Thursday, April 28, 2011

I'm going to Prince William's Wedding!!!

I’m not one to write period pieces or to put focus on Hollywood driven paparazzi attractions but history is set to rise and like it or not we’re part of it. Stop fighting it like a two year old that’s just downed four chunks of chocolate. Please follow and or hold the inside arm of the tall dark and dashingly beautiful British gentleman named usher and he’ll lead you into the arena where I’m told by every television network including Entertainment Tonight’s Mary Hart that there isn’t a bad seat in the house.



Welcome to the wedding of William and Kate!



Bashfully I admit I fell in love with his mother Princess Di in the 80’s. I had never seen a Queen to be as astonishingly unforgettable as she. She wore innocence in her eyes while guaranteeing her place in history as a woman of tremendous strength. To this day I see her soft genuine smile and melt at the purity of her well tuned voice. Not just to me but to millions of many Princess Di was like watching the rebirth of an angel in human clothes and style.



I attended her wedding. Yep! They led me and my wife of only two months to row number 26 billion four hundred and sixty two…which just happened to be an extremely long sectional sofa in a trailer house in Lewistown, Montana. Prince Di must have truly loved me because unlike those on world wide broadcast television my seat at her wedding came with an ottoman to put my feet up and endless amounts of pre-wedding food.



Lives are changed by the most bizarre twists in everyday fate. Have you ever met a Baby Boomer that wasn’t somehow blown away by Elvis, The Beatles or Jagger and Richards? Stare into the soul long enough of men now entering middle age and it amazes me how many millions were completely moved by a North Carolina kid named Michael Jordan.



As much as I love my Android and give praise to Verizon for being the first to put that freakishly neat oh skeet oh handheld machine on its proper stage—the inner makings of why I do what I do is firmly attached to July 29, 1981. I fell in love with watching two separate paths become one.



This is where the critics step in and blast my fantasy with buts, more buts and did you knows…yes I do know what history performed but it hasn’t destroyed what I held that day when Princess Di got married.



She was the princess that dreams paint inside your eyelids while trying to sleep late, late at night. The very girl that children’s books written about grouchy fire breathing dragons steal from the midnight air and hold onto tightly until the brave prince and his army of six, seven or eleven show up shouting, “Let go of thee woman I love! Allow her to be my love of a lifetime! Without her I am empty of music! I cannot survive any longer if you the fire breathing dragon with a giant wart on your left cheek don’t free from your grips the woman I so cherish.”



Wow! That contained so much sugar you’ve officially become diabetic!



Absolutely Prince William’s day with Kate has been sensationalized! They are John F Kennedy’s first man on the moon project, Lee Iacocca’s vision of turning four wheels into speed demons named Mustang, Sammy Sosa and Mark Mcgwire slamming it out in the world’s most famous homerun derby.



But, but did you know? Yes I know what history performed but it hasn’t destroyed what we held on the days each moment was brought to the forefront of realities daily catch.



And maybe that’s why hundreds of emails and opinions have poured into our system asking us to please stop talking about the wedding of the century. Hey! I get it! With the divorce rate now at 52% why should the common folk, man, woman, dreamer and poet waste their hard to locate time falling in love with two people who are in love?



The thought of being in love with the idea of being in love is a sentence you’d expect to find in a box office rejected Jennifer Lopez film. When was the last time a modern day love song took over your senses and completely turned you into a shopping monkey because nothing purchased could ever touch how much you loved the person you were with so you bought and bought and bought finally realizing the only way you could love like the song on the radio was to day dream.



Are you in love with what the banking and housing industry has done to your city, state and nation?



Are you in love with the way school boards across this great land beg for billions of dollars but never spend it on education?



How are you in the love department on workplace hours expected with no overtime?



And gas prices? How about food, insurance, the price of popcorn at a movie that’s been tainted by a pretty nifty trailer?



How do you feel about a British kid you’ve been forced to watch grow up; you know like a grandparent that assumed they had finally emptied the house and they could get back to living? Maybe what we need to do is whip out the candy, milkshakes and lime green cupcakes and feed it to William and Kate then give them back to Charles and Camilla before the sunsets.



In an age of wars people tend to ignore, nuclear power plants that've exploded but nobody cares anymore and worldly leaders that refuse to do anything about polar caps melting…I absolutely agree the marriage of William and Kate isn’t a historic moment; instead, because we were there at his birth, when he attended first grade, his graduation, the divorce of his parents and later the heart wrenching loss of his mother…William is your fricken next door neighbor’s kid who was nice enough to send you an invitation to an extremely happy moment in a life tragically destroyed by our need to know everything about everybody just like Mrs. Kravitz on Bewitched.



As they embrace I ask you do the same…welcome to the first step of a brand new beginning. Be in love with the idea of being in love.



You may now kiss your computer screen.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

What is it...lost or found

Ask me about failure and you’ve got my attention longer than a tweet on Twitter or a Like This on Face Book. Failure is the measurement of one man’s opinion versus the end result of continuation.

Within the time limits of today’s workplace settings what becomes the failed attempt if any attempt to succeed has been made? If demands aren’t met does that truly shout failure or has the accused been set up to fail by decision maker's who want to walk taller in his or her shoes?

Richard Andrew King writes, “Within the heart emotions stirs. Failure isn’t what we prefer; but yet, the victors all confer—the road to success is paved with failure. Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

Winston Churchill reminds us, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage that counts.”

In my first book One Man’s 1,021 Thoughts the writer within sharply challenged the paths of choice calling most conclusions ill fated bricks in my foundation of failure. I didn’t understand the difference between being numb versus being depressed; was it a signal of having bad connections or had one inspired the other to take lead?

In the book I write, “Depression isn’t anger against yourself or others—its God’s way of saying, Here’s a gift, you shall be un-numb.”

What is the cause of numbness? Is it failure? Fear of failure? Assumption of there being failure?

Mr. King explains that we live in a dual dimension, positive and negative, high and low, masculine and feminine, hot water and cold water…war and peace. You can’t have one without experiencing the other.

Numbness occurs when both hands have wrapped their grip around the same coin featuring heads and tails. Which when studied at a deeper level is a true sign of there not being balance. It’s extremely difficult to digest that without failure there can be no success. Gas prices nearing the four dollar mark and news channels have begun the process of questioning our nearly healed economy. Their actions have created a reaction; inciting fear.

It’s illegal for someone to shout fire in a theater but completely accepted if a reporter exposes the nuclear water off the shores of Japan might be poisoning the tuna we consume by the tons everyday.

King continues, “Failure is feared wounding those in search of success. People are quick to quit because they’re convinced that failure is something to be ashamed of when in reality it’s an integral part of the success process.”

Has President Obama failed this nation? It truly depends on who you’ve chosen to listen to. Being a country based on freedom of thought, expression and influences to be whatever you want anytime you want the recession tripped Corporate America while inspiring new visions from fresh entrepreneurs to reach up from the ashes and grab newer ways to continue believing in the power of succeeding.

King pushes the door wide open when he states clearly that no one sets out to fail but we all do.

No day passes that I’m not bombarded by radio broadcasting interns who’ve elected to chase visions of becoming part of an industry that critics have chewed up and spit out since the birth of television. Each of them believes they’re the next big thing and will do whatever is required for them to astonishingly attain the rights to the highest peak. My first reaction is to see how they handle failure.

I do not set them up for failure…the goal is to utilize a wise lesson taught 2,000 years ago from the masters of martial arts and open their wisdom by inviting the up and coming speaker chasers to see broadcasting for what it is and not what they assume it could be. I take off my black belt and wear only white, to show them that we are equal in ways they don't realize.

At a CIAA Job Fair I calmly asked the inquisitive mind, “How often do you blog? How many times have you been moved by a web page article but elected not to share it? While on Face Book do the subjects you cover include your endeavors or do you design your thoughts to include everybody?”
Social Media is the next valuable step that must be performed everyday for it to properly succeed.
Radio has not met its failure; its our houly mission to figure out where listeners are going and we won’t stop trying to find the communications link until long after a reaction has been met.

Think about this; 80’s long hair band legend Sebastian Bach recently said on That Metal Show, “Why do artist keep saying they were signed to record deals when nobody is buying records?”

I am the worst at calling my radio dreams a total failure!

I stepped off the full time performance stage in 1997 to help shape the image of what radio was quickly becoming only to stop, turn around and realize for fourteen years as a performer I can't help but feel as if I've helped everybody but me find success.

