So, I had planned on catching up on some over due tutorials this past weekend… However, my first-born had other plans (showing up 30 days early).
Born November 1st, 10:23 pm EST, meet my daughter, Isabella Danielle Ross “Izzy-D” for short. I will return to tutorials soon… she is just too cute to ignore

Hey Campers – Ran across a YouTube video from a guy who’s book I’m reading. The guy, David Allen, the book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Check it out!

…lie still for 60 seconds and think what you could truly accomplish if you knew that you literally could not afford to fail.

Do you realize that 30 minutes a day turns into about 15 hours every month – but what the heck can you do in only 30 minutes?

1. Post in your Blog

2. Start reading that book you’ve been putting off for two years

3. Start writing that book you’ve been putting off for two years

4. Learn to juggle, or learn to juggle better
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6366713757585864298&hl=en

5. Learn to draw, or learn to draw better
“But I can’t draw, not even a straight line!”
Well skippy, you can’t do what you don’t do, so instead of spending the next 30 minutes convincing yourself why you shouldn’t learn to draw that straight line, pick up pencil and paper and just do it!

6. Learn at least three new words from a different language (or your own language ).

7. Start learning to play an instrument… no instrument handy? Sit down, get your hands on the table, feet on the floor, and learn to play drums.
http://www.studydrums.com/dapp01.html

8. Learn to build a web page. Use HTML, CSS, Flash, php, MySQL, whatever it is, do something new, or polish up on the stuff you’ve forgotten about.

9. Exercise

10. Spend 30 minutes writing down 30 reasons why you don’t have 30 minutes to do something.

NOTE: If it took you less than 30 minutes to read this… GO DO SOMETHING

I believe that we all are the sum of both the positive and negative experiences, and people, in our past and present lives. As an instructor, I know that both my good teachers and bad teachers helped to shape my teaching styles and methods. In some cases, one of my teachers would do or say something, and I would think, wow, I gotta use that when I teach! Other teachers, I would make a note to do the exact opposite.

It is with this in mind that I would like to publicly share what I feel was the defining moment in my style of giving direct, brutally honest, critiques.
It was my senior year at the Atlanta College of Art, and as custom before graduation I had to have several members of the faculty, as well as my department head, give final critiques (an exit review), of my portfolio. My reviews were going well, and if memory serves me correctly, I only had one review left, my department head. I had this gentleman as an instructor once or twice, and to be fair, I was not a fan of his teaching, or his lack of knowledge on what he was teaching, either that, or I was a typical, arrogant, slack student at the time, aspiring to be a professor—anyway, back to the review.

I presented my work, and his critiques and suggestions for improvement were good, better than good, they were awesome! So much so that it led me to say to this gentleman…
“I would like to thank you, this has been one of the best critiques you’ve ever given me.”

He replied, “Well it’s a lot easier to critique you now, because you’re not a student in my class. I mean, lets face it, you’re a big guy.”

As a side note, my department head was an average height, average build kind of guy, I on the other hand, am 6 foot 4, 300+ pounds.

It then occurred to me that this gentleman had never given me an honest critique before because he was afraid of me. Ironically, I had never wished to cause this man any bodily harm, until he had uttered those words.

I would like to take you now years later, to my 1st day of class opening lecture.
“I am going to call roll now, this will be the last time you hear your name from me until you’ve earned it. If by the end of the semester I am not calling you by name, it’s not that I’m bad with names, it’s that your work sucked, it’s not my fault. At times I may appear friendly, but I am not here to be your friend, I am here to teach you. In fact if you can’t stand me, it makes grading you a lot easier. If you ask for a critique from me, I may ask you for “permission to be blunt”, if you feel that is something you can not handle, do not give me permission… We will now take a 30 minute break so those of you that feel you need to drop this class may do so.”

So this is all to say that telling someone that their work is OK, when you really think its sub par, or even worse, utter crap, it does more harm than good.

Equally, if the work is good, even if you hate it, especially if you hate it – even if you hate the fact that the very sight of the work singes your cornea, and sucks your will to live! If it’s good, tell them its good!

I believe it is far better to simply be honest, or be simply quiet.

The response on this post has been great! Please keep the comments coming. I also encourage everyone to read the responses from the Creative COW business forum where I placed the same post.
http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/17/860161

Thanks, Tony Ross

From time to time when doing freelance work, I have encountered potential clients that have projects, ideas or concepts that are much greater than their budgets. Now, the type of client I speak of is the client that never mentions their budget. Usually during the course of our initial conversation, whether from experience or intuition, I get the feeling that my rates may place this client into irreversible sticker shock. So, I insert the following: “Wow, that sounds great, did you have a budget in mind?”

The response is usually along the lines of, “Well I don’t know what something like this would cost”. Now, this statement is probably true, but it also throws up a red flag in my book. I usually will negotiate for a few more minutes searching for the ever illusive “potential client budget“, then I will succumb to their request, and submit a proposal/ estimate. For me, my initial red flag has already told me, this is the last I will hear from them. Oh well, no harm no foul. However, I am an educator first and foremost, so I am writing this post in hopes to initiate healthy conversation, and educate both the client and the artist.

I have purposefully sent this post via email to a few of my past “potential clients”, as well as current clients, and colleagues. I invite you all to leave your comments and thoughts on this matter. So with that, I will start.

I believe when a PC (potential client) says “Well I don’t know what something like this would cost”, it is most likely true. However what is also true is the client usually knows the amount they will or can spend. Over my freelance career (2 decades plus) I have been blessed to have worked with budgets ranging from $25 to $25,000.00. So from this experience I have seen an even wider range of possibilities.

For Example:
Client A: “I need a 20 page web site with log in privileges one week from today, my budget is $200.00″.

My Response: “A project of this magnitude and turnaround time would require a starting budget of at least $1000.00, and that is before adding in the database for log in privileges. If your budget isn’t flexible, but your timeline is, and you are willing to get your hands dirty, allow me to suggest a few books and web sites that can show you how to build this yourself. To tell you the truth, my wife and I learned how to build web sites so we could hold onto some cash for important stuff, you know like going to Disney, and Godiva chocolates, lol. Anyway, here are some links that might help, blah, blah, blah.

Client B: “I need a 20 page web site with log in privileges one week from today, my budget is $20,000.00″.

My Response: “Sounds good. To meet your deadline we will need all of your content, images, and information by close of business tomorrow. Once we have received all content, in 3 days you will receive test links to your new web site for review. This will give us 4 days to make any corrections, if needed. How does that work for you?”

So, there are my thoughts. Again feel free to chime in.
Thanks Tony Ross