What sort of daily message are you sharing? Remember, what you say has a way of coming back… I got an email that read “Thanks for teaching me how to fake a smile.”
I didn’t fake what came natural. I laughed knowing the origin.
It’s not that I fake my reactions; I’ve been trained for three decades how to react in public.
There used to be a time when radio station program directors diligently sat with budding broadcasters fine tuning the art of conversation; which often included an order from the decision maker to smile each time you open the microphone.
Dan Miller and Jack Stevens at KOOK in Billings coaxed me into never saying it’s a cloudy day. Partly cloudy is actually party sunny. What’s so fake about that?
Bill Conway at EZ air-checked me explaining listeners don’t believe it unless they feel it. It wasn’t just any four songs in a row without talk…music is about relationship.
I may look at the world differently than most but I do fake a smile. I’m extremely guilty of constantly jumping on the center line of a white picket fence never taking sides but that doesn’t mean I can’t lean in whatever direction is required.
Positive? Maybe too positive…
The origin of that adventure stems back to 1981 at my first full time job in radio at KXLO where P.D. Paul sternly reminded me that radio people must perform at all costs. His physical words were, “Even if your mother’s gravely ill…true Broadcaster’s don’t let anything stand in the way of a performance.”
Is it only radio people that fake smiles?
Not according to Wisegeek.com. They say a fake smile uses different facial muscles. Your brain is controlling the situation by telling your body to do something. The geeks at Wisegeek say laughs and smiles are natural and the brain isn’t involved in the reaction.
Spotting a fake smile is in the eyebrows. When you naturally smile your eyebrows dip in the center. Plus the fold in the skin in the center of your forehead moves inward.
Fake smiling is very natural. Scientists believe human’s whip out a can of fake to keep them from having to deal with fear. Clinched teeth aren’t often pretty so it’s natural to suck in a lung full of air and release fake.
Fake I’m not but my smile might be…it’s always my goal to make someone’s moment better even it requires a fake smile to get you there. The opposite side of such a commitment could be why Howard Stern spends hours in solitude meditating after his show. Being “on” requires a lot of unnatural energy.
Although few have seen it…publically I teach future communicators that Arroe on the air cannot be compared to Arroe in a commercial production studio. I believe that by being open with the several personality changes on-air talent go through there’ll be answers to those moments when even meditation doesn’t work.
Why would your job be any different?
Learn to recognize the fake moments; know how you feel while being fake and especially watch those around you on how they react to you versus those moments when real smiles and laughter grow like wild roses.
I will never tell you to fake a smile but I'll open your eyes to a different approach to reality and its bite. I’ve dedicated my path to inviting peace by walking in peace. If I’m smiling on the air it’s because I’ve been trained to believe its not what you say its how you say it that determines the outcome of the original thought.
I challenge you to know why you are faking a smile. Are you in fear or under pressure and exposing your true self could cost you? After a bout of fake giggle and wiggles make your day better by treating your subconscious and inner core to a real smile; find a joke, a funny video or squeeze a stuffed animal to hear the air inside rush out like someone with crazy sounding bad gas.
I will always believe in you first…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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