Talk about an ego trip! From the chapters of martial arts I pull from the paragraphs an act of humbleness. Rather than feed my desires to talk over someone’s favorite song the daily ambition is to drive down South Blvd to look at Keith Hawthorne Ford’s brilliantly large new location. He’s changing people’s lives by putting them in cars and trucks that are built to last. Someone had to create the radio messages built on truth and trust to open the mindset of a passerby to succeed without fear. We've been a team since he was a punk wanna-be sales rep that spent every morning washing the cars he wanted to sell. My failures as on on-air talent have become my success in a production room working one on one with clients like Keith whose only goal is to find people who want something new without allowing change to become what feeds failure.

Humble is when you stop to realize a higher purpose of performance…although a giant bowl of chocolate ice cream sounds incredible on a hot summer Carolina day…failure might clog the thought process if asked to share it but in the end its who you’ve invited into the circle that makes success a champion of right choices.

If your job has made you numb…locate the center of your balance. Bosses don’t create stress you do by allowing the bosses expectations to flood your life with a fear of failure. No matter how hard you try to become the biggest and best at what you do without failure you’ll never learn the black belt path of being humble and or centered. Being labeled a victor is nothing more than a high to which we all become addicted to. When you can’t get that high any more the decision is to chase other means of attaining shortcuts.

You are in the business of you…your job is only a client. I will always believe in you first.

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Spouses always seem to see a different world...

My wife dropped a quote on me like a giant overweight chunk of Carolina blue sky falling toward the unprotected earth below, “We don’t rest we collapse…”

Take five minutes and watch how people plant their bums in chairs; kids, teens and adults fall into the arms of what will soon hold them up, we leap toward the cushions and extremely soft sofa pillows, trip into the thought of catching a two minute catnap or brain melting without having a true clue as to how to make it through…

We are the people of a great land that have totally forgotten how to sit properly in a chair.

I’m so guilty of this uncomfortable mess! If the choice is to rest I put barely a butt cheek on the seat knowing at any given moment someone is going to call, write, walk through the door or scream ten buildings away requiring help, demanding a brilliant conclusion or seeking my imagination to help them attain quick success without making an effort of saying, “Thank you.”

My eating habits are no different. I forget to eat but when I remember my body takes over grabbing everything for those moments when there’s no time to eat. One minute I’m floating like a butterfly only to be drug down by a booty that rocks the charts near the mark that shouts from the mirror, “Pig! Oink! Oink!” It's not what you eat...its how you eat that helps you regain control of the waist.

What gives in a society that gives everything it’s got? Is it stress?

What is stress other than fear? What you fear invites stress not to your workday but to your every day.

Fear of failure? Fear of not being recognized for your hard work and dedication? Fear of being fired? Fear of not living up to your own potential? Fear of your children growing up with extremely bad mouths and demands? Fear of the bank folding? Fear the grocery store not having the right apples and bananas?

Franklin D Roosevelt made it incredibly clear, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

The majority of this nation is so busy trying to catch up the thought of our shadow sneaking up to scare us is the new American dream. A simple unexpected startle might sink some reality back into our veins; chasing our tails is a dog thing.

We don’t rest we collapse…

Truth is we don’t have leaders to help guide us along; every step of the way is someone else’s agenda. Do as I say or get away. We’ve adapted to high gas prices and a sagging economy. We’ve adapted to outrageous dreams of making health care a non-issue. We’ve adapted to the idea of going green but elect not to because those pushing the green door open have turned it into a corporate business with high out of reach prices. Nobody is saying, “Stop or else.”

My wife and I laugh about our true goals and the final outcome of all things connected; if given the opportunity and gift to live beyond the age of seventy its our mission to do everything humanly possible today to guarantee the cat food we’ll be eating in the future will not come from Wal-Mart.

Sleeping outdoors under a Carolina starlit night has become a job! The couple next to us in rusted like a bucket trailer camper lot number 21 calmly said, “We’re too tired to build a fire, please take our wood and we’ll sit with you while it burns.” What?

I sat across from the mid-60’s newlyweds of just over four weeks studying them; watching how they used their ageless hands to speak, grunted when one required support for an inside joke and I struggled with them when trying to pull their bodies in question back to the feet required to haul their tail to the nearby bathroom.

Outside of having each other they didn’t make getting old too much of an item worth chasing. Ouch!

I know we're born to die but are we truly supposed to become old?

Compared to this outwardly way of living we currently display; being of too much age seems incredibly out of fashion and completely out of tune with my dream, my plan and my destiny to one day convince the one world government to turn each square on the Google Calendar into a 35 hour day. Eight or nine hours dedicated to the career and 26 completely dedicated to rest and play!

We don’t rest we collapse…what if we ground ourselves from the present 24 hour performance and put in only 12? Not only will the weekend get here faster but milk won’t spoil so quickly.

How bad can it be? Bosses still have enough open space in their schedule to race away from the place of work and no play to get in a game of golf. Therefore every complaint is nothing more than your over active and way too vivid imagination. Have a great day. Oh by the way…(stealing from the Andrew Ashwood chapters of my 1991-93 experience) I don’t need someone willing to do their job; I can get that from anywhere. I require 80 hours of work for 29 hours of pay. If you’re not bothered by this…then I guess you can stay.

Not a negative…this is called awareness. Through becoming aware there will be peaceful change. Helping you pick up the pieces because I will always believe in you first.

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, April 25, 2011

The Bakken Post Card...

Is it a Montana thing? A ripped out page from the book called midlife crisis or just a complete fascination with bugs? Set me free in a kayak barely beyond sunrise and all things created by man and his wandering imagination no longer matter. Box turtles carelessly positioned on tree stumps poking up a weathered branch to grab a gulp of how life used to be sit staring at the poet whose only ambition is to say nothing.

I asked an unfair question while daily writing this new day, “What is the written piece someone will one day discover many white lines and curves down this long drawn out highway?”

Maybe I should explain this origin of such selfishness…

A postcard written to my Grandfather Kanute Bakken dated 1960 brought on this vision to speak through my fingers. John, the current owner of my families homestead decided to break free from a past we can’t change and pull from the walls many unwritten about years of childhood giggles, snickers and chocolate flavored prints smudged into the surface because someone knew of the golden rule of feeding the little ones tons of sugar before giving them back.

How many times have you believed the space or tiny crack where a wall and cabinet meet serve as a great saving place to forever display birthday cards, business information, phone numbers from friends written on napkins, pictures of aunts and uncles or an old fashioned post card with weird statements that made you laugh on the opposite side of where the writer poured out their soul?

This card got away from Grandpa Bakken; it slid between the wall and cabinet into a time capsule that wouldn’t be opened for fifty one years.

In an age of Face Book Friends and never ending Tweets from Twitter; the destination of many thoughts, beliefs and interests never make it past impression.

In 1994 while stealing my stepdaughter Jenny from her tightly knit world of Rock n Roll connections with realities much larger than what most dream of one day achieving; it felt completely natural to share with her the tiny places that truly helped shape the reasons why the clouds in my world are forever pink, purple, bright blue and constantly filled with music. I had to show her the Bakken home front.

Vividly I remember driving up to the house with nerves larger than the Rockies we just crossed. John opened the door; heard my reasons for wanting to visit and invited us to step through to a past they said you could never reenter.

To this day I believe houses shrink under a blistering hot summer sky. I remembered the staircase being much wider, my door leading into my upstairs bedroom not being something that made me lean to miss and the kitchen where Grandma made me chicken gizzards and pasta was supposed to stretch across three county lines.

I kept waiting for Paul Harvey to read his news headlines at twelve noon before racing out to the unforgettable garden scented with flowers, apples, raspberry bushes and carrots mumbling something about one day popping their heads up to expose their bright orange beauty.

Then I saw the tree; not just any tree. Kanute wanted to show his grandkids the importance of accepting all living things around us and how each of us should always remember to accept everyone including our enemies.

“I want you to watch this metal plate,” he told our attentive eyes, “A tree doesn’t have time to make friends with something made of metal but today they are going to be married forever.”

And you think I’m weird?

The attachment of that metal plate to a living tree became my childhood fascination; every Christmas, summer vacation and any day my Grandmother would let me stop in to visit…damn if my eyes weren’t fixed to how that tree grew around the metal plate like loving a fuzzy Teddy Bear.

Even while watching Grandma's moon flowers blossom under a star filled sky, I could see that metal plate smiling back at me.

Although the tree has reached its highest peak in the chapters we keep and all we hold are memories; the edge of what makes each of us real isn’t a computer program or smart phone but rather the desire to take what we’ve experienced and teach it.

I swear Grandpa Bakken was in my Kayak yesterday morning while on the lake with itty bitty Carlos and be here before you know it grown woman Mia; a grasshopper had crashed into the surface of the water fighting hard to make its way back to a place of safety. Carlos kept shouting, “No I don’t like bugs! Push us away from here!”

I finally had to say, “A tree doesn’t have time to make friends with something not made of bark and invisible rings...but today this grasshopper is going to marry that tree forever.”

