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Yes, Dani Does Draw

Mar 3rd, 2010
by Chris.
No comments yet

I’m loving my recent care package from Dani.

So a couple of weeks ago, Dani Jones of DaniDraws.com, while on her uStream show, had her weekly friday drawing (that’s drawing as in “pulling a name out of a hat”) after she was done drawing (that’s drawing as in “pen and paint on paper”) and my name was drawn. From the hat. Well, there’s not really a hat either, but just go with it. My name was picked. OK?

What I won was this strange three-eyed octopus alien creature thingie from her new project, My Sister the Freak. Now, I’d had my eyes on another of her drawings for a little while now, this Klingon Bear that you see here. She’d apparently whipped it up in a pre-Star Trek the Reboot Movie craze, and I decided that since she was going out of her way to ship me a free octo-creature, that I would go ahead and purchase the Klingon Bear at the same time. To top it all off, THAT EXACT SAME WEEKEND, she moved her entire inventory into blow-out mode so that she could rebuild her online store. If you click this link before March 31st, 2010, then you too can purchase your own Dani Jones artwork for a great price. Or, if you’d like your own chance to win a free piece of original Dani Jones artwork, catch her show on Fridays. Details can be found at The Artcast Network, also built by Dani. You wonder where she finds the time!

Anyway, while I was there looking, my kid decided she wanted one of Dani’s fairy drawings as well. An DM was sent via Twitter, Paypal was invoked, and the other day the whole lot arrived. Now all we have to do is run out and find a few photo frames and a special spot to display them. But, so as not to hog the creativity all to ourselves, click the bear head above and check out all 3 images.

Enjoy!

Posted in: Creatives, Personal.
Tagged: · · ·

Color Theory: Why Hots Advance & Cools Recede

Feb 28th, 2010
by Chris.
2 comments

If you’ve had any classes or done any reading on basic color theory, you’ve no doubt came across the concept that hot colors (red, orange and yellow) ‘advance’, or appear to move forward, while cool colors (purple, green, and blue) recede, or fall back. If you’ve played with colors in your work, you’ve probably noticed it yourself. But, do you know why this happens? If you’ve ever had to sit through a class where someone who didn’t know why this happens tries to explain it, you’ve likely lost an hour or so of your life. The answer is actually much simpler than many that I’ve heard.

It may surprise you to know that this phenomenon is physical, not mental. The warm colors have a focal point that is behind the retina, so in order to truly focus on them, your eye’s lens must thicken to focus the warm colors to the appropriate area. Cool colors, on the other hand, need to be focused on a point in front of your retina, causing the lens to flatten out. This change in thickness actually does physically increase or decrease the distance from your eye to the image, however minutely. The thicker lens also magnifies the image slightly, so that the image appears to be closer. The overall effect is an almost imperceptible version of the horror/thriller movie camera trick where the subject of the shot rapidly moves toward the camera while the background falls quickly away.

An interesting side effect of this phenomenon is that you can physically only focus on either warms or cools at a time. This gives you the potential to use these colors to not only add dimension to your images, but to find other creative ways to separate parts of your image. For instance, you can create two separate stories within a single image by creating one image in the warm space and the other in a cool space. Or you can use color to separate conflicting points of focus that occupy the same space.

So, the next time you are looking for a way to separate items within a single space or illustration, for whatever reason, keep this color principle in mind. If your creative solution is unique enough, you might just start a whole new movement.

Posted in: Color Theory.
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Linchpin: From Theory to Reality

Feb 22nd, 2010
by Chris.
1 comment

About 9 years ago I was working for the then CEO and president of ISO Healthcare, David Tanner. While I worked for him, I learned a number of valuable lessons that I’ve taken with me, and one of them was this: Add value at every level.

What David meant by this was simple; as a project passes through your hands, regardless of your job, regardless of your pay, when it hits your hands, do the best you can with it, and make sure it leaves your hands in better shape than when you received it. Its an amazingly simple philosophy that when practiced, yields results that are a wonder to behold. When everybody just does their ‘job’, a project can go from beginning to end and come out pretty much the way everyone expected it to, but when every person who touches the project takes time to engage with it, to look for ways to improve it or make it even a little bit better, the final product is often far more than anyone could have planned for.

