If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, your RIGHT!

Passion behind a clear goal is a powerful force. You can gain enormous control over that force by focusing on one small step that you need to take.
~ Steve Brunkhorst

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope or confidence.
- Helen Keller

As I began to learn the music industry, some 6 years ago, I was filled with a passion to help a young artist develop in his career. We had a clear goal….to get enough attention for him through radio airplay and media coverage within the Houston market to draw people out to see him perform at a concert we had scheduled. Everyday was a learning experience! It seemed that each step required MANY small steps. As I took each step, it lead to the next step. Soon I was not only seeing results, I was able to look behind me and recognize the development of a plan.

Having been in direct sales for 20 years, I knew that having a plan and working that plan was a vital key to success. However, developing a plan when the information necessary to organize that plan is difficult to obtain, many times makes “one step at a time” all that is possible! I found along the way that each step lit the way to the next step. It was always a step of faith to move forward. It took tremendous belief and focus to overcome the obstacles that lay at every turn. There were many times that I felt helpless to make a difference. There were times I wanted to quit. There were times ( and still are! ) that I wonder why I ever started on this journey!

Two years into this journey, my prayers for help were answered! The Texas Music Chart was born. The steps that I had learned and the plan that I had developed now had a railroad track to run on. The relationships that Shane Media developed with Texas Radio provided a resource to each of the artists I represented. The artists began to get the recognition they wanted and needed through regular communications and visits to the stations who were now reporting to the Chart.

With the Texas Music Chart providing the system within which to develop an artist, we began to move quickly. Kyle Hutton gained noterity and his first single made it into the top 15 on the chart. It was an exciting time! With his second single, people were beginning to recognize his distinct sound, vocals and lyrics. By his third single, stations were adding the song quickly and responses from listeners began to require the stations to increase the airplay. “Boy Down Here in Texas” reached the #5 spot on the Chart and the #23 position for the 2003 year! The hard work from the initially difficult years paid off in well earned recognition.

Kyle’s success lit the way for another artist we began to represent…..Stephanie Urbina Jones. Stephanie is filled with a passion for her hispanic roots and her soulful music. She quickly won the hearts of radio listeners and fans. Her first single reached the top 10 and her second “Shakin Things Up” went #1. Stephanie utilized the success she experienced in Texas as a springboard for her career growth nationally.

There are still times when I just get confused and tired and think - “I just can’t do this!” . Then I remember what Mary Kay used to tell us…..”If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, your RIGHT!” …..like a reminder from God, I have learned to stop, rest, listen and refocus. Reminding myself that this dream is not my dream…..but God’s dream.

AND He can do it!!!!

Kathy Douglas
President/Owner
Extreme Dreams, LLC

Getting Free from Unforgiveness

“Forgiveness is a decision. God tells us to forgive. Forgiveness releases the offender from ever having to pay his obligation to you. When an offense is committed there is a moral imperative that payment must be made to compensate for the wrong. This sense of justice is written into every fiber of our being. Forgiveness cancels that moral debt.”
From “Forgive and Love Again” by John Nieder and Thomas M. Thompson

Over the past several years, I have been experiencing some pretty incredible things. Some of these things have been part of directing me to a new call on my life, and some have been challenges that have wounded me to the very core of my being. Some of these I have been the cause of and others were things that I experienced because of the choices of others. As best as I could, I have tried to seek the forgiveness of those I caused pain through my own actions, attitudes and decisions. I have also forgiven those who have sought me out and asked for my forgiveness. What had never occurred to me until this week, was that I was responsible for my own unforgiveness in the face of another’s choice not to ask or seek forgiveness.

Over this past year, God has begun to reveal to me that an Integrated Life….a life of wholeness, authenticity and integrity….was His plan for my life and the lives of ALL of His children. As I thought about it, I realized it is what I want for my own children. Years ago, He spoke to me and told me “When you see the problem, you are the answer”. I have tried to figure out for years what that fully means. This week I have come to the understanding of what God has spoken to me and the message I am to share with others.