Right over his head that thought flew! Holy cow I thought it hit an airplane.

Grandpa Bakken passed away extremely early; a heart attack while doing something he truly loved; constructing paths that would inspire other peoples lives. He helped master the plans and purpose of what became the infamous Bozeman Tunnel later helping to layout the grounds that grew into the campus of Montana State University.

John’s decision to send a post card to someone he had met for less than a sliver of a second has always been the energy behind my reasons to save living things including grasshoppers on the Carolina lakes…while Carlos sat in fear I calmly explained, “Do you remember when I had my heart attack two years ago? Three people were in the room that night that made a choice to either save me or let me die. We are here today because they made a choice. My choice right now is to save this grasshopper. What if we decide to let him drown is it fair to his family knowing that we could’ve saved something you fear?”

Taking the paddle of the kayak and gently picking the grasshopper up…the tree became the place where the he dried off its wings while Carlos took on a different outlook toward all living things.

What would’ve happened if John hadn’t sent that card?

I asked an unfair question while daily writing this new day, “What is the written piece someone will one day discover many white lines and curves down this long drawn out highway?”

It won’t be my daily writing because once written it’s always available to read; discovery is an OMG moment.

My luck it’ll be an email sent from my deepest passion to continue building paths toward unforgettable radio. All things connected are meant to inspire someone to be an inch better than good and because such coaching is no longer used in a modern world of expectation, their ego quickly calls me a fricken jerk and to keep proof of it, its shoved onto a memory stick until someone we’ll never meet happens to find a strange funny object hidden in a place only time could forever keep.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Lead or be led...

When you walk into a Barnes and Nobel, surf Amazon or listen to the Preacher man delivering the Sunday Morning address; what truly comes to mind when the received message influences your heart to become a better leader?

What? Back it down! The reaction is almost always the same; we’re told to step up our game in the world of leadership and instantly the response is, “No thanks! Not my game! Don’t want the responsibility! Do you have any clue who you’re talking to?”

I get it! Since the first grade we’ve been trained to believe leaders are overly hyper political figures with egos the size of Mount Mitchell. Leaders are hard driven, seek glorification and feel the need to exceed the limits no matter what the final cost.

Time to reboot your thinking machine!

Tribes author Seth Godin whips the mask off fantasy by placing reality in the forefront of your extremely busy workday. The truest shape of a modern leader is one of the most productive people on staff. They don’t rush through the halls or race between the cubicles shouting, “I’m in control and your job is to listen to me!”

Having and or adopting the attitude of looking out for number one don’t pay off in the chapters and channels of continued success. It only creates motivation through intimidation which is one of the leading reasons why the majority of today’s unemployed refuse to be featured on the lists of employees getting back to a normal life and style.

Godin exposes the CEO with the brightly lit well decorated office with no desire to ever return to a gray dungeon dreary cubicle and the religious leader that doesn’t drive a beat up old gas guzzler but chooses instead to pirate a private jet to press the flesh…

Winning begins when leaders adopt the Jimmy Carter attitude of setting aside worldly wants and requirements to build houses for the poor.

As this nation finds itself poking its American mug up from the rubble created by the rich and need to be famous…new leaders are being born by way of picking up the tools and putting them to use. Undercover Boss on CBS should be a requirement on every block used to rebuild this country.

No day passes that my radio station commercial production room door isn’t open for the CEO of Clear Channel to walk in and see what’s required to take a computer screen overflowing with words and turn it into 5, 10 and 30 seconds of influence that a listener can tune out of two seconds after it first appears on the air.

Jeff in production says its time for the man on top of the human pyramid to find out what the man on bottom is doing to guarantee his rightful place at the peak isn’t going to come crashing down.

Raise your hand if your boss truly knows what you do in the way of keeping those office doors open.

Substance versus symbol…a true black belt in martial arts is constantly reminded of the path to which they must follow; take care of the community. At no time did the Master say, “Let it go to your head and flood your heart. Use it to dominate the class by showing off what you can do to white and green belts locked in the oooh and awe stages of growth.”

The Master said, “Take care of the community.”

Seth Godin reminds us that the strongest tribe is the one mastered by the leader that doesn’t mind getting their hands dirty, their mistakes laughed at or their vision taunted then rebuilt by coworkers seeking the same horizon.

But what if such methods of retraining are mere streaks of wish and wanna-be’s? Then choose to be your own leader. The Egyptian Pyramids are constructed of hundreds of giant blocks on the bottom row keeping that peak in pristine shape. Call me an idiot but that seems to be a place of incredible strength and leadership. The moment a single decision to leave the nest is received the entire process has been gifted with the right to become part of a past that 110% of us will never remember.

Tell yourself and the image in the mirror, “Tired, worn out, excessively over worked and stinky like pig sweat is what it takes to be a real leader.”

What is it going to take to convince your heart that you’re truly the very best at being you?

If your answer is a better paycheck…I get it. Now what are you going to do as a brilliant leader to change that?

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

There doesn't have to be unrest inside this economic mess...

Cherokee Chief John Ross once said, “Let the young men of this nation remember that idleness leads to poverty. Industry is honorable and leads to contentment.”



Then Wal-Mart takes over the textile mill ships business overseas and fate puts its face on the presence of what’s supposed to be a great day.



Fate…what is fate? Wikipedia calls fate an inevitable course of events. Meaning idleness isn’t so bad after all. Dictionary.com goes totally reality by explaining death is our fate.



In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln was forced to decide the fate of 300 Native Americans convicted of war crimes during the great Sioux Uprising. Was it fate that influenced Trader Andrew Myrick to shout, “If the Dakota Nation is hungry they could eat grass?”



The fate of such expressions might have been predicted but its destiny reached beyond a horizon fed by peace. Panic surged through the Minnesota’s forcing tens of thousands of settlers to relocate to deeper western regions. Lawyers and lawmaker’s demanded that Lincoln not think of freeing the 300 true American’s or there would be an uprising of people the law couldn’t protect.



Freshly delivered from the Civil War the nation was bloody and broke and on a personal level the Lincoln’s had just lost their daughter. If fate had its way of inevitably reaching its course of events…Mr. Lincoln would’ve sat back and rested. But because idleness leads to poverty it was quickly realized that all 300 Native American’s on trial held in their hands the right to appeal to the President.



Through endless hours and days of hands on reviewing the President took note of a single most important rule; none of the 300 were given proper representation by council. Trapped behind a language and culture barrier, nobody from the outside world helped the nation understand the proceedings, offer credible mitigating evidence or develop and practice their own testimony.



Standing in front of the U.S. Senate Lincoln sharply identified the truths of the crimes and how only 29 of the charged 300 had physically committed a war crime. The President declared there would be no unlawful violence. Because martial law had not been put into play it was wrong to convict the innocent.



Fate and or idleness would’ve been President Lincoln learning of the news in the Minnesota’s then turning to repair a country fresh from civil unrest. He elected to take fate and push it aside by moving forward with the idea of protecting all American’s. 29 of the 300 were convicted of murder and rape. 87% of those whose fate was death were saved.



Your goal everyday should be to push yourself beyond what research shows you should be doing. There is no typical in this newly redesigned America…the future of our success rests in the palms of those with a dream to be something other than convicted patrons of a banking and housing society that went missing.



The normal 9 to 5 everyday people of this country have been accused of bringing our four corners of the world to its knees when in reality the fate of this present place we stand should never be to stop. Convict the responsible and let the other 87% get back to living.



I will always believe in you first…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

What's rocking your world? Manquake!

I’ve been closely watching this on going situation with air traffic controllers allegedly falling asleep on the job. In a day of legalized power drinks and concentrated powders and over caffeinated coffee, a hardworking deeply dedicated employee is busted for swiping a wink in Washington DC and now a short list of others have publically admitted doing the same.

According to the decision maker’s that created the workload and high expectations, “There’s no need to be irritated or filled with fear; no plane was ever in danger.”

Kind of like the Japanese government immediately expressing to the world, “Our nuclear power plant crisis isn’t as dangerous as one might assume.” Yet last week they upped the levels of radiation in the air and sea to Chernobyl and quite possibly beyond.

When you break it all down we’ve endured two different types of earthquakes; manmade versus nature delivered. Both were highly possible but the dates of their destruction could never be predicted.

Manmade: The world economy has cracked the surface of every company forcing managers to lock down and cut back to the brink of near failure. Through thin shreds of hope kissing fate some progress is made which is quickly turned upside down with out of control gas prices, skyrocketing food costs and a housing market that refuses sprout spring time leaves on the assumed living tree.

My good friend Brad’s trucking company hasn’t taken a hit, “The higher fuel prices go the more I charge the person needing me to haul their stuff. The only difference I face is getting companies to pay me quicker so I can put the liquid in the trucks.”

