• Friday, June 5th: The Met Bird Scavenger Hunt
  Register here!

• Sunday, June 7th: Bird Jog
  Register here!

• Friday, June 19th: Bird Scavenger Hunt
  Register here! Tickets are $15 🙂

• NEW EVENT- Exciting announcement coming for the end of the month!! Stay tuned!!

• Interested in a private bird walk? You can book that with me here!

Curious about what’s to come for June? Subscribe to my Luma page to get direct updates on the events that I will be hosting!

Have a specific event request that you would like to make? Submit a form for a potential event here, reach out to me here on Substack, or you can email me directly at thatquirkybirdgirl@gmail.com .

I take all requests seriously, and do my best to host events that my community wants.

Quirky happenings in NYC + nationally

Thank you so much to everyone who came out and had some bird-loving-fun with me! If you have not had the chance yet to join in on the fun, I encourage you to come check out my community of kind, awesome people!

ALSO…I have been traveling the United States to speak about bird joy! Here is me speaking at Presque Isle in Erie, PA:

Up next, Atlanta Georgia at the Social Innovation Summit!! I’ll be speaking about Finding Your Quirks in a world that is fast-paced and ever-evolving. Trust that birds will certainly be mentioned (as much as I can, in fact!

I will be speaking on the same stage as THE Steve Harvey and THE Stacey Abrams — fingers crossed that I am able to do a quick interview with them too, wish me luck!

More to come soon about public speaking on my road to TedX 🦆

Quirky mental health hacks

• Got something weird that you want to do? Something that feels out of your comfort zone? Well.. do it alongside the birds because this is a funky time of year for them too.
  And anyways…it’s not like anyone is watching (at least you can pretend that much 😉)

• USE THE SUN TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. I actually mean this literally — we get the chance at more vitamin D this time of year than any other, so get out there and enjoy it as much as you can!
  
  Even if that means sitting outside for 5 minutes and enjoying the American robins bouncing around, you are allowed to enjoy at any degree that feels right to you!

• I got a manual scooter this week simply because I want to be getting around faster while having more fun. I have yet to take it out, but I can’t wait to 🙂
  Don’t be afraid to make monotony, fun. You are allowed to have fun or be silly while doing something that is essential to your day-to-day.

Quirky content download

New episode is up from my new series, all about values!! This is now the third episode in this series and I am thrilled to FINALLY be sharing about self-kindness.

AKA: one of my favorite values to talk about!!

Each week, I will be dropping a brand new episode where I focus in on a single value. AND I’m so excited to be dropping another episode in this series with one of my favorite values to talk about — SELF-KINDNESS!

You can watch the full episode over on YouTube here:

TikTok

I’ve been having fun posting lately, but it’s about to get plenty more quirky…I’ve got lots to share 🙂

Here’s a video series that I’ve been having fun with lately:

Follow my page here!

Instagram + Threads

I have been working on growing my Instagram and Threads and trying to understand the algorithm (it is soooo different from TikTok and even YouTube!!).

Go ahead and hit the follow button to stay in the loop on upcoming events, new content, and lots and LOTS of fun stuff that I’ll be working on through the summer 🙂

YouTube

My subscribers over on YouTube have nearly DOUBLED since my last blog post, and it has been so exciting to watch the community grow over there!

You can subscribe to my page here!

 

Thanks so much for reading through! I appreciate your time and can’t wait for the next one, see ya soon 🌻🦆

– ur quirky bird girl