Friday, May 29, 2009

Beauty queens...

When I grow up…I want to be Betty White. She’s tough as nails yet fully capable of dropping you to your knees in uncontrollable laughter. Her deepest passion is protecting dogs and cats from slaughter while educating the ever changing public on the proper methods of animal treatment.



She refuses to act like a grandmother because labels don’t fit someone who refuses to sit. She’s everywhere! From sitcoms to serious nighttime drama and without hesitation or promotion you’ll quickly see she’s the impeccable draw to the soon to be released Sandra Bullock flick The Proposal.



It’s as if Betty White and Ryan Seacrest have the same managers.



Mom used to say, “Age is only a number…birthday’s are giant bombs dropped on people’s desires to continue exploring. Eventually there’s nothing left to hold.” Nearing 80, she still maintains a full time job while making sure six bowling leagues plus local and state tournaments are properly managed. Those governing the Bowlers Hall of Fame couldn’t keep their eyes clear of tears when she was inducted two years ago. Most of them wouldn’t be there without her dedication and loyalty to a sport that too many see as nothing more than a place to be on Saturday.



Look at Dick Clark! A master at setting aside the numbers game and even after a stroke his willingness to keep moving forward feeds the imaginations of those demanding to be entertained.



We spend our teen years begging the clock to spin faster; we’re tired of school, parents and bedrooms that feel like jail cells. Once free in our twenties, let the party begin. I call it space exploration…a giant mind full of enormous energy without fear and we’re going to do it all inside twenty four hours…then do it all over again tomorrow. Our thirties are spent paying for it, the credit cards, insurance points we racked up speeding, body aches that suddenly appeared one day only to be connected to a party at the beach one late night in May all those unwritten chapters ago. Finally at forty…we’ve had enough of bosses, kids who want more and more and dreams that stand silently to the left side of our nearest touch softly whispering, “We can still make me come true.”



With life beginning at forty, a midlife crisis is like living our terrible two’s again…except without the parents.



I’ll turn forty seven during the cycle of Cancer. I’m not worried about fifty or larger…it’s only a number. One I often remind myself of being when picking up this frame after being tossed to a hard floor in Tae Kwon Do. In the eyes of the teens present, the picture presented isn’t of an old guy fighting to stay young but a sense of determination to exceed the limits of society.



The makers of our culture spend billions of dollars each year reinventing ways to glue the human spirit to the screen of a television set. The only thing HDTV will do is gift Star Trek fans a reason to believe we’re one step closer to Captain Kirk technology. A picture is a picture, sure it looks great but why is the volume on the shows always lower than the commercials and because its digital the clicker has to think ten seconds before it can leap in any direction. Music is no different, be it in mp3 form versus WAV tackling WMA it doesn’t mean anything to the average anybody just wanting to hear their favorite song to sing.



Betty White probably owns an Ipod or mp3 player. She probably Tweets and Facebooks every chance she gets and loves the idea of going green not because it will extend the life of the planet but the generations she’ll never meet.



Betty White probably looks at other countries exploring their options toward building bigger bombs and snarls at the thought of something going horribly wrong, but through it all she doesn’t let its negative energy penetrate the destination. She is Betty White the actress not the professional salesman geared toward protecting the world’s population.



I’ve never seen Betty White angry. She doesn’t need to be…it’s not her position in society. Buddhist Monk Thick Nhat Hahn once wrote, “If you are marching to promote peace…then stop making so much noise and walk in peace.” Most can’t handle the mind body and soul of a walker of peace. Something must be wrong! Drugs! They are modern day hippies! Nobody can be in that much peace!



Ever tried sipping on a positive thought? It comes with no cost and it can change a lot.



This is where you’ll tune out and double click to a different page…too deep for you this one particular day. Some believe you have to be in the mood for peace. I once confronted my Grandma Dobrenz about her soft hums and passion to sit in a living room with no television and stare at the pictures on the wall.



“Are you angry with someone?” I’d ask knowing she lost two sons in the Korean war while living the life of a true American cowgirl, up before the sun, branding, roping, riding, feeding, tending the soil while mending uninvited breaks due to harder rougher economic times.



“How can I be angry?” She’d softly say while wrapping a handmade quilt around my growing shoulders. “I look at every picture and see so much…the events before and the years after that tiny camera click pierced the wind, a single moment creates an incredible playpen…I come here everyday to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Only the calendar changes…not the happy memories.”



She taught me how to tie my shoes.



Grandma Bakken invited me into a world of gardening teaching me to love all living things. Grandma Anthony fell witness to a shattered family’s life and style creating the proper words to say when kids laughed and pointed at the father who didn’t look like me.



Age is only a number…love is everything.



Steal their art….



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, May 28, 2009

To be or not to be....nosey.

We deal with it daily, hourly and sometimes second by second, employees, coworkers and quite possibly you, “How am I doing? Am I doing what you expected? Are the levels we reached yesterday the numbers you shot for the day before? How am I doing now?”

Knowing where you stand is a valuable part of a continued line of success or in some cases failure.



Business journals have poured gallons of ink into printing presses begging to better understand as well as lead the lost beyond the outer shells still standing after some of the worst economic earthquakes of our present time; business front relationships have evolved into mere mirages hugging a summer highway than quickly disappearing the very second the horizon meets your reality.



I’m not holding back hidden truths when I write about the separated parallels of a once assumed strong ally now being nothing more than a cell phone or text message form of companionship. Those who gathered in square circles have or are attempting to locate newer measures of music with high hopes of generating enough energy to create an even bigger hit inside better days.



Author Andrea Kaye sees nothing wrong when asking, “How am I doing now?”



Unlike Go Fish, Rummy and Five Card Stud, the rules that make up life’s everyday game are in a process of unguided change. Small businesses are shooting the ball from outside corners like Jiffy Pop Popcorn adding a melted butter scent to a kid cluttered home…partnerships beamed unfriendly six months ago blanket the chilled soil making way for a fresh new beginning not only for them but a list of consumers who’ve stood in lines wondering, “Why did it take so long for this to happen?”



Andrea forewarns the weary traveler, “Know where you stand.”



Business is business and many untrained eyes and hearts are getting busted in deals that land them in pools of investments that end up costing more than gaining. Let’s say we want to form a baseball team and it’s you who finances the nine players who hope to round the bases. Like most new ideas it takes years to establish but your partner wanted instant results. Although you slide into home plate with the majority of the monies required…in the end, your financial divorce could cost you more than the original number connected to the new beginning. Business relationships are just like marriage 50/50 and at times even more.

It just happened on an episode of South Park...a joke was created, because one of the members was in the room during the initial introduction he believed he was part of the process and deserved just as much credit as the writer. Things got horribly bent out of shape to the point where the person in the room started to believe he was the one who started the joke.

A little closer to reality...my wife's ex is an incredibly successful songwriter and producer. Thanks to his creative efforts she owns part of a Madonna song. He masterminded the bridge of the song and through their separation she was awarded the mileage for his travels.



Know where you stand. A gentleman’s handshake is pure Hollywood. Verbal agreements are what we do in the first grade when we meet the person who makes your heart flutter then they end up hanging out with someone else. How you felt then is ten million times worse during the chapters of sink or swim.



So what about yearly evaluations? Should you wait until your company moves before you start feeling comfortable again? In radio and television we’re evaluated every breath we take. A single seven second break can feel like the entire solar system has just landed on the only lung capable of working. Walking within such an honest environment is unforgettably brutal yet 99.9% of the time you know where you stand and if within the next seven seconds you feel a pattern starting to take shape, it’s easily and quickly corrected before another knock is heard at the door.



“It’s completely natural to rate yourself higher for the efforts made,” so says Dr. Miquel Quinones a business professor at Southern Methodist University. When you don’t size up to the view an outsider sees trouble usually follows, “Nobody understands me! I’m much better than they think!”



Andrea Kaye steps onto the surface of the bad result and softly says, “Learn to listen then work with the decision presented. Promotions occur when leaders recognize personal growth delivered after an evaluation."



Former NY Mayor Ed Koch became popular through one thought, “How am I doing?” He asked his employees, political challengers and most importantly those who put him in office, "How am I doing?" The downside of this effort to better create is a solid object called Brownnosing. One who takes from the opinion of others then revamps their path is seen by another team as being a Royal Boss Pleasers. Go ask them, “How am I doing?”



Know where do you stand?



If you’re currently seeking the arms of a great business to reach out and sweep you off your feet…check the web like you check your credit. That single connection to the world comes with no guaranteed boundary which means anyone at anytime can write anything about you. Clean it up before a potential boss unknowingly double clicks and wow…look at all those pictures! Wait! What’s this? It’s an editorial from a former boss who believes your efforts of leadership resembled a Steven King novel. Ouch!



Image is everything and the best way to keep it rock solid is to know where you stand. Through every twenty four hour period a new storm pummels the edges of the world you keep and by keeping focused on the hands, feet, ears and mouth that make you up…you’ll rarely dive into a pit of unknowing jive because in this new world we’re vowing to rebuild any and all acts of communication are the key to opening doors that policies once kept locked.



Build your day by being approachable, acceptable and willing to treat others in the most positive way. Where you stand today could be ten miles from where you’ll be tomorrow and in the process of recognizing newer paths to follow always keep in mind bridges were never meant to be burned but rather crossed connecting two opposite side’s now equaling one.