Another friend fought hard to keep the tears from strolling down their face when they shared the story about pleading with department heads to hire one more person to help achieve what the company president was demanding. The reply, “Who do you want me to fire?”

Every business has endured the effects of the manmade earthquake and how it continues to rock not only a nation but nearly every village that requires our tax dollars to keep their worldly place in history moving forward. Air traffic controllers falling asleep while fast moving metal objects zoom by is nothing than an aftershock and who takes that serious?

Japan just had a 7.0 aftershock and news crews hoisted their sails in the sands near the predicted tsunami that never came. Once time dissolved the picture into the pages of once upon a time; the nuclear crisis became something you’d have to Google to get an update.

They say a powerful earthquake is building off the shores of California; what do you think will hit first…nature delivered or manmade and if it’s been created by overworked, underpaid, no longer respected and badly mistreated employees does it truly fall under the category of manquake or because its still part of the banking crisis and housing implosion do the actions and reactions that have caused an increase in heart attacks, strokes, cancer, panic attacks and homelessness become nothing more than totally ignored aftershocks?

I swear this is going someplace positive!

Two nights ago I was invited to a very special fund raiser required by the current conditions of a nearly broke local, state and national government to keep the homeless fed, warm in bed and somewhat inspired to want to reach outside the circles they dance in. Two events unfurled that opened my eyes and heart to the chapters of a book the world has elected to put in a box headed to the dump…

A Heinz 57 made from everything black dog ran in front of me on the street. I moved quickly to get off the road and put my life on the line in traffic to convince the four legged fuzzy that being where he stood was more dangerous then sipping the water off the shores of Japan. I got within five feet of his weathered matted face before he darted back out into traffic. I screamed like a little girl! I thought I had just killed a living breathing creation.

Thousands of cars passing at unrecognized speeds and I was the only one who elected to save the dog. The homeless are no different. While standing in the corner almost behind a tree inside a beautifully designed art gallery a passerby walks up and gently whispers, “So this is what the rich look like.”

I didn’t see fashion designed magazine styles or hair perfectly waved with scents of perfume that invited fantasy to dine in far away places…nor did I find reason to chase the dreams connected to striped golf shirts with high collars and watches that resembled brilliant pieces found in expensive jewelry stores. If this truly was the rich…what’s happened to our country?

I swear this is going someplace positive!

Substance versus symbol…

When trophies and pats on the back no longer lift the weight of your day off your tired shoulders yet somehow someway you’ve achieved excellence. A Native American Chief isn’t the greatest most decorated warrior; he is the most giving. Life moves through them.

What if you stopped stopping and allowed the wind to cruise through one ear and right out the other. Open your mouth and let it float through your body then out your butt. We spend so much time pushing people, places and things away that lost becomes our truest desire therefore adding to the pressure of the unpredictable manquake.

I don’t know the secret of distressing. Nor do I want the pills that’ll make things easier. What I’ve noticed though is this crazy ass sheet of metal every person holds in the center of their world…the very moment someone comes near it quickly shoots over your heart forcing you to become the actor on a stage that doesn’t exist.

I have fallen witness to more people looking away like tortured pets from conversations than physically giving the world the windows to their soul.

Let the wind sink into the corners drying what you feel like doing before it arrives. We aren’t beat up old dogs whose human stick figures tossed us out before realizing the realities of survival. We are the seeds planted by the people before us who had visions of this being the greatest nation in the world.

The black dog that ran out in front of me on Saturday might have had enough and felt his only choice was to create a reason to stop. Along comes a weird radio disc jockey and totally takes out the path of intention.

Hold not the metal plate guaranteed to protect…it invites rust which eventually breaks everything down to dust leaving you with nothing.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, April 18, 2011

What? Really? I don't understand!

There’s a different language in every crowd.

Radio people are a special breed; with it comes unprotected verbiage the average consumer of sound would find more fascinating than 98% of the songs played over and over again. Ten minutes with a long term on-air talent and you’ll learn more about connecting with departed imaginations than John C Maxwell during a motivational address.

Bowlers, fans of Charlie Sheen, Face Booker’s, nurses and burger builders at Sonic are no different. If your soul is being poured into a beaker that boils over the description of being just a hobby; the inside scoop isn’t what you know but how you’ve turned it into a language of your own.

Being part of the Barnes and Nobel Poets circle in the 90’s introduced me to a clan of imaginations the outside world still hasn’t come up with a name for. Freaks that dig computers are Geeks. Big black framed glasses while sporting a pocket protector makes you a Nerd. A life completely addicted to running, lifting and chasing trophies makes you a jock.

Writers are…

It’s ok to say it…weird.

Although we’d like to be recognized as visionary’s constantly in touch with a future that won’t arrive for another thirty seconds; the beauty of setting free what the mind speaks isn’t art but rather a different language.

Every so often writers meet on streets not always paved with gold or hot blacktop. The cobblestoned paths that pushed the pen closer to its crescendo held nothing more than the freedom to emote.

What?

Exactly!

To a Poet such playfulness in expressing could become the missing lyric to a piece held not for a day but I’ve met writers who’ve hidden works of words for decades. Then poof! A passing black crow with lungs the size of Christmas calls out in the middle of spring and all things blocked are released acting as if nothing was ever wrong.

I wouldn’t enjoy being a Microsoft or Apple employee whose future is based on the next great invention. Then again I write and produce radio commercials that are designed by thirty two years of listening to the masters in my life Joe Van Riper, Fred Story, Brian James, John Causby, Charles Holloman and yes even actor John Cryer whose Wells Fargo/Wachovia commercials are the best delivered one on one conversations on the radio today.
How are we expected to make it through each day? Through constant demand with little to no communication! Go ahead and fight, your boss will develop more reasons for you to complain, celebrate or walk away from.

The disconnection in this country has nothing to do with high prices and an out of control Stock Market. If your second grade teacher was here today she or he would send you home with a note that strongly suggests that you learn how to get along with other players.

Inside a current state of being politically correct or else…the end result are separated cells floating around a living breathing energy source called America. Because of who we are and what we’ve become the language has changed and continues to evolve faster than a monkey becoming man.

A recent interview with a Japanese woman who was asked about the enormous amount of fresh fish her nation eats daily and how its been interrupted by nuclear waste in the open sea, “I’ll teach myself to eat fish from a can.” In reality the 9.0 earthquake has forced residents of Japan to learn a new eating language. What they're doing today will affect the next seven generations.

How can this be possible?

While recording in a “real” studio with “real” musicians I’ve spent the past year being honest to the producers by exposing my dark haired roots. All this fricken music in my head isn’t so original after all…if you listen to what’s falling out you’ll hear nibbles and bites that resemble Lennon, Bowie, Tom Petty, The Electric Light Orchestra and because of Adam Lamberts rendition of Mad World that song has completely reignited the storyteller that Freddie Mercury planted in the skull years before the world discovered Bohemian Rhapsody.

The language our circles speak is being carried to the new people we meet. We’ve gone from a Metro-sexual male society to a get down and get dirty Mike Rowe approach. The hot new Dodge Charger might rock your middle aged world back to teenaged fantasies but the end result remains the same; no car is ever going to be fun until they bring back the outdoor movie theater; fogging up the windows required precision and perfect timing and every great mechanic knew of the magic but never sold their souls to secrets of what it really took to make an engine hum sweeter than Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven.

What?

Exactly!

Now you know what it’s like to place ten fingers on a computer screen and speak like today is your last day. Shakespeare had his own language. Mariah Carey has a five octave range. Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. You might recognize the language but to understand it means becoming part of their winning circle.

Try that trick at work day…rather than boggle up the system with I can’t. It’s not part of my job! I don’t do that! Or the infamous I don’t have time. Pick up a new language and grow forward.

I will always believe in you first.

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Is it the world we wish to conquer or the thought of having a better day than yesterday?

I spent a long time on the cell last evening grilling the phone rep about Social Media and its impact. Lucky for me, I digitally bumped into a nerd.

Talking with me is never about your mother and father or did you feed the cats and dogs? Once away from these four radio walls my imagination instantly locks onto the rebirth of communication in this nation.

I don’t want to know how technology works; the mad scientist within feeds off the energy generated to learn why it’s working.

The author behind the book Tribes Seth Godin calls this generation the most powerful ever claiming a single person has the physical ability to change an industry, declare war, and reinvent science, politics and technology.

Take that Grandpa!

Seriously…how much longer before AT&T and Verizon devise a machine that’ll allow my deepest wishes to reach through a computer screen and hold my long lost Maltese puppies? Digital pictures just aren’t doing it for me. For that matter neither are the songs my heart once dubbed all time favorites.