Recently, I’ve been reading a book called Linchpin by Seth Godin, which I HIGHLY recommend. He talks about this exact process, which he terms ‘creating art’ or ‘giving a gift’. When a person steps outside of what is expected of him and does the best he can regardless of his role, that person becomes an artist, and what he creates is a gift of art, and that such giving is the basis for creating tribes around yourself. Seth also makes the argument that the receivers of such gifts tend to want to return the favor, and that artists, because of their art and their gifts, have more opportunities open up before them than someone who selfishly hordes their art.

Today, during a team meeting, we had a surprise visit from a colleague of mine from another team. One of her roles in the Creative department is roughly, Keeper of the Brand. She and a few others work hard to make sure that the ESPN brand and its many imprints are maintained and handled aright across the company and in all forms of media, which is a BIG task. I, on the other hand, am one of less than a handful of creatives that work within the ESD branch of the Technology division. I stick out like a sore thumb amongst a throng of programmers, engineers and other techy types. Over the past couple of years, however, I’ve been pushing hard to make sure that the creative our web teams produce is in harmony with what the teams in NY and the main campus create. Its not something I was asked to do, its simply something that someone from a background like mine understands is important, and its one of the ways that I endeavor to add value at my level.

As I was saying, today she showed up unexpectedly (to me, anyway) at our team meeting, and presented me with an ESPN Game Ball. There are 21 game balls in all, and it passes from one person to the next roughly once per month. It is given by the previous recipient to someone who they felt has gone above and beyond. I’ve watched these game balls passing around the company for about the last year, and never thought one would make it into my hands. Now one has. Its a real honor, and now that its been given to me, I can’t think of someone I’d rather have received it from. Today, it was blindingly obvious to me, that this theory of giving gifts unselfishly and having it returned toyou is actually a reality. Its not the first time that what I’ve given has come back to me, but right now, this evening, which a brand new game ball sitting on top of my cubicle, its certainly a topic that’s on my mind.

So, create your art, whatever it is you do. Add value at every level. Explore and expand what you do, and help your team envision beyond what they currently do. Do more than is asked or expected of you, and most importantly, do it freely without expectation of compensation. It will be noticed, and you’ll be recognized as a Linchpin.

Posted in: Books, Business.
Tagged: · · · · ·

Avatar and the Ultimate Geek Death

Feb 20th, 2010
by Chris.
4 comments

This is totally a weekend post. There’s nothing at all here to do with business. Just enjoy it. If you haven’t seen Avatar yet, beware spoilers.

Its the ninth weekend for Avatar, and I just paid to go and see Avatar for a second time in the theater. It wasn’t sold out this weekend, but there was a good crowd. The official reason for this visit is that it turns out that my wife liked Avatar enough that she wanted to take her Grandfather to see it. The unofficial reason is that the first time we’d seen it, we’d gotten there so late that we ended up having to watch it from the third row, and I wanted to get a better angle on it before it left theaters, so I was probably going again anyhow, but it was nice to have a more noble excuse. Now, honestly, I can’t think of the last time I’d paid to go see a movie twice in the theater, but as most of you know, this experience is NOT going to repeat itself any time soon on DVD, so its certainly worth it.

Below are a bunch of random thoughts about this movie that I want to just push out there. Some of them came to me after the first viewing, but a number of items only came to me the second time around:

