Welcome aboard, Pierrette! A personal brand takes time to build. Happy to share my playbook: three posts a week, one vulnerable, one celebratory, one about horns. DM me.

What a week. I delivered the ClownCon 2026 keynote, “The Honk Within”, to a packed main hall and received the second-longest standing ovation of the conference. (Mimi had the first, for a talk with no words. I've made my peace with it. I've made my peace with it twice now, in a journal.) The heart of the talk: every clown has a honk inside them, and leadership is creating the conditions for that honk to come out. Several attendees told me afterwards that they cried. One said it changed how he thinks about horns. Slides and a recording are available on request. I've already had a lot of requests.

Integrations are hard. These last two weeks I've had to make some of the most difficult decisions of my career, and I've made all of them correctly, which has been its own kind of burden. Three lessons. One: honk early. People want to hear from leadership before they hear from the rumour mill. Two: change is a pie, and somebody always ends up wearing it; make sure it isn't the same person every time. Three: when Juniper says a ball is “in the air”, do not reach for it. Grateful for this team. Leadership is lonely, but it is never quiet.

Rofl is one of the finest slapstick leaders I have ever had the privilege of consolidating. I've asked my team to make introductions on his behalf. (I am the team.) Hire this man.

Thrilled to announce that Ringling Strategic Partners and Big Top Holdings have agreed to merge, forming Ringling Big Top Strategic Holdings Partners LLP. RBTSHP is pronounced the way you'd expect, which is to say with a honk. Together we'll serve more than 300 corporate clients with the industry's deepest bench of slapstick, mime and balloon talent. I'll serve as Chief Honking Officer of the combined firm. I was asked whether I'd accept the role and said yes before the question was over. More to come. There will be synergies.

Mimi just said in five words what I've been trying to say across fourteen years of keynotes. Every leader knows the feeling of the box getting smaller. The great ones say so out loud. Sharing with my whole team as a masterclass in executive communication.

Some personal news: I've been named to Clown Weekly's 40 Under 40 list for 2026. I'm 52. I want to be transparent about that, because I was transparent with the committee about it, twice, in writing. They felt strongly that impact doesn't have an age limit, and after a short call I came around to their view. Thank you to my team, my mentors, and the Clown Weekly fact-checking department for their flexibility.

When the ClownCon committee called to ask if I'd deliver this year's keynote, I told them I'd need to check my calendar. I did not need to check my calendar. My calendar has been clear for this since 2019. ClownCon 2026 runs September 17–19 in Sarasota. My keynote, “The Honk Within”, is about the leadership lessons hiding in every squeeze. Also speaking: Coco Klein on balloon infrastructure, Penny Wise Jr. on friction, and Mimi Marceau, who confirmed her attendance by nodding. See you in Sarasota.

Humbled and honored to share that after 14 years of dedicated pratfalls, I've been promoted to Chief Honking Officer at Ringling Strategic Partners. None of this happens without my team, my mentors, and the squeaky horn that started it all. If you're early in your clowning career: the honk finds the clown, not the other way around. Onward.