Technology has made it too easy to latch onto what gives us an instant crank in the love department. When life turns me inside out and its time to re-center the vision...within seconds the cell phone connects me to Love Hurts from Nazareth, Living Thing from ELO and Mad World from Adam Lambert.

Sadly…getting too much of the past erases the incredible memories while replacing them with newer events like, “This was the song that was playing while I was driving by a Circle K and noticed gas was 6 bucks a gallon.”

What used to recreate memories and or moments that replanted the seeds of a tear in the corner of your eye has been replaced by an addiction to want it, get high off it, abuse it then make more.

How much technology is too much? Will we ever hit a point when having a whole lot of texting, talking and video Googling becomes a relic quickly shoved into an invisible terabyte carrying case located somewhere between the United States, India or Saturn?

Such horror keeps people away from becoming part of the Social Networking corner of the squared circle. Seth believes having a serious lack of faith in the present transportation of information leads to failure. Nobody likes change and we spend more time and money trying to prevent it rather than welcome or encourage it.

Seen the news lately? It was Social Networking or better yet Google that helped usher in new leadership in Egypt. The government shut down everything until Google stepped up their game and made mass communication available to and from a nervous outside world. It was freakishly way too easy.

There are more people on missions today than any time in world history. How can there be a one world government when there are billions and billions of fingerprints being left on computer keyboards every second of every day?

New ideas and fresh steps; a physical difference is put on display during each tick of a wall clock. What once required weeks and months to get the word out is tap, tap, tapped into motion then click, click toward accept.

Godin keeps us straight by reminding Social Networkers to remember that everything you do is being watched by you know who. Computers, cell phones, IPads and Xoom’s are the new magic and witchcraft. With so much communication taking place heretic-isms have inspired worldwide hunts. Such actions haunt every reason to invest in the future.

Sometimes I wonder if maybe I should just stick to talking about Mom’s and Dad’s instead of asking computer geeks what they think. Maybe they like talking to me because it really gets old discussing what should’ve happened on a 1960’s episode of Star Trek and with shows like Big Bang Theory on the flat screen…I’m shocked the nerds haven’t blasted CBS for stereotyping this rare but fascinating breed of human.

Do you think the monkeys at the zoo look at us and say, “Must be from your side of the family. Wait! Let me toss some poop at them and see how they react. Damn it! It’s my cousins kids!”

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Bosses aren't the meanest people at work...

When Double Q radio station General Manager Andrew Ashwood swept me from town in 1991 so I wouldn’t fall witness to the downsizing of his not yet revealed creation, he vividly explained the importance of change and how its cost required the loss of those I’d probably never see again.

Change should be one of the seven words Broadcaster’s never use in the waves that shoot from their very large towers and egos.

Change is constantly connected to influential people mainly because they’ve been blessed with incredible amounts of acute awareness. They shape and reshape circles, manipulating style and strengths but more importantly true leaders adapt to change.

They’re physically capable of pulling off what I call parroting: the art of matching the style of others; mainly the competition.

Inside a modern America of endless minute by minute chance and changes the daily goal for employees “not” in control is to learn how to play the very game business leaders are sending your way. Your best place to study is in the radio and television commercials the mind, body and soul enjoy tuning out.

Dr. Gary Ranker reveals, “For advertising to properly work, required is an immediate connection with viewers or listeners.”

Take that thought and put it in your workplace; what message are you currently sending? If your 9 to 5 or late, late at night was an advertisement, who’s buying the product you’re trying to sell?

Advertising on a highway billboards, baseball game handouts or church programs need to develop an instant relationship before any type of motion can be inspired.

Thousands of dollars are spent everyday on projects geared toward collecting clients and being in the advertising business I feel the same chill you do when the people, places and things trying to make a point do nothing more than invite a waste of time to your reasons to want to invest your hard to locate minutes and money.

Dr Ranker teaches us, “Effective advertisements don’t say what the manufacturer wants. They say what the targeted audience wants to hear.”

Learn how to play the very game business leaders are sending your way. You are in the business of you and your current job is nothing more than your biggest client. Stop fearing that today is your final day because in your business world only you can fire you.

Learn how to better advertise what you bring to the 23.999 hours they expect you to give everyday. Develop criteria that influences rather than deflates. Oh crap you know where I’m going…STOP TELLING PEOPLE HOW MUCH YOU HATE YOUR JOB!

While you’re at it…stop moping around the office. Begin the process of connecting with a solution.

If things are tight, tough and completely overtaken by fat, sloppy bosses with nothing more on their mind than golf, ugly boats a bottom line that earns them endless bonuses…let them worry about their own investment in personal advertising. Stop buying into their cracked whip approach called motivation through intimidation.

Be in charge of selling a great day at work. I’m not talking Disney, Bouncy Ball World or hanging Muppets from the ceiling of your office. Make a connection with fellow stakeholders.

Nearly 49 years of life on this planet and the only message I’m taking to heaven is bosses get off your back when the job is done right. How about motivation through positive results?

When you explode at work...stop and locate the individual that convinced you that it was ok to let words, chairs, papers and things that look like 8-track tapes fly.

Who sold you that idea?

I’ll never forget throwing my first king sized fit in a radio station production room; a jock named Pat Richards did it while I was on the air. Everybody loved Pat. Pat could do no wrong. Pat got what he wanted when he threw the fit. I get called an a** ***e.

Dr. Ranker says, “The key to influence is to change what you do and say.”

Look around…notice anybody close? I sit in a recording studio alone all day. If you could only hear the thoughts that race through these lips recognized mainly for out of control car advertisements, hardware stores and dentists that always claim to have the newest way to brighten your smile.

The key to influence is to change what you do and say…

I’m currently wondering what’s being sold to the creative person inside when I shout out, “You ****** loser! You fat *** **** up! Why don’t you get a real ******* job instead of focusing on a childhood lifeless ambition that should have been dead before it began.”

Yeah I’m winning alright. Winning is a choice not a collection of choice words. Maybe we should locate a new agency to help us design better self advertising.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Will versus Willingness versus Power...

Chief Plenty Coup from the Crow Nation of Montana once said, “The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors.”

Later that day in 1835 the United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Act initiating the relocation of thousands of people.

Stand back twenty two point six feet and take a nice long gander at where we stand one hundred and seventy six chapters deeper into the book called American history; has anything changed?

Sri Aurobindo wrote in his book Thoughts and Glimpses, “When we have passed beyond willingness, then we shall have power. Effort was the helper. Effort is the bar.”

The true keepers of this territory weren’t willing to give up this soil therefore there was unfair war. What you almost never read about were the hundreds of thousands of American soldiers and their leader’s fresh from the Civil battles back east who were willing to continue fighting with weapons that comparably speaking were just as powerful as today’s Stealth bombers and nuclear submarines.

Willingness was at war; the willingness to save versus the willingness to take.

If asked to paint a portrait of the current place you stand what are you willing to open in the way of sharing the first image your imagination sees with those impatiently waiting to see? To be willing in the way of expressing does that give you power?

Let’s bust open that word “Will.” We are conditioned to believe that being willing indicates that our deeper selves or higher realities express true knowledge therefore the end result is expressed action.

But is there power in being willing to do, act or react to?

Sri is saying that power doesn’t come from being willing to put in ten to fifteen hours a day at work. Power doesn’t come from a willing neighbor that chooses to help mow your lawn and trim the trees. Willingness doesn’t feed the power required to get the bills and taxes paid on time.

He’s saying power arrives beyond the stages of willingness.

How often have you bumped into someone at work that’s constantly willing to reach out and help countless other’s that require an extra set of legs to lean on? Are they people of power, decision and policy makers? No...they're usually the first to get sent to the unemployment line when the higher voice calmly says, “Cut back…”

Willingness comes not from the inner core but rather the outer shell of your presence. Where there’s a will there’s a way sounds like a deep thought until you put will up against reality. To will is not to have power but to express desire.

How can you reach beyond willingness? If there’s to be power and having the will to achieve it isn’t the fuel that feeds the fire; where’s it located? Sri says it’s in the force of truth.

Take your willingness and apply it by way of making it effective; a personal effort to progress and through effort willing and or desire no longer plays out…power becomes the guide.

Let’s look at it through separate pair of glasses; you can come across as being sincere but that doesn’t make you a sincere person. It requires a committed effort to reach true sincerity.

This is why I can’t stand it when people write or shout out, “You’re the man! You’re brilliant and you have no idea how much we appreciate you.”

99.9% of the time the individuals using these catch phrases truly don’t compliment your efforts it’s more like, “Here! I need it by 2pm! Oh so you aren’t a team player…”

Put me in solitary confinement and I will die the happiest man on earth.