  • After seeing this movie the first time, for most of the next week, my brain ‘rendered’ the scenes in my head as 3-D animation. It was weird. I had a very difficult time trying to remember the actual color tones and mood of the film. I remember marveling that everything came out over-saturated and under-rendered in my head, and I’m blaming it squarely on my background in animation.
  • Dr. Grace Augustine says early on that she’d “die” to get a sample from the Tree of Souls.
  • When I found that linguists were hired to create the Na’vi language, I originally thought to myself, “those guys must have been ecstatic to finally be able to do something with their skills that isn’t boring.” Then I realized that to them, whatever it is linguists do when not creating new languages for movies must not be boring to them, or they wouldn’t do it. You see that? A perfect example of me imposing my own values on someone else.
  • I suspect many linguists create their own languages in their free time just for fun, possibly hoping a movie producer will come along and need one ready to go.
  • Based on the popularity of this movie, I wonder how long it will be until more people know how to speak Na’vi than Klingon, or even Quenya.
  • It isn’t until Jake starts to really transform his mind into an Omaticaya that we finally see his withered legs, to really feel the contrast between who he was and who he’s becoming.
  • At this same time, his human body is growing out his hair. When he finally shaves, he leaves his hair long, not high and tight.
  • After seeing it twice, I still wouldn’t take my 9 year old daughter to see it. I know she’d enjoy most of it, but I’ll give her a few more years before subjecting her to the kind of violence depicted during the battle. Also, there are a few scenes that are most likely too scary for her. This is, after all, the man who brought us The Terminator, Aliens and Predator.
  • While the picture was much too large to really see everything, from the third row I felt much more immersed. At times I truly wanted to use my hands to bat away bugs, debris and the like because they felt very ‘in my face’. From half way back, it was nice, but I felt somewhat removed.
  • I still find the name of the precious material being mined on Pandora, unobtainium, to be ridiculously self serving.
  • The storytelling is so good that even after I knew everything that was going to happen, I was still on the edge of my seat. Of course, James Cameron did this to me in Titanic as well. Remember the feeling of “maybe it WON’T sink this time”?
  • I had tears beginning to well up at certain points both times, but no, I didn’t cry either viewing; for two reasons. First, I’m a guy, and second, this isn’t a Pixar movie.
  • The very large man two seats to the left of me apparently felt it WAS a Pixar movie.
  • One of the best things about seeing it a second time is that you aren’t so surprised by all of the… surprises, so you get to enjoy the reactions of the people around you. I almost LOL’d at the girls who gasped loudly behind me when at the end, instead of attacking, the Thanator bends to allow Neytiri to ride him.
  • Can you buy more comfortable and stylish Real D 3D glasses than what they give you at the theater? If so, can I get a discount on the tickets? I guess I should just be grateful that these ones fit over my regular glasses, and I suppose Wayfarers are retro-trendy?
  • I wonder what Sigourney Weaver thinks when she sees herself on-screen, 20 years younger through the miracle of modern technology. Even blue, (especially blue?) she is absolutely stunning and full of vitality. Something about her smile as a Na’vi is captivating.
  • It takes 6 years to travel from Earth to Pandora. How long until the Na’vi have to deal with returning humans? 12 if they wait for this first crew to return before sending another ship. 6 if they send reinforcements the moment they realized they lost the planet. Less than six if a ship was on its way simply as a matter of course.
  • You’ve heard that they’re planning a sequel, haven’t you? The only reason this might not completely spoil the first movie is that I’ve yet to see James Cameron bomb on a sequel.
  • I don’t like that Trudy dies. I don’t like it at all.
  • Finally, it dawned on me that in this digital age, Dr. Grace Augustine experiences the ultimate geek death. Since the entire planet has apparently become Eywa, a large and most likely self-aware organic computer/network, Grace is literally uploaded into the web in her last minutes of life. This time Cameron’s Skynet is under the ground.

My wife pointed out that Col. Quaritch seemed very stereotyped to her the second time through. I noticed it the second time around as well, but I pointed out that the first time through, it just worked. From the scars on his head, to his choice of words, down to his (Texas?) drawl, there is no question exactly who this character is. You simply know from the delivery that he is a military man through and through, and whatever part he plays in this movie, it will be handled accordingly. I don’t think she was sold until I reminded her of the opening scene in Star Wars. There is absolutely no doubt that Vader is the bad guy when he enters the scene. He’s the biggest, blackest, baddest dude, and you know he’s the one to beat. The movie is almost 3 hours long, let’s cut the character building and move on with the story, shall we? Sold. Actually, if you watch for it, you will find the same goes for most of the supporting characters. This is not the heaviest of character driven stories.

So, OK. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, I hope you get a chance to catch it before it leaves theaters. If you see in on DVD for the first time, while you might get the full story, I honestly feel you’ll only seen part of the movie.

Posted in: Personal.
Tagged: · · · · · ·

Why Linked In?