In the past, I have seen many problems. I have been frustrated by them, I have complained about them, I have pointed them out with the hopes that someone would chose differently, I have been angry about them, I have tried blaming myself for them and then everyone else around me for them, I have prayed about them, I have cried about them, I have ignored them hoping that I could stop seeing and experiencing them, I have tried to fix them, I have resigned myself to the fact that I can’t fix them and I have just plain given up on them! ALL to no avail!!!!

This past week, through a book “Forgive and Love Again”, a bible study I do weekly with a friend, a client that I have met with only once, the rememberance of a choice I made 2 years ago to forgive when I really did not want to, the continuing struggle I have been going through with a dear friend, and a coffee shop discussion; the Holy Spirit taught me a deep truth about myself and His will for my life. The truth of it has set me free and provided me a peace beyond comprehension, that I now know how to experience in the midst of ANYTHING!

The choice to forgive is the answer…..it is the answer that is in me when I see a problem. I am the only one who can make that choice. God cannot make me chose it and He cannot chose it for me. I am the only one who has the power to exercise forgiveness towards another in my life and I only have that power as a result of my own surrender to the Holy Spirit’s work in me as I abide in Him. I have been forgiven a GAZILLION DOLLAR debt by God, my choice to NOT forgive a $20 debt owed to me by another would be ludacise. What has been revealed to me is that my choices in the past when I have seen problems, were only the symptoms of my own decision NOT to forgive.

Since this new revelation, I have been going before the throne of God QUITE OFTEN over the past several days, to confess my own sin of unforgiveness and making the choice to forgive. As I sat in church today and recieved the Lord’s Supper……the bread that symbolizes His Body that was broken for me, and the wine that symbolizes His Blood that was shed to set me free……I was able to experience it in a whole new way. I was forgiven even when I didn’t know I needed forgiveness….and through that forgiveness I was able to recieve a new life…..I was set free from the penalty of death that I deserved for my sins. Jesus freely gave His life in exchange for mine….and at the same time forgave me for having to do that for me.

One of my favorite songs we sing in church goes like this…

Amazing Love, how can it be
That You, my King, would die for me
.Amazing Love, I know it’s true
I will honor You
In all I do
I will honor You.

I am a murderer… I have murdered in my heart when I have hated someone who hurt me. Jesus knew from eternity past that I was a murderer…..and yet before I was born, before I chose murder, He chose to forgive me for having to exchange His life for mine…..the most Amazing Love of all time.

Most times in life, the choice that is the answer to problems we experience is so simple that we miss it completely. I have been guilty of that. For those of you who have had to listen and experience my desparate search for the answer to the problems in my life, I ask for your forgiveness for scaring the daylights out of you! You have loved me inspite of my blindness and my hypocrisy in the midst of my pain.

I thank you for loving me through it. I have been given the keys to set myself and others free from the prison of unforgiveness…..it is a NEW DAY!

Kathy Douglas
President/Owner
Extreme Dreams, LLC
kathyd@extreme-dreams.com
http://www.extreme-dreams.com/

Dreaming big by accepting who I am!

” For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared to in advance for us to do.”
Written by Paul to the Ephesians 2:10

This morning I was pondering the issues that have been swarming around and through most of my life. As I thought about recent events and discussions, I remebered a note from my friend, Tara, that shared a concept that has begun to change her perspective of herself. I sat in awe as I read about she had been discovering that though she has areas of herself that she doesn’t like, she is learning that with each one there is a gift; a good thing that is there with the thing she dislikes. I sat and thought about how easily I can fall into the hole of feeling like I am such a failure at something because of some weakness in my life. Another friend has been patiently reminding me again and again as I struggle with the cirsumstances and challenges that I am experiencing, that I am……what was the word he used the LAST time???….oh, yes! ….”STUBBORNLY forgetting” what I already know!

This morning I remembered!!!!!