Steal my art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The scarecrow would be happier if he didn't have a brain to think...

Why does being at home on the backyard deck or in front of the television set always seem like “the” place to be? We’ve painted the scene two billion times before, ice cold beverage in the right hand, something to nibble on a fingertip away, lighter looser clothing, legs stretched, arms free of anything heavy and the heart rate beats at a much slower pace.



No wonder folks in far away places label us fat and lazy American’s; day-cation, stay-cation or ten minute powerhouse catnap, what seems like a simple mental getaway isn’t always accepted in other places of play. Especially at work…every job has the employee who doesn’t recognize a good ole fashioned letting down of the hair.



Created is a reason to frown, get down, walk away or sway…it’s as if we have to explain.



Put away the medical journals and short stories in Readers Digest, British author Eckhart Tolle rescues your purpose of slowing by putting the accent on thinking. Ever wonder why you put such little thought in spending hundreds if not thousands on a summer runaway? Wow! The new patio set costs this much? I want it! Gas prices are what? It doesn’t matter; we need it to ease on down the road.



The thought of not thinking fuels your summertime presentation.



How often do you hit the video store, rush home to watch the flick only to fall a sleep six minutes into it? The very moment you brain realizes it doesn’t have to think…pain bodies are no longer required to rush to the scene of a stress filled mental accident.



Alcohol earned the nicknamed spirit for a reason…once you’ve entered a state of less thinking…your spirit of being is lifted to a higher level of rest or play. Warning: Too much alcohol will not create more space to think; instead you’ll become spaced out.



The average sixty year old American spends fifteen of those years watching TV. Thanks to HDTV the numbers will probably increase. Science has proven, the “longer” the screen, the more focused you become on the presentation increasing your number of hours watching. But hey! That’s ok! Our thoughts are thinking! But is it healthy to reach the point of temporarily freeing yourself from….yourself?



Nope…your mind is an imposter. It allows you to think you aren’t thinking when in reality it’s playing out the roles of every character portrayed on the long screen. It’s doing what you don’t want to do…think. Your mind is absorbing the storyline like baby oil on dry skin. Sitcoms, game shows, Hollywood updates, music videos and news all have tiny straws connected to them sucking up uncontrollable amounts of what little you have left.



Heightened is your susceptibility…and that’s where advertisers and the government want you. You can be and will be manipulated to buy or think exactly the way you’ve been trained to be. Your thoughts are your thoughts but now you’ve been coaxed. Suddenly I hear Darth Vader breathing heavy, “Come to the dark side.”



Watching television allows you to fall below the thought process line. Researchers claim it’s no different than drugs or alcohol. You get what’s required, a stimulated mind but at what prices?



In Julian Cameron’s book The Vein of Gold she challenges readers to live a week of deprivation, “Step away from People Magazine, Better Homes and Garden, US Weekly and yes even the local newspaper.” American’s are nosey! We feel incredible when our lives are being compared to others. Actor Gary Busey looks like a quack! Wow! Glad its not me! I can now look and feel great! Ryan Seacrest on the other hand never looks out of place….ohhhh back to the blah blah blah’s.



Study the movies you fork out ten bucks to see. The most affective are those you can relate with and 99.9% of them always feature a jerk, dork or a deer. Seeing their down fall is your up swing.



The six o’clock news banks on your nosiness…crime, traffic accidents, fires, bad, bad and more bad, that’s perfectly ok, it has nothing to do with you, so you feel good. It’s a cheap high but if you get too much of it, buy stock in Lowes and Home Depot you’ll need a thousand shovels to dig all those holes.



But what if you don’t watch TV and yet you still get caught falling a sleep during important neighborhood conversations? Do we pump up the caffeine volume? The only reason why this stuff isn’t illegal or sharply taxed is because too many lawmakers require its presence in their life.



I interviewed a doctor yesterday for a radio show who absolutely loved the idea that we can’t stop pouring coffee and power drinks into our system. He laughed when I asked, “Do you think we have a problem?” His laugh wasn’t about our non-thinking habit of not thinking about better ways to break away but rather, the more we drink, the more money he’s going to make trying to get us off an adrenalin addiction. “If you do this, the headaches and high blood pressure will go away.” We bob our heads up and down, walk away embarrassed only to leap back on the junk two weeks deep into the forest.



Cha ching! The only reason why doctors want you to eat healthy is because morally that’s what they went to school for. Outside those four walls at the office they bask in your non-thinking way knowing the mortgage is always going to be paid. Ouch!



If you’re hitting the backyard deck at dusk, take the time to create better ways to rest the thought process…your thinker is a stinker and needs to be un-gassed. Read, write, paint or for goodness sakes share conversation face to face. If television is your main squeeze of relaxation, it’s too easy to shout, “Get a quick fix!” Tivo or DVR shows you’d never watch with a friend but when you’re alone a little Earth, HGTV and cooking shows stimulate just enough energy for your next thought to yawn the yawn while grasping a few winks of sleep. Once reenergized, take what you’ve watched and put it to work. Redesign your landscape while putting value in loving all living things.



Oh…the doctor who can’t wait to bank on your addiction to caffeine…he did saying something worth thinking, “High blood pressure doesn’t require drugs to free it from your life. With a little thought and proper thoughtless rest…there’ll be tremendous amounts of little or no stress.”



The very second his words touched my ears I leaned over to his place of standing, “Dude, um…you keep talking like this and drug companies aren’t going to finance your vacation with the family to Disney.”



He laughed while walking away…no insurance required or co-pay. No dime or dollar or several reasons to follow. My thoughts are free…which is why I invite you to steal my art.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The best way out is to not get in...

After several months of financial bad and worldly political change, weeks of questions so heavy it would only be natural to hang our heads yet eighty percent of this nation has started looking up, three nearly to nothing Carolina snow storms and a Memorial Day Weekend trapped inside a soggy chapter of rain, unlike the Coca Cola 600, we can’t suddenly stop, the first official seven days of summer are gassed up, the tires have been changed and it’s time to get back on the fast track of fun again.



Thirty nine days shy of our next pit stop (July 4th), getting the mind in motion is extremely important or we’ll continue to be blogged down with too much commotion. Easily levitated toward drama, the idea of making 2009 the best summer to date sits twelve spots behind winning the $222 million Power Ball Lottery. It doesn’t matter how many times you melt when staring into the eyes of your children there’s a constant anchor connected to your dreams dragging you to the bottom of the success ladder.



What gives? How can we get ahead in a world where the entire human race is fighting for the same right? As long as you aren’t illegally testing nuclear weapons while shooting rockets over Japan…moving forward two spaces seems like an easy task…right?



Anne Marie Sabbath who authored One Minute Manners has a way of identifying the poof before the match is lit. The best way out of a situation is make sure you don’t get in one. Through good judgment you’re given insight.



Two examples: Martial artists constantly take a beating from an unknowing public, “Five months from your 3rd degree black belt test, you must really love to fight.” This isn’t The Karate Kid…from the very beginning over 2000 years ago, the brotherhood of all martial artists has been to never put yourself in a situation that may lead to a person using what they were trained. My first Sensei drove that stake through us by gently saying, “Why would I want to fight…I don’t like the feeling of another persons sweat or blood on me…so I’ve been humbled to believe there’s always a way around something that doesn’t feel right.”



A backyard BBQ at your bosses or friends house, once the music and food concludes, the intoxicated who brags of seeing and reacting much better when lit volunteers to give you a lift. Boss or not…Anne Marie says, “Find another way home.” You aren’t damaging a working relationship by shipping your tail out through priority mail. You’ll gain more respect by calling a cab. If your friendship isn’t on the best of best side of things and you attended the party because it seemed politically correct…Anne Marie polishes off the thought with, “Sir…I knew we’d have a great time tonight so I took the initiative two days ago to have the cab service meet me here at such and such time.”



Wow! Talk about incredible leadership!



Can these same methods of steering clear work in other areas such as hooking up with the right job? What happens when you’ve never met the GM or Office Manager, can one be too informal? Seriously, these are tremendously different times…while running for public office I reached to shake a politicians hand and he quickly shot back the bro-hug. I was shocked! Not that I didn’t think he was cool enough to pull off a proper slamming of the shoulder but it put me in a situation of how incredibly close are we? Did the bro-hug gift me permission to let down my professional guard and speak the street?



Anne Marie says, “Never undress formal.” Cover letters and public meetings should always feature proper manners. Without a doubt, no matter how really cool you’ve heard them to be, address them as Mr. or Mrs. and if they’re government official’s doctors or clergy never steer clear of saying anything but Dr. or their proper title.



If there’s one thing that’ll keep me from becoming a third degree black belt it’ll be my lack of belief toward addressing me as anything other than my first name only. Through separate shapes of study it’s become my purpose to never stand taller than the youngest student. By asking them not to respect my level of study gives the lower belts permission to steer clear of addressing others who demand to be recognized for their well earned efforts.



This method of thinking is very common in the workplace…in presenting a more relaxed atmosphere we have we developed a society that accepts second and third rate rather than quality first?



What about Jr.? If Dale Earnhardt Jr. walked into my radio station studio right now…knowing the world of racing lost his legendary farther a few pages back, do I fully have the professional right to say, “Zup Jr.?”



Stand back…Anne Marie says, “Drop the Jr.” Jr. means your father is still living. Gulp!