I don’t believe in comedy. Comedy doesn’t exist…it’s a frail word that puts a face on what’s truly taking place. To be fun, funny or comical is like willingness. You can try all day to make someone laugh and instantly run out of gas. Through effort, by relating with those listening, picking subjects they know of, live with or have experienced…giggle snorts erupt like crazy volcanoes when what you’ve shared can be compared. Comedy is a fancy word for relating with and that requires effort.

Laughing at your own jokes doesn’t make you a comedian.

“The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors.”

What are you willing to do about it?

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, April 11, 2011

I can't think of a title...

Is it wrong to be horrified of the current treatment of character and conditions of real life and how it’s being portrayed on American television?

Non-stop larger than life egos attached to out of control partying on Jersey Shores, pregnant teens glorified on the cover People Magazine and how about Donald Trump allowing Gary Busey to continue his journey on The Celebrity Apprentice?

How can Donald Trump think of being our nations next President if he can’t see through Gary Busey? His actions boldly stated, “I don’t care about hard working American’s…the loser will always win.” He should look in the mirror and fire himself for putting ratings and research over success.

If bad behavior and lack of common sense is the current rave why are we sending so many people to prison? Artist Way author Julia Cameron was miles ahead of her time when she vividly stated, “We are attracted to bad choices and lifestyles because it makes us feel better about our own lives.”

NBC gets great ratings while I head to bed pissed off!

American Idol did more damage to the country last week then the torrential thunderstorms with strong damaging winds attached. The best and most powerful vocals of the season came from Pia Toscano who was cast aside like cotton candy touching the tip of your tongue...there then gone! I want 60 Minutes to investigate the show! Are the producers creating Reality Television drama to get Bloggers, Face Booker’s and Tweeter’s to holler so loud that those not listening will start tuning in? Tell me how that's going for ya!

While growing up I wanted to be Marcus Welby M.D. because he had a beautiful house, no stress and a total knock out secretary named Consuela. Mike Brady came home to a house full of kids and you never saw a pair of dirty socks on the sofa. Danny Partridge got in tons of trouble and his mother Shirley would ground him but never from performing live on stage.

Absolutely that was fantasy! It gave people every reason to believe in the American dream. Today…we go to work knowing it could be our last. I’ve yet to meet the person who has enough faith in their career to give it a lifetime of support. We hold onto the attitude of questioning every step knowing that getting better at what we do no longer matters. Every drop of sweat poured into the day takes hard work and dedication but it’s never good enough. The idea of filling a cup with success is constantly spilled by a slacker.

This isn’t a negative blog! Awareness enforces change. You cannot become if you don’t realize you haven’t moved an inch.

Ivan earned his third degree black belt over the weekend. I promptly wrote a letter of congratulations. One in 100,000 makes it to 3rd Dan. Achieving it requires not just hours of preparation but years of constant study and most importantly harsh ridicule. Mentally you’re mind, body and soul are beat up because how you’re taught is how you’ll teach. The most influential instructor is always going to be the best student. There is value in being a leader if you choose to be brilliant not great at it.

But how can we change the path of a rock no longer covered in moss if the process of movement is not down a hill but over a cliff?

No day passes that I don’t receive an email that softly whispers, “Please pray for me.”

I wrote back to a friend this morning gently conveying, “The person you want me to talk to didn’t create the mess you speak of therefore if a true act of wanting to be saved is required I suggest you take the first step and change your life and style.”

Dr. Albert Einstein once wrote, “Try not to become a person of success but rather a person of value.”

Question…being a poet, writer, thinker and doer connected to nothing more than a need to locate questions my mother never answered when I was two; what is value in a world where having value no longer buys you peace of mind?

Someone very close says to me over the weekend, “I’m no longer chasing a career; I just want to finally be happy.” I suggested two cans of warm root beer followed by a burping contest but the laughing led to tears because being happy has entered a stage of a short fuse connected to a really big unforeseen boom.

I’ve studied Gary Busey every week on The Celebrity Apprentice. Since his motorcycle accident in the 80’s the humanitarian lost in my soul has never stopped believing in his never ending push to prove to the world that he has value. Although it comes across that he’s completely out of control and demands more than he can offer, he’s still the average “Used to be” that has the strength to never stop when everybody around him is either overly talented and has lost their touch to be extremely real or they’ve located reasons to sit down and say, “I quit.”

Gary Busey has not created career suicide. As upset as I was to see Mark McGrath leave the show; Gary has never stopped trying to locate value in everything he touches nor has his weirdness never stopped trying to locate invisible paths capable of creating a different way to approach our new and improved life and style. Maybe that’s what Mr. Trump saw in the actor. We all want to be surrounded by the perfect co-worker. We all want the highly rated overly successful day to end with high fives and cheers. Nobody wants to be told, “It’s still not good enough.”

I workout in a gym everyday and this fricken body refuses to react. I'm so upset with the employees hanging out in my biceps and legs but I've yet to fire their tails. When you quit yourself...you quit the world.
A co-worker stops in my studio first thing this morning sharply questioning her self, “Why do I always get stuck in traffic? I can’t stand being late!”

Stand back! It’s time for an Arroe-ism!

How can you be late in a radio world that demands your time and energy 24 hours a day seven days a week? More importantly how often do you find yourself getting upset over how fast time flies? Getting stuck in traffic this morning was a gift…suddenly you were given enough time to regain control of your life and didn’t know how to handle it.

I will always believe in you first…even if you’re Gary Busey…I’ve got your back!

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Friday, April 8, 2011

Be your own boss today and the pay is great!

What do you mean the United States Government could be pulling their giant golden gates closed like spoiled NFL owners and players? How much more do we have to put up with these spoiled rich kids with vicious threats of taking their baseball, mitt and nearly full pack of loud smacking bubble gum going home?

Drop your plans! It’s gonna be one of those weekends that requires every bit of your already bitten off inner lip to find personal don’t bother me til its Monday peace and serenity.

Stop! There’s a red headed woodpecker outside my writing window. Who does he report to? Are there green and purple headed peckers demanding he get his tree insect numbers up? Have they sandwiched with home spray companies to bring injury to trees so termites move in forcing us to fork out a whole lot more before the homestead is leveled to a California desert?

I swear I’m not complaining! Two months shy of my final chapter inside the fourth decade and I'd say the journey has gone full circle; I’m the long haired ugly as sin little boy at the grocery store picking up every bag, box and bottle at my level of play and simply asking the mother figure, “Why?”

Banks, on duty general managers at large warehouse hardware stores and the customer service rep at the larger than life Wally don’t give us answers they patiently listen then softly remind us that they too are just like you.

So I’ve come up with a new game plan…I’m gonna finally eat a booger.

Yep! A true taste of the new South recipe that involves every gnat, mosquito and fly that wants to get inside and popping in a greeny is nothing more than flavor.

Stop! I can’t have salt. The cholesterol numbers will shoot through the ceiling. Come on! The body grows those things like kudzu, they obviously have tiny wings because boogers fly like cannon balls racing from Fort Sumter to a not so vacation like Captain on a Northern wooden war vessel.

A booger has to have value! It’s natural like copper, diamonds, rainbow trout and sons and fathers that can’t wait to catch them. Look what we do with shell fish! People gulp that stuff down like hot cocoa on a 42 below zero winter’s day. I’m saying its time to market the booger. The greatest thing…we’ll never have to rely on foreign imports.

I’ve been to the medical pages that proudly display the reasons why we grow them—the nose requires moisture to keep the ugly sick bugs out but once the atmosphere becomes dry all that’s inside becomes a booger.

Wait! Lord have mercy we are weapons of mass destruction! All those sick bugs caught in the nucleus of a booger…I’ve began the process of praying for peace. All those seats we sit on and tables with bumps on the opposite side; we’ve been invaded by booger mines!

I can’t call the government to warn them! Wait! I can't...Circuit City put it into play…the new American Fad is to walk away. But I’m not complaining, being weird or freak like in the way special sections of hospitals are built for such thinking, doing and picking. I had to put that in there because it quickly reminded you that we’re talking about boogers.

Ok! I’ll stop! Someone called my boss.

Swiftly the poet runs from his favorite writing place to hide each thought, expression and complete under control question; to present him self perfectly for the possible visitation of a mapmakers and chance takers knowing it requires straight answers and not visionary destinations.

What? Whoa…even that one flew over my head.

If I would’ve eaten the booger none of this would’ve happened! What if I changed the name, you know like Rocky Mountain Oysters! Who needs Corporate America when every one of us is a factory?

My wife is going to ignore me. I swear I’m not like this at home. I just wanted to show you how easy it is to erase real life. Sit at a desk, picnic table or on a hard as hell concrete step and write something completely 100% stupid. Once there, you'll no longer have to fear or worry about your government.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, April 7, 2011

I just don't understand...

