Because I did love a good circus

I can’t always work in the business, sometimes I have to work on the business. My mentor Anne Blumer just published Mastering the Business of Organizing, and I’m methodically working through it, looking for the “Uh, yeah, been letting that slip” checkpoints.

She quotes a Reader’s Digest story on her 59th page, attributed to M. Booth and Associates, Inc.

“If the circus is coming to town, and you paint a sign saying, ‘Circus coming to the fairgrounds Saturday,’ that’s advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk him into town, that’s promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flowerbed, that’s publicity. If you can get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations, and if you actually planned the elephant’s walk, that’s marketing.”

Before Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus retired its elephants (a good thing!), my son and I cheered them on at their storied Lexington Market Brunch in Baltimore. He was giggle-bound-breathless by their antics, bug-eyed transfixed at the actual show, and we’ve shared Big Apple Circus.

Take any chance to relive memories. Even reading a book which has nothing to do with the memory.