Sure it’s minuet but little things add up. Around every corner is a new situation…learning how to best handle it is by not getting in front of it. The man credited for making Karate a household name in Japan is walking with nine of his students late one night…through the beams presented by the faded moon, he sensed trouble as they neared a graveled road…fifteen maybe twenty students from another place of study were impatiently waiting.



The teacher calmly said to those seemingly trapped, “Do nothing, say nothing, reacting to nothing…only I will lead.” As they were trained, the students without question became focused as they walked single file. Once out of the trees and onto the graveled road, the teacher recognized the noisy passerby’s from the other school who demanded a fight.



“Not tonight gentleman…”The teachers reply was delivered, “Our stomachs are full, we are very sleepy…wouldn’t it be a much better victory for you knowing we gave you our all rather than only ten percent? I know of your master and truly believe he is incredible at what he does with your continued lessons. He wouldn’t seem too proud of you tonight if you return to see what we had for dinner has been vomited on your nice clean clothing. Ask him for a different day and I promise you that we as one will learn of newer methods that make each of our arts as great as they are…and not a representation of another person’s weak state.” The noisy students were silenced and allowed the full and extremely tired forest walkers through without energy being wasted.



Verbal Tae Kwon Do…steal his art.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Friday, May 22, 2009

A deeper reason to believe.....

Memorial Day weekend…so often we get it confused with Labor Day and as un-rightful as it might seem…these days one who lost their position in a labored world has somewhat of a personal right to memorialize chapters once written.



Dr. Ronald Mack of Wake Forest University said to me, “Everyday should be Memorial Day! If you knew what it’s like to put your life on the line to preserve the quality of this country, you’d return to the states doing two things…saluting the flag every chance you get and constantly thanking the old and new friends you’ve met and shall meet.”



I miss that man…tough as nails and totally rugged in his process of provoking thought worth discussing. Must be something he picked up while serving our great nation, my stepfather Joe made sure his family ship was constantly shaped and moving forward. Mean as can be but wow…when he smiles the world knows something is very right.



Three days in honor of those who’ve walked this path one hundred times before us…their dreams just as important, maybe more…for their America was shoved into black and white photos. I can’t imagine having to wait nearly a week to see if my finger blocked the point and shoot lens or if my brother raised two fingers behind my sister’s head when not looking.



Before we ask, “Where are we going?” Time should be spent on studying the tales of where we’ve been. History repeats itself because not enough of us got it right the first time. Life is a lesson and through each page ripped, torn, crunched or perfectly laid out...there's always going to be an unexpected test.



Rather than look back…look forward. That’s what your grandparents and their grandparents did. Because of their hard work and dedication to the soil and cities they helped create, you today continue to live a life of comfort and security. Symbolize their efforts by creating the energy to allow a shadow to grow in the places you stand so that those following can learn during their journey back to the stars.



Lift your head and honor the smiles that cracked the sky during the darkest of storms. For three days allow their memories to be your continued desire to chase dreams. What you do today affects the next seven generations. Make it a positive…



Steal my art…



Arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, May 21, 2009

The second coming of the common person...

On May 7, 2009 I wrote:



Thoughts aren't real until you invite them out of your body...

Thursday 05-07-2009 9:25am ET



Kris Allen, a seemingly squeaky clean, softly spoken musical politician from Middle America is two steps short from port.



Rather than stand on a tree stump and preach his greatness, Mr. Allen has chosen to sit with his followers and through being humble he’s become accepted. Although there’s tremendous competition waiting for his next decision, American Idol will not serve as his chosen place of war.



From where we sit, Kris doesn’t appear to have the eye of the tiger capable of slaying the two giants Goliath…instead, he holds what many spend their lives searching for, a single opportunity of knowing the way to daily separate a gift from talent.



Kris Allen sits in the top three because America needs a hero.



Be it the power of incredibly expensive research based on how can we make this country start believing in itself again or producers trying to kick start an engine that hasn’t run in almost two years…surprisingly, America has received several under dog heroes in the past few weeks; Comedian Joan Rivers pulled off a surprising win over a poker professional on Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice, a twenty three year old long haired technical school student named Danny landed the top spot on Hells Kitchen, Olympic Gymnast Shawn Johnson stunned the world of dance with an unforgettable twist on Dancing with the Stars and now Kris Allen has officially tamed the absolutely impressive Adam Lambert.



Might I add Cleveland on Family Guy now how his own spin off show too.



Is this Revenge of the Nerds VII? Hardly! Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp treaded the fine lines of success by becoming the voice of a wandering nation. Their lyrics speak the street. Born in the USA isn’t a national anthem, it deals with the tragic conditions of east coast workers that millions could relate with while allowing them enough space to recreate their visions of success. Mellencamp’s newest collection embraces these modern economic conditions in ways that make waves on the doorsteps of decision makers and those who finance them.



As a people we’re tired of the stories dealing with athletes who’ve slammed steroids into their systems to compete and yet we fail to locate the compassion for the homerun slamming, basketball dunking, touchdown scorers who faced a silenced career due to team owners, managers and their sponsors who put so much pressure on them they became objects of disaster.



The Big Business world is no different. A recently released study showcases a truth you’ll never read on the homepage of any newspaper: 41% of today’s work force told a white lie on their resume to land the next big gig…from unattended schools and degrees to associations with high ranking people without proper employment at the company…the cheap extra dip of ink has been linked to Berkley, Radio Shack and beyond. Every profession has short cuts and this steroid is landing on the desks of those doing the hiring and firing.



The most recent forty cent rise in gas prices landed Kris Allen at number one. Just as much as being the plumber’s son put professional wrestler Dusty Rhodes in the legends circle. For twenty years Corporate America has spent so much money trying to be perfect they’ve elected to cheapen the product by sending jobs to other countries in the way of saving face.



It’s time for the common man to make a point.



Gone aren’t the moments when a simple poet like Dylan can step up to a microphone and speak a badly out of tune language then stopping to fall witness to his echo reaching nearly fifty years deep into the next chapters. Gone aren’t the single moments of discovery that lead a lawnmower engine builder locked in a shack behind the house toward a less fuel injected future. Gone aren’t the writers who weren’t hired by newspapers to report the stories because they’ve located blogging sites that allow them to paint the curves and darkness of a state out of money but not a mind out of ideas.



Yes! Kris Allen did say, “This belongs to Adam!” Yes! He didn’t jump for joy like a Price is Right Showcase winner. Yes! He did vocally crack the night before during a song that wasn’t written for him but was forced to sing it in the way 165% of us are ordered to do our jobs or there’s the door. No fancy makeup, no rock star dress code, no earring, nose ring or painted political message on his chest Kris did what he does best: He was Kris. And that’s the new face of America!



Be you…



There’s always going to be someone better. When that occurs you creative make up paths that utilize each others talents so the process doesn’t end up back in the hands of a CEO’s ambition to take over the world without properly running for The White House.



Master Todd Harris constantly grinds into our growing martial artist heads, “There are three guarantees on the paths to which you daily discover, life, death and everything in between.”



To which I reply, no matter how gut wrenching or victorious today is or was…the sun will rise again tomorrow and you must figure out a way to make a physical difference or in the silence you hear the means of other madness will falter the origin of every dream you held tightly from coming true.

Be you Mrs. Always busy with barely enough time to cook the rice exactly the way the box says to. Be you Mr. I fear for my job everyday so I race home to hide in my backyard because it’s the only place someone isn’t telling you what to do. Be you newly graduated senior who wasn’t blessed with a scholarship but you’ve elected to work third shift because getting to the top shouldn’t be suddenly dropped in your unprepared lap. Be you! Be You! Be You!

Without you…there’s silence. Lean far away from that shape of art.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Don't have the time to talk...don't take the time to listen.

When you power up the television set every newscast features the hottest story of the week, from fires and earthquakes in California to a shop-a-holic Wall Street falling off the wagon again. What’s happened to the Swine Flu? Oh wait, they changed it to H1N1…have they located a cure? Three weeks ago, it was like becoming a full fledged cast member of the movie 28 Days…an incurable disease sweeps the UK turning everyone into Zombies. It must be happening, I keep bumping into the numb bobble heads everywhere I go.


Winston Churchill couldn’t have been more correct when he said, “Life is nothing more than one damn thing after another.”


People magazine is blanketed with couples locked in bitter divorces, people most don’t recognize because it’s not our television show of choice. Rollingstone Magazine praises the presence of Adam Lambert jokenly questioning where his incredible ability has been. It’s as if he’s been dumped out of a spaceship. President Obama spoke at a major college where protesters were waiting while the world waited for Korea’s next step in their passion to put another missile up in the sky.


British author Eckhart Tolle isn’t being crass when exposing our current situation, think of it as being brutally honest, “Our reality is currently being blocked by object consciousness.”


There’s so much taking place in our daily lives that available space to put everything has hit an incredibly dangerous low. Without space consciousness insanity becomes the destiny.

We were once told to count to ten when confronted with work day and family stress…who has the time? No wonder we keep losing our car keys…its our subconscious mind reprimanding us, “Until you learn to better focus, you’re grounded for two weeks from your car, cell phone, laptop computer, Nintendo video games and CNN!”


It doesn’t last long because we learned as a teenagers the best way to get out of being grounded is to toss a seriously way out of this world king size fit that completely drives parents six steps closer to that secret place with white coats at the hospital.