Millions of dollars have been spent and will go toward the continued education of how wrong it is to bully people in school. Stars like Ellen, Madonna, Oprah and other’s have stood up and made noise. Student councils have mandated missions to uncover the violators while teaching as many that’ll listen that being different is acceptable.

I’m no expert nor do I believe being bullied was part of the path walked at Ponderosa, Riverside and Billings Senior High but I did fall witness to it and the curse it places on the circles of people that elect to stay silent.

Which is where we stand on life after school; studies from 2007 show 49% or 71.5 million people have been bullied at the workplace. What? That’s absolutely without a doubt absurd! Think again…according to Forbes Magazine bullying at work remains unannounced because unless you’re the receiver of severe abuse you’re unlikely to realize it.

Lack of awareness is the top reason why bullying at work remains a ghost; of the 71.5 million bullied employees the majority never felt what they were experiencing could be described as bullying because it was being delivered by department heads and upper level coworkers.

Work doctor Gary Namie from the Workplace Bullying Institute has found that 45% of the individuals under attack suffer stress related health problems such as cardiovascular, impaired immune system, debilitating anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder.

Bullying at work tortures the company’s bottom line figures; from insurance fees to employee absenteeism, recruitment difficulties or having no staff at all…business isn’t good if there’s unrest.

Sandy Hershcovis from the University of Manitoba calls workplace bullying more serious than sexual harassment, which is why she’s asking for legislation to protect the victims. The critics fighting back believe it causes a serious liability putting the welfare of the business in jeopardy.

Are you being bullied at work and don’t realize it? This is Forbes Magazines Top Ten things to become aware of:

Feeling physically ill the night before work.

An over zealous boss with vocal chords that enjoy being exercised.

Endless amounts of critical criticism usually described as being constructive which assumed leaders believe is their legal right to tell you how bad you suck and if it doesn’t change in six weeks you’ll be fired.

Being remembered more for your mistakes than your victories. Followed by false accusations of you being involved with something else that went wrong.

Gossip and lies firmly attached to your name. Bullies spread rumors faster than a wildfire on the side of Mount Mitchell.

Bullying includes being excluded from coworker circles that meet for lunch. Being singled out is a horrible place to put in eight hours of loyalty.

A driving need to take advantage of the company’s mental health day policy and when you do take time off the event is shut down because you’re lifeless due to never ending frustration.

Sabotage; rules that change without notice or unexpected meetings that swiftly steal you from what’s required only to hear how bad you were for not being prepared.

Impossible work schedule; demands are put on your performance that require three to ten people.

Work you’ve completed is missing. Projects disappear off your computer.

Can bullying stop at work? Since 2003 lawmakers have drug their feet in deciding what is and isn’t bullying. The Business Insider believes it should be made legal so millions more will become aware it happening. The LA Times printed a story exposing how they believed the state of New York would be the first to make it free to abuse.

Why aren’t people stepping up with the evidence required? The Insider writes, “Being bullied is a problem but being unemployed is even a bigger problem.”

They continue to expose, “Couldn’t the act of documenting someone else’s behavior be seen as bullying?”

So, where do we stand or do the abused have a right to? Artist Way author Julia Cameron believes that a child remains in each of us. On her printed pages she teaches people to write, create, believe in, take good care of and more importantly listen to that child.

Ever been to my recording studio? There are Muppets everywhere!

I once asked a coworker how they felt about child abuse…their reply was shock, disbelief and not accepting of my reasons for asking to which I followed with; my creative flow comes from the child inside…Julia said it! The way I look at it…your current reasons for being in front of me the way you are is pretty much a performance of what made you sick in your stomach to talk about. Instantly he apologized and the project was completed without further hassles.

In martial arts you aren’t trained to take another life…its every students goal to create a diversion and or opening big enough for you to run for your life.

Tough subject today…learn from it then teach others to respect the circles that make every square cubical an incredible place to be successful.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Having passion is an art most people don't understand...

Being a company boss is no different than someone running for public office; a lot of promises are made but never kept nor are most of the employees they began the journey with.

To pursue the role of a department head or higher entails ambition, a strong need to communicate in ways that seem grounded but fly over people’s heads, don’t instantly forgive someone for a common mistake and without a shadow of a doubt embrace the fine art of doing everything possible to stop coworkers from wasting company time and money talking to each other about nothing.

“But I never started the conversation!”

One of my radio heroes was the extremely classy yet corporate firm Gary Brobst who fueled teamwork by participating with the dirty work. A Texas gentleman who understood radio requirements without having to rip from the promotions closet large whips and heavy chains to put his people back to work. In a calm soothing inner office memo he’d write, “Please stop the lobby-gagging.”

“But I never started the conversation!”

My method of bringing a conversation to an instant halt isn’t so warm and fuzzy; I turn things off by disconnecting from being interested in what you’ve brought to the party. I physically turn my back and tune out. Maybe not such a good idea because every three to six months I’m visited by the evil lords of the dark side who claim people have invented new fowl words to shout and it includes my name.

But am I wrong?

I took my case to workplace morals expert Anne Marie Sabbath who teaches, “Be cordial by encouraging the conversation to come to an end. The best tool in the box is to make sure you don’t add to what the person just said.”

Guilty! Setting down my earphones I turn back to the conversation and add to it believing it’s best to make everyone feel like a winner by supporting their view and weight of the world.

I use Charlie Sheen as a great example; because the media has given him so much attention he sprouted wings and began to fly using thoughts and phrases we’d all like to say to bosses but he got fired instead.

To help reignite the interest he's taken the rants and raves on a national tour where he was badly booed and hissed at. Personally I think he hired innocent people to make the noise so he’d be invited to live within the realms of the Hollywood media over and over again. And now he’s trying to trademark his expressions? This is what happens when you take spanking out the school system.

Anna continues to explain, “The goal should be to tactfully throw a hint that offers a clear connection to your reasons for wanting to disconnect; even if it means (according to the expert) pulling out a book, paperwork or displaying visible evidence that you are currently in need of time for yourself.”

So go ahead and use my name in vein just make sure you spell it right! Arroe!

Let’s turn things toward a more inviting situation; a gathering of people; a long drawn out boring meeting hosted by the weird long haired poet guy from the radio station production room with the nifty cool dirty words firmly attached to his identity. I don’t think hanging out with my creative peeps should go without food. But these are extremely tough times…who should fork out the monkey money for the center ring food display me or the company?

Back to Anna Marie we go, “Its ok to ask for support but be prepared to pay out of pocket for the overindulgence. The last thing you want to do is be perceived as being wasteful of their money.”

If financed through the bank of Arroe, am I a jerk for wanting to take the pizza with me after the freak quiets his beak? Not only did I take it but quickly gave it to co-creators who are never invited to free food destinations. I love watching people’s eyes when hot fresh free pizza comes walking through their office door.

Being a company boss is no different than someone running for public office. I sure can’t win in the radio ratings race as an on-air talent so I might as well hoist a bone around my neck and buy a vote for my lagging confidence.

What did we learn today? Rather than ordering coworkers to stop talking…use smart tactics in drawing things to a quick conclusion. If people come to you expect them to stay. Take your needs to them then get out.

Water cooler and coffee pot conversation is wasting money. Stop and think about your pay raise and why you didn’t get a Christmas bonus…oh you got it…all those times you hung out talking about nothing.

Don’t hate me for turning my back; it’s a black belt martial arts rule…how I teach is how you will teach. Understand? I may not write eloquently like my hero Gary but he’d be proud of the fact that lobby-gagging doesn’t take place on my dime.

As for taking food to meetings and not having the bucks to back it up…pot luck it. People are custom to believe there has to be something in it for them so take notes on what their food weakness is and spring it on them at the meeting. Make workplace gatherings fun so that inner circle secret conversations can stop being filled with I hate, I don’t like, I fear, I blah, blah, blah and bleep, bleep, bleep.

Be you without over doing it or expect to have a lot of new first and middle names that would make your momma blush.

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Does anybody go to work to make a difference or are we locked in the mode of show up to be fired?

A very strong preacher man insisted that I walk to the forefront of the large yellowish and brown church on the eastside of Billings, Montana where he sharply pointed his words at the visions he intended to direct, “Do you notice anything out there?

The only thing consuming the mind was a seriously deep question, “Why of all Sunday’s did I pick today to attempt to slam my brother Teddy’s fingers in the musty smelling hymnal?”

“Do you know how many have tried to distract my attention from sharing a heart felt message? Think of a number then connect it to another thought…how many of those young adults have chosen to use the loud slamming together of innocent papers blessed with music to seize control of my mission? What you don’t realize is that I come here every Sunday expecting you to make noise. I expect you to reach out and wake up my family, friends and newly gathered neighbors. The problem is…you’re way has been done over and over again. I challenge you to seek originality. Bring something new to try next week.”