As I was reading in Ephesians, I was reminded that I am God’s workmanship. That He made me just like I am in Christ Jesus to do “some thing”. AND that He had chosen me IN CHRIST before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.( Eph 1:4 ) THAT blows my mind! The ramifications of that concept are endless! As I read this, I remembered that some years ago I came to the realization that the strengths and weaknesses in my life are much like a coin. A strength has on the flip side, a corresponding weakness. As I pulled out every kind of coin in my wallet to have a good look at them….each was uniquely different, yet each was made up of similar components. As I looked at them I saw that both sides were different and yet made of the same material. Both sides looked different and yet were the same size. What became increasingly apparent was that the coin was of no value, as a coin, without BOTH SIDES! AND if one side was BIGGER than the other side….the coin becomes useless as a tool. I need both sides of the coin to be just what they are for the coin to be what it is. As the “coin maker”, God created me with both sides of my strength to be who I am. In my life, it looks like the strength that is one of the best parts of me - DETERMINATION…….with the flipside -STUBBORNESS…..HOWEVER, when I TRY to make the determination BIGGER, as the ” good thing” and squish down the stubborness, as the “bad thing” ( or another way to express it is as Tara did, “turn the volume up” on the determination )…..I become BOSSY! When I simply accept that part of my determination is stubborness and allow that to be “the gift” that God has actually worked into the flipside, I can stand in who I am with strength and courage. I then remembered that God is sovereign in the affairs of the world and we are broken, clay pots so as to show His Glory through our weaknesses.

What is beautiful is that when I can accept in myself as “the gift” that Tara was expressing, I can then, ( yes, Jim!!! ) Stubbornly DETERMINE to REMEMBER what I already know…..all of my hopes, dreams and visions not only CAN but WILL become a reality.

Kathy Douglas
President/Owner
Extreme Dreams, LLC

What you send into the lives of others comes back into your own

For twenty years I heard this phrase on a weekly, if not daily basis. As a Mary Kay Sales Director, I was trained to understand the truth about the philosophy of “reaping and sowing”. What I learned is that it applies to all walks of life, and in every situation. As I switched careers from cosmetics to the music industry, I found that this reality applied more than ever before. Music is the soundtrack of our lives, and independent singer-songwriters provide us the opportunity to create that soundtrack ourselves.

No where on earth do I see this more prominent than in Texas Music, where we find the greatest variety and diversity in styles and genres. Those of us who are involved in Texas Music, both from an industry perspective as well as those who enjoy and love the music, are experiencing the reaping of what has been sown for the past 30 years. Good things are coming into the lives of those who have sent so much into the lives of those around them…….great music has been rewarded by a growing movement.

This love affair between the artists and the fans has continued to grow and expand across the boundaries of states and countries. New artists are finding a voice in the industry and carving out a fan base for their music. Established artists are finding an entirely new audience for their songs and performances and providing old friends of their music the opportunity to pass along to the next generation a devotion for original, live music. Each are experiencing the hard fought rewards of endurance and the joy that come from sowing with passion and love the songs that emanate from their very souls.

As the “Texas Music Revolution” has grown, many of the artists who are now reaping rewards have sacrificed substantial incomes, days and hours away from loved ones, relationships and much more in their pursuit of this dream. Others are following in their footsteps and continuing the fight for independence, creative control and the opportunity to be heard, all values we as Texans have fought for from the inception of our great state.

So when you learn that a Texas Songwriter is performing at a venue in your area attend the performance, take some friends who may have never heard live Texas Music, tip the artist, buy the cds, t-shirts and caps. Remember that these very songwriters are on the front lines of the revolution, fighting to stay alive in a world where big corporations decide what we listen to, watch and buy. Join them in the fight for your right to chose the soundtrack of your life.

Kathy Douglas
President/Owner
Extreme Dreams, LLC
8203 Schaffer Ln.
Houston, TX 77070
kathyd@extreme-dreams.com
www.extreme-dreams.com