Perception, thoughts and emotions require a single engine to keep them pumped up and moving forward: Awareness. Without it you can’t see objects, all things connected pushes your little engine up that giant mountain. By being aware you’re able to see and feel how much room you’ve created for space consciousness. How can you expect to further your career or family living style if you no longer have the room to dream?


Tolle asks, “Can you feel your presence?”


We depend on cable television companies to deliver four hundred channels of great programming. We depend on drug companies to quickly get us through the sniffles while giving our hearts and eyes plenty of paparazzi junk to read while waiting for the get fixed quick drugs to be handed to us. We depend on car companies to give us speed, protection and better gas mileage. We demand our fast food to taste great and be good for the body. We demand every Hollywood movie to totally blow us away. We demand our parents quit babying us at thirty eight.


Can you feel your own presence?


We’ve become so dependent on the world taking care of us that American Idol reminded viewers three times last night that their two hour show would probably go over the limit so we better reprogram our DVR’s and Tivo’s. I pictured nearly 100 million people grabbing that remote control at the same time. Ryan Seacrest became the single voice that moved the entire planet.


When someone at work, home or while driving down the highway upsets you…interrupt your reaction by sipping on the spill proof cup, tell yourself that the real cause of the event has nothing to do with the event, person or situation. Being unaware by means of object consciousness presented a situation you’ve now become trapped in.


Repeat after me, “I am never upset for the reason I think.”


Walking through your company hallway, your arms ache from doing so much work, your fingers beg to be pulled off while your brain lags like a jogger running into a swift wind…then you take note of a fellow coworker sitting at their desk, their feet up while talking on a cell phone, laughing like they’ve just heard the best joke since last nights Leno show.


If you react the damage continues. There’s not enough space in your quality of breathing to include what other people do. Repeat after me, “I am never upset for the reason I think.”


From the kids demanding to be heard to your neighbor accidentally mowing over your prize rose bush to the daily jump in gas prices sending your thoughts back to four bucks a gallon…what you’re doing is providing space for something unwilling to pay rent. It’s time for a little deprivation.


My daughter no longer gets the newspaper and has completely disconnected all shapes of TV. Although she once worked for the photographers who took those famous pictures in Hollywood, not one magazine can be seen on the coffee table or bathroom rack. Her two kids play outside in a neighborhood where everybody knows your name. Each yard features a garden brimming with leaves that’ll soon bring cucumbers and other veggies to their plates. They talk to their neighbors like they know them rather than just feel as if they’ve been thrown into a district.


Why didn’t I see this side of her in the years before she got married? Openly I admit, I didn’t have the space.


Don’t steal my art…


arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Lose Big Business weight and feel great!

If the year 2008 didn’t exist, the idea of investing in your future would still be the hottest commodity on the market. It was the talk on the block, a strong net or cushion to offer protection in the chapters after Corporate America labeled you too old to play. Brokers, bankers and financial advisors steered your pennies toward what they called, “The perfect move to make!” Especially since you’re lifetime of profits dumped into our nations Social Security plan would probably net you just over sixty three cents and a Krispy Kreme donut.



Today your portfolio is barely worth the forest of trees sacrificed to keep those monthly news letters coming in, “This is where you were this time last year and if the market should wake up and walk a straight line without having a glass of wine in its hand, you’ll be worth this much! Until that time, thanks for letting us lose your lifetime savings.”



With summer’s arrival, gas prices have located a pocket of wind, truckers will bury us with their costs at the grocery store and somewhere nearby we’ll start hearing about troubled airlines.



When there’s nothing to invest…how are we expected to exist? There’s only so much cream in a pitcher of milk…eventually it’ll become nothing more than a glass of water.



Materialistic…



Before you sink another buck fifty into a chunk of luck…check your relationship portfolio. Building relational equity is real. Just like a bank account or a 401K plan, your portfolio of friends, family and coworkers you trust can be drawn upon throughout your life.



Dr. Mick Ukleja has traveled to each sliver of land that’s willing to listen, “Your relationships impact the way you live, think and act. Even during the toughest of times, what you hold in relational equity provides a firm cushion of comfort.”



How about them folks who say they can do it on their own? They need no friends! This is my life and I shall be the king of the world! Yeah…it only sounds cool if Leonardo Dicaprio is standing on the hull of a ship. Loners do one thing; spend 90% of their energy fixing short term relationships. There’s a new name on every corner but once an association begins, it’s the same old end.



Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson released an incredible book called Just Enough Tools for Creating Success in Your Work and Life…in it they say, “Success is a collection of activities that are viewed by you and those who care about you not only today but through the rest of your life.”



Sometimes you’ve got to peel yourself off the Twitter and Facebook and crank off that cranky cell phone and flat out ask, “What are the things that we truly care about?” Let’s be blunt and extremely close to the lines that can’t be crossed…at the moment of your passing you aren’t going to be surrounded by trophies and giant posters that shout, “Yard of the Month!” Next to you shall be your relational equity: The portfolio of true love.



Face the facts…what is success to you? This nation is being asked that question every second of every minute and I’m not shocked to see that family, friends and happiness are quickly becoming the top three. Big business painted such a beautiful love story and how foolish we were to judge the book by its cover…but that was 2008.



Like a great banker, Dr. Ukleja reminds us to make a relationship deposit daily and in doing so it will build your relational portfolio…the pay off is simple; a meaning to your life now and beyond.”



You have impact on people’s lives every moment you breathe. How you behave is nothing more than extension to who you are. When practicing this thought process the question of who have I become slides from the canvas because how you treat others from your spouse to your children, neighbors and the dumpy looking Goth clone behind the coffee counter changes people lives...without notice and totally off guard you are painted a portrait of the person you’ve become and not the one you left behind.



This is nothing new…Oprah touched on this while touting the power of the secret. I don’t write and produce radio and television commercials to bring havoc to your ways of and means of escape. In every piece presented is the idea that someone requires what the commercial is offering. Can you imagine a world without banana’s three pounds for one dollar? The amount of potassium shared with athletes and growing kids makes a much stronger mind and body. A new car might lead you to a greener life and style. A massage for 39 dollars eliminates stress you don’t have to take home. From the way you answer the phone at work to greeting new customers has impact.



We already know about Wall Streets impact on people…up today, down tomorrow, businesses letting people go which puts more pressure on those barely lucky enough to stay on board. Every cent is being spent on surviving. Taking the dogs in for their annual teeth cleaning has become a luxury sacrificed and now Wonka doesn’t jump and play like she used to. Pets are people too. Rather than trash can the unwanted seeds your bird refuses eat…there are an enormous amount of wild birds and squirrels willingly ready to devour through recycling. Did you know that deer eat poison ivy? This summer rid the garage of its chemical supply and go even greener, create an area of your yard for a passerby to stop in for a late night snack. It beats hitting a Waffle House. Kid Rock picking a fight with a deer just isn't right.



Relationships never go out of business. How does your portfolio look?



Steal my art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, May 18, 2009

When did it suddenly become May 18, 2009?

No matter how many times you look at your designer watch, oblong office or kitchen clock or pet calendar blessed with dogs, cats, fish and deer, each day presented is always going to be a single twenty four hour period. No matter how fast we feel time flies or how boredom radiates enough energy to block the ticks from tocking…there’ll never be more than or less than twenty four hours.



But who believes that on the days you suddenly realize, “I’m how old? I want my life back!”



Bill Conway, a radio station program director told me in 1985, “There comes a time in everyone’s life when a single song is the only way to get them back to a favorite place to run, hide, play with others on the block or burn up gas driving your teenage car round and round the block on Friday and Saturday night. Your job as a radio disc jockey is to make sure their journey toward those days is presented in a way that makes them want to return to you over and over again. Become their H.G. Wells.”



It’s no faded fact; we can’t get enough of our past. Unless you’re a stock broker, play serious poker or pull in cash forecasting a lost souls future, the majority of us find tremendous amounts of comfort in the tales of already traveled times because we not only know the story but believe we can change it.



Computer technology keeps us from reaching the future by making it too easy to live in the past. We are modern day pilgrims in search of a new world featuring less taxes, government control and bosses who bog you down. Two clicks and we become gypsies wading in the waters of yesterday while toiling in the medicines of I feel good already.



Be it Naples, Seattle, Hong Kong, Butte, Montana or Uncle Newbert’s front porch BBQ...Facebook and Twitter buddies lead the pack on taking you back. Facebook features your toothless barely one year old grin…while Twitter allows you to constantly without mother and father interruptions talk to your friends.



It’s as if we’re shouting, “What am I missing?”



Nobody really cares that on June 12th analog television will be no more. After Wednesday night Adam Lambert will become lost in American Pop Culture. Every generation walking on this planet knows or has heard of The Rolling Stones, U2, Elvis Presley, Carrie Underwood and Garth Brooks. The genres once known as the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and now no longer bear a Great Wall…it’s about feeling good…and somewhere in that mess of sound is always going to be a newly discovered favorite song that happened to be released twenty to thirty years ago.



My good friend Al from Costa Rica said to me, “I didn’t come to America to hear to my favorite radio station play what my parents listen to back home. I want Led Zeppelin, John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen.”



If the past is paying off no wonder we’ve taken our eye off time.