It was written in the early pages of the 19th century by Okute that there are no two birds or humans exactly alike because each was invited to participate through something called independence. Through those unmeasured rhythms one is given the strength to rely on him or herself.

From the way you make your nest to the idea of tossing a stone you might be identical in sight but inside the caverns of day to day experiences nothing remains the same. Or does it?

Instantly I’m shot back to July 5, 2002 the moment baseball lost its greatest hitter Ted Williams; the only human to have a batting average of 406 by seasons end. Within hours of losing the national hero CBS News reported the all time hitter’s son John Henry had come to the conclusion that his father’s DNA would be preserved for future use.

I’ve lost many arguments over this subject mainly because I’m not a scientist and radio formats will never grant me with enough permission to play one on the radio not even in a Keith Hawthorne Ford commercial. But…in an age of cloning sheep and the food we eat; if granted permission to gain access into a George Lucas/Darth Vader way of replenishing the human forest…no DNA can bring back a baseball legend.

Dr. Ronald Mack from Wake Forest University spoke for hours with me about this subject. He was deeply injured by the efforts to keep the Splendid Splinter from locating the peace he deserved but was held back by a bullying son and scientists. Being from the medical field Dr. Mack was horribly embarrassed by his colleagues and the generations that would make DNA human growth one day legal.

On August 12, 2003 CBS reported while Ted’s body remained suspended in liquid nitrogen and his head placed in a steel can his DNA was missing?

Where the hell am I going with this story?

How many times during the average day are you the punk kid in a tiny church slamming the fingers of a brother in a hymnal? How often have your children blurted out lines that resemble pictures of a past you were told couldn’t be changed? How about those moments when your reactions to their actions are DNA clones of your parents?

There are no two birds or humans exactly alike because each was invited to participate through something called independence.

Just because you look like Ted Williams doesn’t guarantee you can hit a ball.

Let’s localize this…your feet in my shoes standing on the stage with the strong preacher man; vocally we're the loudest generation with no plans of ever stopping the emails, texting, Face Booking and whatever other tool used when Social Networking.

Once outside high school and college we guaranteed friends and coworkers that if and when the opportunity arises you’ll never become the shrewd nitpicking tit for tat micromanaging boss that played your father like a puppet at a clown convention; you would enforce positive change with acceptable by all successes in the workplace!

How's that going for ya?

Rather than locate the vision to distract the strong preacher man with newer methods of hymnal slamming…we’ve chosen to be DNA clones of yesterday, the day before, just like last year and the week before that.

The Nightly News on NBC is no different than 1980 when Omar Kadafi scared the hell out of every teen in America whose sights were no longer focused on a career but rather battle. Arthur is back in theaters with another lunatic British actor sporting how cool life is when you’re doing everything drunk and confused. The Beatles are the hottest selling thing on Itunes and the majority of today’s kids watch Scooby Doo and go crazy over Spiderman.

60’s 70’s and 80’s fad and true Americana aren’t supposed to belong to every generation. Growing up I never wanted to become old like my Grandparents…but because society has made it cool to horde boxes of junk that should've been tossed when you left home the first time sadly I can’t wait to reach 80 going on 16.

“I challenge you to seek originality. Bring something new to try next week.”

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, April 4, 2011

Land of opportunity or out of tune song?

Whether you’re rubbing your eyes, scratching what feels like mile long wild hairs in your nose then sneezing into the cold curves of an elbow; a meaningful change begins its annual attack in March runs through April then takes on a full blossoming in the first few blinks of May…

Spring!

Does anyone stop to watch it arrive anymore? What about listen?

The big black crow that cuddles each naked tree in the winter has been replaced by extremely protective owl parents, yellowish finches and the faint sound of lawnmowers humanizing a once free rolling hill. I love the sound of bees that hide in bushes, near the roots of fallen trees only to be interrupted by the occasional faster than the speed of light mosquito who's hum resembles a bullet ricocheting off a rock in an old Hollywood Western.

Nature has no curse…everything present arrives for a reason; to better the layout of all and not a select Corporate American few.

I’m embarrassed to say that laughter burped from my gut last week when the funniest line spouted from the NBC sitcom Outsourced; two employees from the same company positioned in separate parts of the world, “America? The company still has people working there?”

“Only the decision makers…”

The workplace isn’t the vacation spot it used to be. Supporting my view is Seth Godin who describes our current “status quo” state as being the rebirth of heretics. No matter the day of the week there’s always going to be someone sitting in an office asking the question, “How can we do this?”

CBS This Morning took on the truth revealing the horrid numbers of middle aged adults whose life and style have become null and void due to a working environment no longer interested in experience. Again I laughed… While between radio dreams I dummy downed my resume and began receiving invitations. In one cover letter I explained the materials presented were created in a makeshift cheap home studio and I wanted to make sure the books I was reading had put me on the right path. The wanted to hire me immediately.

Not a smooth move. I was lying! The poor program director thought he had discovered a diamond in the rough and ended up getting an imagination that wanted to prove that having experience carries no weight in a business world more interested in putting energy in their own delivery without having to erase excess luggage from someone who’s been there. Or…companies don’t want to hire potential replacements of their position.

Seth Godin has a solution for this age of heretics and heartless cutbacks, “Belief. Nobody’s interested in change. No one is going to anoint you as leader. Nobody is going to see your PowerPoint presentation then hand you a check.”

As I was typing these letters into the face of your computer a coworker entered my recording studio with a rolled up magazine. I’m ashamed to say I rolled my chair back and calmly asked, “Are you going to hit me like a bad dog?”

He laughed

I’m still not laughing…

“Have you done something wrong?”

My eleventh grade Broadcasting teacher Tony Swear Engine’s bold Native American voice rang through me instantly, “It is easier to be forgiven then it is to get permission.”

Such thought grows through me like wild flowers tossed from a sack of seeds on sale at a big hardware store. Once inside the soils of everyday living and breathing no day passes that shouldn’t be open for new beginnings. I spend more time setting myself up for failure than I do following a format; thinking out of the box means performing out of the box.

Nothing achieves the right to hold bright unforgettable petals like that recognized during the birth of spring unless there’s a thin feather of belief.

Does anyone stop to watch it arrive anymore? What about listen?

What’s your first reaction when someone enters the workplace circle with a rolled up magazine? What if our first thought changed to, “Someone’s headed to the bathroom...”

Belief begins with you then it vines out like ivy…do all you can not to make it poison.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Friday, April 1, 2011

Let it shower you....

Brian Andreas writes, “There are days I drop words of comfort on myself like falling leaves and remember that it’s enough to be taken care of by myself.”

Mix that expression with the current conditions outside your office or living room window; no matter how much we sneeze, wipe tainted tears from the corners of each eye the unwritten poetry posted is Mother Nature’s birth of spring.

New beginnings don’t ask for permission to be your friend it takes over like kudzu and wisteria and if you aren’t mentally and physically involved with the rebirthing process confusion turns longer sunlit days into personal battles to keep reaching back to something you'll never find.

The leaves of years past have passed; reminders can be found on forested floors made up of desk drawers, cardboard boxes and plastic bags that kiss the white tipped edges of every receipt printed at the mall, gas station and restaurant. We cling so tight to a past that can’t be changed that life in the most beautiful country in the world has become constipated.

We’re wound so tight the Jack in the box outsourced himself to a more peaceful generation.

Do trees lose their leaves because stockholders aren’t getting a bang for their invested buck? Does a squirrel mourn the loss of the itty bitty green leaf that winky dinked a funky dance in a summer breeze? While snakes, shy rabbits and really cool bugs nestle in the dried up brown and not so orange leaves below do the roots of a tree seek payment from the silent campers seeking such hiding places?

“There are days I drop words of comfort on myself like falling leaves and remember that it’s enough to be taken care of by myself.”

I stare into the eyes of the elders waiting to visit the heart doctor; through thought I ask, “Was all of what you’ve got really worth carrying so much weight?” I never hear their reply because I’m too damn busy chasing other people’s dreams.

That’s who we’ve become…tools in a weathered shed owned by an old farmer with a wart on his nose who refuses to stop reaching for the magic that’ll force Kevin the bull to lift his rump up and boogie out to the spring pasture. Life is an overpriced jellybean that’s been trained to make other people happy.

“There are days I drop words of comfort on myself like falling leaves and remember that it’s enough to be taken care of by myself.”

Walk into the bathroom and lean into the reflection shot back from the mirror; calmly tell no tale or excuse…just say nothing…the eyes are the window to the soul. Let it snow leaves of change.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com