![]() ![]() One look at Funnie’s face and I knew I f*cked up. ![]() When she saw me stroll up in my street clothes, it was all she could do not to break character. Funnie the Clown - was already set up, her third back-to-back event of the day, with a line of kids ready to have their faces painted. He drove me 45 minutes to the corporate event where my mom - a.k.a. So when my dad asked, “Aren’t you supposed to be a clown for this one?” I pretended like the instructions weren’t clear. She gave me clear instructions to dress up as a clown.īut I was 12 and I didn’t feel like dressing up. When I was about 12 years-old, my mom hired me to be her clown’s assistant. Pardon me while interrupt this Barney moment with a quick clown story. It’s ok to f*ck up, as long as you own it. No matter how challenging, at the end of the day the thing that lights you up is the same thing that will calm your heart, nourish your soul and - if you give yourself the time and space to get good at it - provide for you and your family no matter how hard things get. On the days when the babies were crying, the deadlines were real, and the contracts were slow to come, memories of “Barn-dog” (as my mom would call him) reminded me that it’s all ok because I’m doing what I love. From the Cannes Le Meridien to Dubai’s Burj Al Arab, I got to wine and dine with c-level executives from some of the most innovative companies in the world.īut when I became a parent and decided to strike out on my own, the reality of leading myself quickly set in. Roughly every two months, I was at a different five-star venue. My first major corporate job was extremely glamorous compared to my early work experiences as Barney the Dinosaur. Great leaders know that even when things get chaotic, you simply cannot coast. The way you show up sets the tone for the entire experience of everyone around you. There is no excuse for ignoring the birthday girl. Even when spinning around in a circle with “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family” reverberating through your brain. No matter how hard it is, you’ve got to tune in, listen up, and reach for the fun.Įven in the middle of August. The way you communicate with a five-year-old on their birthday can literally define their lifelong memory of that special day - especially when you are their hero. Here’s a newsflash - it is incredibly difficult to hear from inside a giant Barney head.Īnd on top of that, kids’ birthday parties are extremely noisy. Lessons that I still carry with me today. Not too shabby when you’re 15 years old.Īnd it was in that sweaty oven of a big purple head that I earned my first hard-won lessons in leadership. If being the backup face painter brought in $5 per hour, being Barney brought $60 an hour. And a couple years after that, Barney.īarney was the big bucks. ![]() And while rooms of Power Ranger helmets, clown wigs and mascot heads made for some pretty awkward adolescent moments, being raised by someone with a deeply intrinsic passion for making kids smile was every bit as awesome as it sounds.Įxcept, that is, for the times I had to dress up as Barney.Įntertaining at kids’ birthday parties was my very first gig as a young kid growing up in Indiana.Īt the age of nine, I went along as my mom’s special ‘helper’, passing latex balloons through the shadowy, cavernous mouths of giant mascot heads so she could blow them up and transform them into swords and dogs on a leash without taking off her costume.Ī couple years later, I graduated to face painting. My mother Miriam is a professional children’s entertainer. ![]()
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