We must look like the Ground Zero cities featured in old time news reels that feature manikin families stuck in the fifties. The house is fake, the dogs don’t bark, the child looks like he’s riding his bike for the first time while someone in a very far away place is softly saying, “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six.”



I was deeply touched by a rare shape of reality television this past Friday…Farah’s Story. Not a life and times adventure nor a Biography Channel exclusive set on sharing the lines and dances given to one of the most beautiful women of our time but a solid true picture of someone we know who has cancer.



For two hours time stopped…but her battle to stay alive didn’t. There were days her infamous smile lined the streets of heaven with a newer shade of gold while at times one wanted to reach through their digital fifty two inch screen to hold her in ways that offered tremendous love and comfort.



It wasn’t a networks ego or an undiscovered reach for ratings fame that invited Farah Faucett to open her current chapters but a need to show the world, “This is what cancer really looks like.” What we see on a daily basis are the brave smiles from friends and family members who’ve dared to go against the rules and push their way up a mountain 99% of us wouldn’t recognize if it stood three miles down the highway.



The Exxon employee who visually has lost 40 pounds, his hair nearly gone, his smile not so rounded at the corner but he’s at work still selling gasoline to fast moving people always in need. I asked him, “Are you just as strong on the inside?” He looked at me with his off colored shade of eyes and returned, “Yes I am…thank you for asking.”



A woman writes, “When I’m in a doctors office waiting to hear the word if I’m going to make it another four months…I sit in a type of silence my heart doesn’t like. I come to this web page everyday to read what’s been shared…can you please send more so I don’t have to listen to the sound of my heart beat any more.”



Suddenly it’s not about the single songs that can take someone back to a place of running and hiding nor does Facebook and Twitter have the know how to take a present you didn’t create and bake it into a different cake.



What we invest in the present becomes our past tomorrow. I often wonder how we’d live our lives if we knew the events leading up to that particular moment already written just not yet exposed. Might you have taken a right at the tracks rather than going straight because it seemed to be a shorter way to reach the envisioned destination?



Will you be just as strong on the inside? Thanks to Farah’s Story we are one step closer toward better understanding The Art of Dying. The Dahli Lama penned out a book of the same title…three chapters into the print and every step you take, you’ll be watching you.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Friday, May 15, 2009

Grrr it's the weekend....I'll never get my job done!

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.”



Focus…how often did your parents attempt to slam that five letter word deep into the presentation of your childhood? I was constantly in trouble for darting around then quickly reprimanded with the focus speech. It wasn’t something new to the journey, growing up in a bowling family, you learn the proper methods of strikes and spares are fed not by puddles but ponds of focus.



Without focus you can’t be effective.



In Tae Kwon Do we’re taught early how to put balance in a single leg holding up the weight of your world. While lifting your right or left knee, keep close to you the other parts because holding your arms out gives you wings, too far out and those around you have a place to lean.



Pulling focus from within, be it meditation, mindful thinking and breathing or a stupid kids game of who can stand on one leg the longest, without balance the final page of destination is written too soon.



Challenge yourself to stand on one foot for a minute. Instantly we look forward at a single dot or mark on the wall…we can do this! No sweat! That lasts about twenty five seconds. Your leg begins to tire; the past is your daily irritation of a job as it feeds the wandering edges of your brain and without warning the body jerks. Whoa! Catch it! Refocus! Now you have something new to add to the wibble wobbley umpa umpa. The future is now filled with how you’ll react if the foot is set down before its time.



And all you ever needed was your nose.



Want to win at the game of balance, take the opposite hand of the leg you are lifting and place your index finger on your nose. Look at you all wrapped up like a cocoon.



Sadly there aren’t any shortcuts to a better focused life. It requires four measures inside a song featuring nothing but 16 and 32nd notes with every intention of learning how to invent a 100th. We move at a high rate of speed fully expecting to one day slow it down. Yeah right. Not without putting focus on your goals. Forget self discipline and on the side rewards…putting focus on your goal creates new habits. Without focus, there are no goals…which is nothing more than a wanna-be. Ouch!



On every path he travels Buddhist Monk Thick Nhat Hahn visualizes the present. Through mindful listening he’s able to put his mind, body and soul into the present and remain there. If there are pains from your past that call you back, breathe deeply in the way of recognizing its presence then slowly let it out while whispering, “Good morning pain…” then smile. If your boss is a jerk breathe in to greet him or her and as you slowly let it out smile.



Living in the present is very real. You aren’t going to be dubbed a modern day hippie or Granola forcing you to return to the Grunge era of music where it nothing but Pearl Jam and Nirvana. People aren’t going to call you a religious freak, too good for the rest of the world or disconnected. Putting focus on the now allows you to explore newer places, ideas and temptations because there’s less stress.



The doctor the other day looks at me and says, “You talk a lot about stress…do you need a pill. I can get you a pill.” Is there anyone in the medical field not addicted to getting the rest of us addicted? Unless this doctor can figure out a newer way to take eighty seconds of words and creatively put them inside a thirty second commercial, he was quickly becoming a waste of my present.



A modern painter if being true to his passion will paint the tale of a modern America…one person, twelve different jobs. The ego loves stuff like this. You must be tremendously important. You have job security! Tell that to the enormous amount of GM employees who not only built the car but tried to sell it. We’ve lost our focus at hand while tossing out any idea that time is of importance. Eight hour days have evolved into two and three different jobs inside a twenty hour period, so when we finally do get to go home…it’s not really home; it’s a five hour lunch break. When you lose track of time you’ve injured the single most important part of happiness.



Dude! Stop it! You’re depressing me! Then think positive…



When confronted with heart wrenching challenges such as losing weight, setting down cigarettes and far less booze, what feeds your desire to fall off the wagon has everything to do with focus. Football pro Roman Gabriel once said to me, “Even if you’re frowning, to a bat you’re still smiling.” Locate the positive. Become so positive that people can’t stand being close to you. I love it when that happens!



The lessons not taught in high school are the current events that fester. The extremely tiny almost can’t see them secret thoughts and fears that sit inside, no need to be set free not until they’re ready to boil over the edge onto the floor then out the front door….totally taking our minds off how it will affect other people. A woman wonders why her eighteen year old graduate constantly smarts off. She feels her child can’t be fixed then turns around and starts screaming at the bag boy at the grocery store for not putting all the frozen products in a bag. One morning a man sits next to a minister on an airplane, he talks about his son’s future and how he fears he’s going to get hooked up with drugs and alcohol then orders a drink before the plane takes off.



Without focus…you can’t be effective. Begin your everyday with a new way to welcome its arrival…it starts with looking at the woodpecker pounding on your house and simply smiling. He’ll get the message.



Steal my art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, May 14, 2009

When is it ever safe to drink?

President Richard Nixon said, “No,” when asked if he was a crook. President Carter did all he could to say, “No,” to extremely high gas prices and out of control inflation. Reagan stood firm with his, “No,” pressuring the Russian’s to tear down the Berlin Wall. Wife Nancy took her own stand, “Say no to drugs.” Moviegoers said, “No,” to Jurassic Park Two. The Baseball Hall of Fame said, “No,” to Pete Rose while Pearl Jam rose up and said, “No,” to Ticketmaster and most of us are still trying to figure out how to say, “No.” to high cable and cell phone bills.



What about, “Say no to drinking water?”



“Put down the wet stuff!” The stern warning came from the man in the white jacket with an ice cold stethoscope wrapped around the neck most would like to choke.



I love the stuff! Some crave whacky wild beers from around the world, fancy coffee with whipped cream and a bottomless pool of sun fried southern sweet tea…I tend to drown my kidneys in water, literally according to the doctor….something so pure, so incredibly fresh and in his words, it’s destroying my body.



“Hello my name is Arroe and I’m a water-a-holic.”



The very second you step within this chilled radio station studio, the first thing that grabs your attention isn’t my rainbow colored hair and fingers rat-a-tap-tapping on a computer keyboard but rather a giant, out of this world, monster blue 64 ounce cup that screams, “They call me the rain barrel.”



Water is my chocolate. Mom and dad tried to get me addicted to spinach and I chose a water sport…guzzling over 120 to 150 ounces a day. That’s nearly two times more than what the body requires. No twenty four hour period passes without my kidneys looking and feeling like the most recent floods in North and South Dakota. According to the doctor, “Kidney’s weren’t created to transfer just water…they’re fully geared to keeping the inner body free of things that could easily take you down.”



Interestingly enough, when you flush, the natural salt levels in your body depletes inviting tremendous damage to your organs including the brain. Cells expand creating unnecessary pressure on the thinker. One medical book calls my water drinking problem a complex disease vividly warning: Do not self diagnose or locate a cure without seeking medical help first.

As whacked out as it seems, too much water too fast, puts a tremendous strain on the body and organs such as:

1. Your kidneys are asked to put in overtime without pay. When too much water pushes through your system, stolen are valuable minerals in your blood, it becomes diluted resulting in "Hyponatremia"

2. Downing too much of the clear stuff can increase your total blood volume putting an unnecessary burden on your heart & blood vessels

Are you guilty of this Arroe crime? Are you getting really bizarre headaches?

* Too much water causes cells to swell in the brain…guess what? Your skull can’t expand, this is the extreme and can cause death! This could possibly happen in a water drinking contest or a marathon race or in my case in the hours before and after martial arts.


Nice…I spend nearly forty seven years staying away from drugs, cigarettes and alcohol and the one thing assumed safe would get me kicked out of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. No wonder fish in the ocean call me a freak, “This dude doesn’t have enough natural salt in him to properly season a good life and style!”



Symptoms of water overload include: Drowsiness, weakness and confusion.



What’s the most natural thing to do when that junk sets in? Start pouring the legal uppers, heaping cups of coffee, power drinks, the new Butterfinger with energy and the ever popular 5 Hour quick shots, which invites even more problems to the system because now your heart and lungs are working overtime. Can you say stress?



“I can give you a pill for that.” He said to me.



“Wow this is great! We spend billions of dollars annually on research trying to make radio better and you can solve our problems with a pill.”



This doctor didn’t laugh. Please God never send me to a doctor’s convention in Omaha. I’ll do anything! Just don’t land my weird way of walking on their platform of performance.



“I’m concerned,” his well trained, completely engineered by a book thoughts gently interrupted my natural way of trying to laugh bad news off. “The seriousness of this issue has earned you a trip back to my office in thirty days.” And this is the reason why you’ll never hear the 5:00 news talk about the medical field going out of business during a depressed recession. Next week! The garden inch worm has teeth…you may have already been bitten. Consult help immediately.



So what happens when you don’t drink water? Last night was full contact beat the heck out of each other fight night in Tae Kwon Do. I was involved in nine matches. Every muscle in my body was a 12.7 earthquake. In most cases, after a hard tearing of the lining and all other things that invite inner damage, you go home and ice up while sipping on the pure stuff…to replenish the body of the liquids lost during each fight. Not last night…I didn’t touch the stuff, so today I can barely walk or move my arms. They want water and want it now.



I stop writing…my left arm reaches over to the 64 ounces of warm liquid and like a six year old told he’s grounded, I lap that stuff up like a dog begging for treats. Holy cow that tasted great! Oh my goodness that so much better than an ice cream sundae or fresh off the grill BBQ ribs. Wow! Please give me some more of that stuff!



Electrolytes are a valuable piece to keeping your rhythm going. Without them, it’s like asking Motown to rerecord their music without Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye. While you’re at it, let’s dump Diana Ross and the theme song to Herbie the Love Bug.



Drinking too much water shreds your supply of electrolytes to nothingness. I have a new journey…to locate newer ways to communicate to a body that’s just been told, “Wait until your father comes home.”



Don’t steal my art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

And so...

Thanks to Bill Gates, Steve Wozniac and their brilliant staff of caffeinated geeks, creating a resume that looks, smells and tastes extremely professional is as easy as one, two, oops…spell check didn’t catch Alan being anal. The new guy on the line already has your papers, do you call him? What’s the proper method of redelivering? Should you walk away with your tail tucked between your legs?



Don’t even think about sinking the blame into the veins of your laptop or tower. Life without them would be miserable. Blackberry’s and all things that impersonate palm power are a different story. The visual is excruciatingly too small and thumb typing on the world’s smallest keyboard does nothing but make room for your imagination to assume things look right.



Editing is everything! I learned that valuable lesson during the publishing process of my first book. Getting it out of your head and onto a computer screen is step one, but that doesn’t make it perfect. Once completed, the book was read and reread, a personal journey to locate idiot mistakes. There! I did it! Time for the publisher to get to work so I can get this book on shelves as far away as India…not so fast disc jockey boy!



Five more edits. This had to be moved here, that over there, can we get a new opening and since we’re helping you with the editing, we want to be credited, which means changing the front and back cover.



Resumes are no different. It’s a short story about your life. As secretive as you want to be during these days of finding the better job, it’s best to either hire a professional to paint your trail or load up the ranks of resume readers who quickly notice your name has nothing to do with the human body and or emotion.



So what do you do when something’s been missed? Author Anne Marie Sabath says, “Correct it then send it back with the words REVISED in the upper right hand corner of your cover letter.”



A future boss or two might be forgiving in accepting a badly computed resume, we’ve all been there, it showcases an I can relate with that working environment. You’re gifted the interview…out of habit your best friend tags along, the cell phone. Like most friends at an extremely important meeting, it chooses to ring…will the one conducting the interview continue to be locked in the mode of I can relate?



Anne Marie gives you the inside scoop, “Apologize then switch the phone to off without looking at the incoming number.” Starting today make it a good habit to shove that little buddy into vibrate each time you walk into a building…for no better reason than to help end noise pollution.



And then you hear those golden words, “Although things haven’t truly been incredibly smooth, we still want you to be part of our winning team. We need your answer within 48 hours.”



Oh oh…come on! During these modern times, it’s stupid to pour your energy into just one job opening; lazy is the person who doesn’t cram more than one interview into a single twenty four hour period? You’ve got two or three possibilities dangling on a string…now you have two days to determine if this job best suits you. What is the proper thing to do?



WARNING: Say nothing about the other job offers.



First of all, congratulations on nearly getting back up on your feet…I knew you could do it! Secondly, thank the latest business interested in you for such an incredible opportunity. Once back home, take the dogs out, talk to the bird in the cage then sit down and write an email to the other potential employers. Let them know of your most recent accomplishment and if you truly are in the top three of their picks they’ll be forced to play the hand without damaging the relationship just created with the company that physically said, “Yes.”



Stop stop stop! Three day’s have gone by…you told them you wanted to perform within their walls. But the man who hired was just fired. Where does your future stand now?



Ladies and gentleman, appearing in the right hand side of your computer screen is Anne Marie Sabath! Give her a big hand! “Don’t instantly think the journey is over…calmly ask to speak to the company hiring manager. Because you took the time to send an email thanking the person who wanted to hire you and they responded with brilliant words, thoughts and something that looked like a welcome mat, share the email with hiring manager.



If the response is, “Hmmm Mr. Bean Pole’s final pages in our book weren’t living up to our expectations, any decisions and or moves he elected to put into play are no longer part of our current game plan.” Very peacefully thank Old Mother Hubbard for her time and pull out the Bat mobile…we’re hitting the road again tomorrow.



Stay strong, stay healthy and do all you can to thank everybody for all things taking place. It’s an incredible way to meet new people! Life in America is like a raging mountain river…the only problem is we’re stuck in the middle of a major drought. The solid granite rocks are tall, wide, jagged and torn, the moss has dried, the birds fly over without touching the surface because they’ve learned where there is no water there is no food. Nobody seems to volunteer what little energy is left to hoist the stones for the elements beneath its purpose, so we keep walking, up, down, across, to and away from…some stop to rest, a few longer than most, a couple quit while the rest pick up their luggage seeking to hold the open hand of new discovery.



Ladies and Gentleman, now appearing in the right hand side of your computer screen Mr. Steve Perry and the group Journey who’ll now sing, “Don’t stop believing.”



Steal their art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh oh...

Through every adventure and challenge presented, one is expected to exceed the limits of available energy when pleasing…and in doing so, can it be possible to become addicted to such an available willingness?



I’m not speaking of co-dependency or a fear of being alone…brown nosing or playing up to the teacher to get a better grade.



Though we could sit and point fingers all day, a constant vibration of pleasing is no longer required to wear a mask or hide within the depths of secretly given upper management delivered orders or off campus gatherings. The end result of being pleasingly pleasant is an accelerated career with a tremendous reputation built on a foundation of cooperation.



Bosses dig employees who fall over themselves to get the job done. And in doing so, more requests are put into play…often times lifting several opportunities up to your plate of accomplishments. From the outside looking in…trouble is sitting in the ancient coffee pot preparing itself to percolate all over mama’s kitchen stove.



Once you’ve settled into your new position on the company ladder, the self delivered agreement is made, “This time, I’ll be a better team player.” Never forget the Billy Joel song Only the Good Die Young.



Being bright, smiley and constantly busy is a brilliant place to be! But are you physically prepared for the flip side of the coin? It has nothing to do with your boss or fellow co-workers. During these days of costs being cut and fewer faces to pull into the ranks of Team You…the workload overwhelms you.



Without warning your desk, car, home life and quick get away to an extremely fast food burger shack looks like the county landfill. It’s like sleeping, you can’t hear a thing when you’re swimming with REM, but when you wake up, the cat six houses down keeps those eyes glued to the ceiling while the clock spits out 3, 4 and now 6 am.



The habit of saying, “Yes.”



It’s more difficult to break than alcohol or drug addiction…because you love to please people and when you let them down, you’re shoving your bright, beautiful self right back into the hole you left at the last performance. When pride becomes part of your responsibility expect repercussions.



Man there’s nothing like getting a daily dose of praise. It’s like catching an episode of church on TV and the minister looks right at you when he says, “God loves you more than you ever think!” It’s like, “Wow he said that to me!”



You’re daddy warned you about this stuff, “You can’t please everyone all the time.”



You can’t suddenly stop saying, “Yes!” A flat out refusal will suck the air right out of respect. It’s how to press back the demands that keeps the flow of the train moving in forward motion. It’s time to negotiate.



If you want to instantly put someone on the defense, just say, “No.”



Work out a reasonable plan that highlights when the project will begin and end. Give the giver every reason to continue believing in your spirit without stealing from your quality. A “yes” habit is extremely difficult to crack and requires full focus without cheating the system being delivered. Achievable negotiations create progress.



Dr. Gary Ranker speaks loudly when saying, “People don’t appreciate Mr. Nice Guy!” Bosses don’t want you to say, “Yes,” to everything because they know it’s totally unrealistic. When saying, “No,” you displease some but in the end respect for you has been enhanced in ways that symbolize your true professionalism.



1. How have you recently resisted people?

2. How did you feel?

3. Identify those who respect your efforts versus those who abuse your energy.

4. Put a face on the things you do too much of and learn how to step away before it’s too

late.

5. Don’t instantly decline…negotiate a win/win situation.



If your vow is set to invite change then remain loyal to it while understanding the hangover felt in the days and seconds that follow a less “yes” driven life and style...it must be accepted by you or you’ll find yourself plopping down in the car with no air in your lungs again and again wanting to cry the entire way home.



I consistently hear from every direction an enormous amount of, “I hate my job.” Have you ever stopped to figure out why? There’s an incredibly visible chance that it isn’t the doubter in cubical fifteen or the sports freak in number nine, the junkie in twelve or the boss man who prefers golf over decision making. Your success begins with you. Everybody else is nothing more than a puzzle piece…if it doesn’t fit you don’t toss everything back in the box, you look for the rounded corner with a 90 degree angled edge.



Steal my art….



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, May 11, 2009

The wind can't be photographed....

As a solid member of the Commodores then deep into the trial and errors of a self guided solo project, Lionel Richie’s digits at the record store have toppled 100 million. Slowly walking through his house built on accomplishment, the singer, songwriter and producer takes the time daily to gently glide his fingertips across the brush strokes of layered gold on five Grammy Awards, an Oscar and an Emmy.



When asked to best describe his life and style and all that was required to create a single sliver of success inside a world that looks one way before you sleep then completely changes before sunrise, Lionel peacefully replied, “I invite you to push your car to 100 miles per hour…then stick your head out the window.”



Heard a radio disc jockey speak loudly about his tremendous compassion for small league baseball players, “A person can walk through the dugout or locker room during the worst of losing conditions and every player on the team believes they still have what it takes to make it to the major leagues.” The announcer stops for a moment, patiently gathers the ingredients of his current point of view then spouts, “What is wrong with these kids? Don’t they realize the odds of having a 95 mph ball pitched toward their bat in a big league field is one in ten thousand?”



In order to keep their products flowing and growing, American businesses have whittled their fields of opportunity to the slimmest numbers since The Great Depression. From the outside if one wants to land a performance as a bag boy at a grocery store chain it might one day require a degree in psychology.



The fine tasty folks at Doritos once said, “Eat them…we’ll make more.”



Colleges and technical schools are doing exactly that…they’ve got the students but the chips aren’t in the bag. The entry level positions they were hoping for have been taken over by former leaders and coworkers who’ve sacrificed their ambitions to reach the major leagues to perform under newer unexpected guide lines of doing whatever they can to survive.



The little leagues are brimming with dreams connected to pitchers mounds and home plates with no baseball diamonds to sink their spit shined cleats. How is one expected to attain a welcomed level of success like Lionel Richie if opportunity continues to lay silent?



Happiness versus despondency.



Whoa…and deep we go. But is it too deep? Depends on the level of thought you currently rest your visions or where you’ll be standing six weeks from the five month you decided to stop trying to shove your round life through a triangle hole.



A King from many moons and chapters back called upon a man, “You have something I want…” he was told. Looking quite surprised by the king’s figure of thought, he continued to listen, “I need balance, serenity and wisdom. I will pay any price to get it!”



One week went by, two, three, then six months almost a year. Becoming extremely worried, the king summands the man. The royal invitation wasn’t made of paper and brilliantly scented flowers but of many men of war who drug the visitor to the castle to give to the king the single item that he was waiting for.



A beautiful jade box.



“That’s it?” The king questioned. “You get all your power from a green box? You find so much happiness in the world and showcase valuable care for so many who’ve been brought to their knees in prayer because of a green box?”



Un-amused and completely losing patience, the leader of the great land fidgeted with the box, playing with it like a cat that didn’t get what it wanted. Once completely blocked by what decision to make next, the king discovered a secret compartment…inside a tiny piece of paper, pulled out the king read it, “This too shall pass.”



Looking at the man the king seemed bewildered, lost by reasons of assumption. How could a green box with a tiny piece of paper bring him the only thing he truly wanted as king: balance, serenity and wisdom. With confidence and not a sip of fear, the man turned to his king and softly said, “When you are happy, don’t be too happy, this too shall pass. When you’ve become weak during times of tremendous stress, this too shall pass.”



Every situation has fleetingness. When you become aware of all shapes and how they are transcended, your attachment to them lessons. It doesn’t mean you can no longer enjoy them…by grasping onto both good and bad sides of happiness your personal battles barely carry weight which allows you to enjoy the outcome of several situations.



By detaching yourself you gain a higher advantage because you’re no longer trapped inside them. Think of it as being an astronaut taking a spacewalk. When you create space there’s plenty of peace to grow with less pain to wade through, even late at night and there’s nothing good on television.



Self created suffering stops when you practice one thought: This too shall pass. Once you learn the art of understanding both sides of every emotion, you’ll need to fill what took up so much room with something that makes a difference in other peoples chapters. You grew and grew at your place of business only to see it suddenly disappear. All that energy inside still wants to play so work it another way, the Ronald McDonald House stands one year from opening in the Carolinas…10% of what keeps them going comes from McDonalds. The other 90% of their survival rests on the community.



There’s so much good and bad taking place in the world today we’ve become masters of many faces with no true clue where to turn when this personality bumps into this one, then that one, then from out in left field here comes a totally different mood and mode. Who are you at the very moment? If you sleep, when you wake would the world have already changed again and again?



This too shall pass…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Friday, May 8, 2009

Sugar kept too long becomes a rock...

Essential versus simplify…when the procrastination drops and we finally move forward in the way of bringing to the stage an unforgettable spring cleaning, the decision to save or toss out can affect your present as well as your future. How are you ensuring the important things?



Discovering what’s essential is the difficult part. Once completely in focus, you’re just seconds away from the pleasure filled clunks, crashes and heave ho squishes to make room for more.



Author Leo Babauta has the perfect visual, “How do you carve a statue of an elephant? Just chip away everything that doesn’t look like an elephant.”



The key to winning when spring cleaning is taking the time to ask yourself and others in the family, “Is this essential enough to keep?” You probably do it everyday when emailing! Do you need to keep it or toss it? Keep too much and that evil message comes up, “You’ve have exceeded the limits given to you…please contact your supervisor.”



Leo says, “Put the horse before the cart.” Identify quickly what the essentials are.



I’m not a junk collector but I do believe manmade items have feelings. I refuse to throw out a bent screwdriver, unused plastic flowers, old albums and cassettes and radio station jackets dating back nearly thirty years. Call me a freak; I’m either co-dependent is a sick way or my blood father running out on his family when I was three taught me to never quit anything.



So how do I deal? I sure don’t live in a mansion and I’m far from being junked up and out. You’ve got to be honest with yourself and pop the questions!



What are your values? Think of the qualities and principals you want to live by. Once you identify them, everything you do follows.
What are your goals? What do you want to achieve in life? I spent an entire childhood begging the higher powers to let me be in radio’s hall of fame. Trust me, time to throw it all away! Know what you are achieving and the stacks of books, letters and old cologne or perfume bottles find a happier location through recycling.
What do you love? Love plays a major role in your decision to toss out what’s keeping you from a clean closet. By letting go of a child’s first love for his career, it’s allowed me to locate newer shapes of love such as watching deer from a backyard deck I designed or vividly and impatiently waiting for a single rose to pop its bud into working mode to expose its array of magic. Clutter clogs your passion to live, how close are you to having a manmade junk attack?
What is important to you? Make a list of what gathers the most strength in your life putting positive energy in the areas you’re constantly thinking about.
Of all the items you’ve collected and can’t decide what to toss…what’s made the biggest impact? I once worked with a radio morning man who openly admitted that he never got into the act of saving his path, “Life is about being free not collecting particles of a past you can’t change.”
Needs versus wants. What do you physically need and how does it compare to what you want? Needs stay…wants are given the pink slip.
Putting trust in discovering your true essentials is the key to winning the cleaning war. I can’t tell you why guys find pleasure in hording rugged and torn T-shirts, whether it collects memories or moths, the end result is it’s his…and it’s up to him to rid the chapters of an item not seen as important enough to others to keep. Invading ones personal space is a disaster waiting to happen. When it does, simply tell yourself, everything currently take place is going to end up on a nighttime 30 minute sitcom. You aren’t alone!



I personally love the tubes of acrylic paint that have blended through this brush touching that brush. On the outside, a passerby is quick to say, “What a wretched color…trash it!” I have radio scripts signed by famous musical artists and professional sports players…a pair of once white tennis shoes that have been signed by some of the biggest stars from the 90’s. I did it to be different and kept it to collect it and in the end…if I were to pass today you’d hear someone say, “Holy cow…I’d ask you to get a life but man you’re already dead.”



The spirit of cleaning isn’t just held in the spring. It should be monthly, weekly and hourly. Learning to tell yourself, “No!” keeps the front door a welcoming place. It shows respect to not only to the true person you are but being less overloaded invites every reason to constantly be ready for change.



Steal my art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Thoughts aren't real until you pull them from your body...

Sheepishly looking away from the suddenly shocked overcrowded L.A. theater, his glossy tearful expression seemed distant in the way of not wanting to believe in the presentation of his newest role. Hair jelled but not combed back, eyes bathed in the essence of Dave Matthews discovering his first song…only to hear a calming authoritative British tone, “You no longer have to be humble.”



Kris Allen, a seemingly squeaky clean, softly spoken musical politician from Middle America two steps short from port.



Rather than stand on a tree stump and preach his greatness, Mr. Allen has chosen to sit with his followers and through being humble he’s become accepted. Although there’s tremendous competition waiting for his next decision, American Idol will not serve as his chosen place of war.



From where we sit, Kris doesn’t appear to have the eye of the tiger capable of slaying the two giants Goliath…instead, he holds what many spend their lives searching for, a single opportunity of knowing the way to daily separate a gift from talent.



Kris Allen sits in the top three because America needs a hero.



Banking giants once hailed as the greatest slice of bread since fried bologna are caressed minute by minute by slumping numbers forcing them to beef up by begging for more government steroids. When David Stern said the NBA would never be the same after Michael Jordon, who knew we’d look at the new teams and scream, “Who’s that?” There’s no loyalty in the NFL, NHL and the hometown Monday night bowling league and forget about gaining access to job security.



In an age where being humble would put the right people in place…Mr. Cowell shot the world back to Ronald Reagan’s “Me” generation. Oh he’s not alone, the poke player Annie Duke on Celebrity Apprentice can’t stop saying, “I, I, I, me and me!” Does that automatically make the constantly grooming Joan Rivers the automatic winner on this Sunday’s finale? Who’s to say Annie wasn’t inspired by Joan’s adaptability to an ever changing society? Joan has always been crass; she’s made millions banking on a talent to suck the laughter right out of our guilt trip.



Alan Greenspan once held the Olympic financial torch. Was it a God given gift to push those digits into place or a self created talent? With talent comes ego…a long term drive to live up to your shadows expectations. It’s like religion versus spirituality…religion is for those that don’t want to go to hell and spirituality is for those who’ve been there and don’t want to go back.



My biggest pet peeve is when someone says, “Wow you’ve got talent!”



No, we live in an age where people don’t try hard enough. Those who lay their claim on being talented can lose it forever by reasons of not taking care of it. Steph Curry from the Davidson Wildcats is a brilliant example of a star in the making; his immediate goals are to seize control of his present: The art of living in the now. Next year at this time, his gift could be as silent as Bret Farmburger from the 80’s group Willie Wonka and the Boogie Factory. You remember Bret right? He constantly bragged about being the next Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp rolled up into one. Every talk show, every morning show appearance, all he talked about was his “Wow!” After all these years, do you think Wal-mart will take back the cassettes I no longer listen to?



Like Kris Allen, Steph Curry is humble. I call it the Loretta Lynn, coalminer’s daughter approach to success…any shape of presentation is nothing more than a gift handed to you at that moment. How you treat your tools and toys best describes the longevity of your path. If you’re constantly pulling off the 90’s delegation plan with no hand in the final product, your talent is being abused…by you.

Let’s be truthful, the only thing we can truly teach in a single lifetime is to order a rock to sit still…so what does it do? It allows the wind and rain to take it to the places it could’ve reached centuries before it time.



The next generation of well exposed leaders has to figure out a way to bridge the gap between standing on the mountain while sitting with the people.



People aren’t drawn to Simon Cowell because of his magical British accent, he speaks the language of a people shunned by bosses and family members for having too big of an opinion or offer too much in the way of helping to save a slack off workplace that’s become so weak it doesn’t deserve a mention in the history books. As evil as Cowell comes across, he always makes rooms for the other three judges to speak. He may argue with Paula but in the end, all were heard. His grip on his gift is perfect by making sure he doesn’t allow it become a talent. Interviews on late shows and Ellen bring out the other side of the opinionated monster, the side that says, “I’m just acting…and you are reacting.”



Our nation was built from the ground up and those before us grew strong not because of talent but an hourly requirement to accept whatever gifts were handed to them at birth. “You will be a potato farmer!” Nice…let’s invent something called Mama’s potato salad? “You will be a drycleaner owner.” Sweet! Do I get to keep everything that falls out of the pocket? “You will sit, wonder and worry about everything your entire life then mysteriously turn it into gold for other people who’ll forget about you.” Yes! I can finally become a high school teacher!



Mindful thinking is learning how to listen the one thing that keeps you alive…breathing. Once you recognize your natural pattern, every sunrise will become a gift and everything you accomplish within its light has the power to enhance other people’s gifts. Talent is a time bomb waiting to perform its next expectation. If talent is so grand why do so many sports figures retire in their mid 30’s? Tools and toys. What will you be replacing this Christmas?



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Wait until your father gets home...

The twenty four hour high. The hurry up and rush to endure the rush. There’s nothing like that exhilarating feeling of accomplishment without dipping into the depths of worries and fears. And to get there, new studies show nearly 45% of the American workforce is lying on their resume.



Could this be, might this be, should there be?



Don’t pin the donkey’s tail on the low man on the totem poll. Earth shattering are the number of corporate heads, college leaders and business owners that have exceeded and or abused the limits of integrity all in the name of heightening their chances of quickly being rehired.



One person caught in the crossfire was a key decision maker at MIT who apologized for something she did years before landing the performance at the school. She forgot to take the degree in question off her resume.



Suddenly we’ve taken twenty two steps back to June 12, 1987 when President Ronald Regan challenged Russian General Secretary Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. A reshaped business landscape seems to be calling for the same action, “Banks, Non-profit organizations, churches and whoever else is controlling the common person, take down the stones that once protected your working ways and let us see how you truly play.”



It kind of reminds me of the day I was first introduced to Fools gold. “Holy cow I love Yellowstone National Park! Forget the hills, there’s gold on them there counters!”


On a computer screen it looks as if we have the best team to move forward. They’re hardworking, dedicated and loyal to new ideas while showcasing incredible determination in the way of locating cost effective avenues of better success. Then it happens, Jimmy didn’t really finish college, the degrees he speaks of are products of a great imagination and a willingness to play with Photo Shop. Jimmy really isn’t the golden child but rather a replica of something he learned while watching CSI or Iron Man.



Research shows the body consumes then requires a great deal of endorphins when your inner being is fed successful growth. There’s a physical addiction to what’s being labeled the twenty four hour high. Nearly everything we do has nothing to do with our tomorrow. From being first in line at a movie premiere, to slamming a joy stick to the right then left on virtual video games to visiting a well touted hotel/water park before the rest of the block…our rush to feel the rush is starting to cost us.



Is dumbing down a resume just as dangerous? It’s no hidden fact; American companies have lowered their standards. They’ve chosen to hire the barely experienced because they believe a man or woman in such shape can be shaped. Is it wrong for someone whose been performing the same task for nearly twenty years to restructure their resume in the way of looking like a beginner?



Integrity is integrity. It doesn’t pay the electric bill or keep the flu from entering your child’s ears, eyes and nose but in the end what are you left holding? What are you willing to sacrifice to feel less burn in your desires versus your must haves?


It truly screams foul play if I walk into a meeting and tell the new program director I’ve never done a day of radio in my life? As much as I’d love to start over and be the Michael Jordon of Morning Radio…there’s always going to be someone who steps forward and says, “Wait a second, my mothers mother used to listen to you on Sunday mornings, you’re the keep smiling and keep loving those pets guy.”



Adam Lambert on American Idol didn’t stack his resume nor did he dumb it down. From the very moment the first pitch was tossed, we’ve learned of his performances on and off Broadway and appearances with several musical acts on incredibly large stages. It’s up to the producers and directors of the show to figure out ways for fans of the show to digest the idea that Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood had no experience. Clay Aiken earned his way to New York City and Jennifer Hudson is that great shining light in the sky that still reminds us, “You can do it.”



Community colleges and spin off farm team schools caught on quickly to the American dream five years ago, we’re willing to go back to collect the right credentials and because most of us barely have five minutes to use the restroom, they’ve creatively forged out a business acceptable plan that guarantees you just enough experience to be interviewed, what you do after that no longer rests within your agreement with the school.



Just because I learned how to type in the eleventh grade didn’t make me a writer.



They say you can’t learn how to ski from a book…maybe it’s a Montanan’s way of thinking but what makes you think a school can teach me incredible business tactics that challenge the competition into early retirement? We see small business owners shattering corporate rules by hiring passion driven performers rather than job seekers and think I'm going to start at the top and not have to work my way up.


There for a while it became the big fantasy for a major company to step in and take over the small business because it guaranteed a life of comfort. Those who’ve been accused of selling out are laughing because they knew in their heart it wouldn’t work. That’s the difference between must have and want to have.



Books from the library are free. That’s how I built my first radio station that could broadcast a mile from the house at fifteen. Integrity is me writing that on a resume. Integrity isn’t, “I attended Yale and became the first broadcast engineer to revamp a microphone to the point of creating volume five thousand two hundred eighty feet away.”



When you aren’t getting answers to the thousands of resumes you’re sending out, the process of rebuilding will challenge instinct to the point of crossing invisible lines. While the number of stay at home husbands are skyrocketing so is the price of ink that it takes to pen out something untrue about the paths you’ve created.



Courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self control and indomitable spirit. I didn’t create the plan, a group of Korean Monks did over two thousand years ago. Steal their art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com