Feb 19th, 2010
by Chris.
No comments yet

Bob and I recently did 2 episodes of Creative Independence where we talked about how to get yourself established on LinkedIn, (part 1 and part 2) where we covered everything from signing up to tricking out your personal and business profiles. While we felt we had hit everything, a question from Marty Qatani made it apparent to me that though we had covered the “how” quite thoroughly, we had kind of glazed over the “why”, and maybe a bit of the “what”. So, here are Marty’s questions, and my response to him.

—

Marty’s Questions

Chris & Bob… just listened to PT 2 of your LinkedIn Podcast…. all good info, but I was wondering if you would be touching on how to find potential clients on LinkedIn, or even LinkedIn ettiquette. Anything planned ?

I know you guys answered how to find people, …. [but] I’ve tried to find people with specific job titles such as Art Director and sometimes that title doesn’t seem to be listed for certain companies. More importantly is [it] appropriate to contact companies through LinkedIn to ask for that specific information, as if I were making a cold call, or is that considered bad ettiquette ?
Thanks again.

—

My Answers

So, getting back to Marty’s question…

A couple of things to understand about LinkedIn. First, just because a company is on LinkedIn, doesn’t mean that all of its employees are. Like any other social site, it’s up the individual to join if they’d like. In this way, LinkedIn may not prove to be the greatest tool if you’re building your own sales list. One way to perhaps find people you can contact would be to check the LinkedIn job boards for the type of work you’re looking to provide, then under each posting, there’s a link to click and see who you might know at that company.

Second, as far as etiquette goes, one of the great things about LinkedIn is that you can specify how or why you’d like to be contacted, so each user can set their own terms for why and how people can contact them. So, for instance, at the bottom of my profile, you’ll see that I’ve asked to be contacted for:

  • career opportunities
  • consulting offers
  • new ventures
  • expertise requests
  • reference requests
  • getting back in touch

I personally don’t want anyone asking me if I can hire them (I can’t) or sell me services, so those are not listed. However, some people are interested in those opportunities, and they’ll give permission on their profiles. In those cases, feel free to approach them with your resume or sales pitch. A possible work around that might be helpful is this; if you’re already contacting someone through another channel, you can use your LinkedIn profile to solidify your reputation by shooting them a quick note, inviting them to visit your profile for more information about you before you meet, which can be especially helpful if you’ve got good recommendations or know people friends in common. You can even invite your client to question any friends in common about you, your work and your reputation.

Also, as far as etiquette goes for contacting a company, if you know the company you wish to contact, and if they’ve got a profile page on LinkedIn with contact information, it is absolutely permissible to contact that company and ask how to get in touch with the person that you need to speak with. They may not give it to you, but that’s a different discussion entirely.

So, we’ve discussed that LinkedIn perhaps isn’t the best list-building search tool. It is, however, is a great network-building tool. Once you’ve done your best to spiff up your profile, link to it from everywhere. If you want to build your network, you need to let people know you have a profile; get THEM to find YOU and request a link. Put your link on your business cards, your website, your twitter account; anywhere. I put it on my email signatures, that way folks who I deal with in business or even socially that I might not be linked to might see it and reach out to me. The reason for building the network is to increase your own reach. For instance, I don’t know ANYBODY at Pixar, but because of the connections I’ve built over the past 5 or 6 years, I can contact dozens of folks there by reaching out through people that I know who can get me in touch with them. Again, there’s the whole etiquette thing, but even sitting down for a phone call just to feel a place out or conducting an informational interview with someone is often priceless.

LinkedIn is also a great promotional tool. LinkedIn has good Google juice, so any links you provide from your profile to your site can only help. Anyone, say a potential employer or client, who might be checking you out will most likely run across your LinkedIn profile at the top of any Google search, and your LinkedIn profile is likely to be much more professional than many of your other profiles they might run across. Participating in the Questions and Answers section will help to brand you as an expert in your industry when people come looking for a problem solver.

Finally, if you’re interested in getting hired either as an employee or as a consultant, LinkedIn is a great place to be, since hiring professionals are looking here all the time.

In my own experience, LinkedIn is more of a long-term relationship building tool than a quick-hit sales tool.

Posted in: Social Media.
Tagged: · · ·

Google Wave Invite Giveaway

Feb 13th, 2010
by Chris.
No comments yet

We need your help to get the word out about the Creative Independence podcast, so this is what we’re going to do. Bob and I both have some Google Wave Invitations to give away, and we’ve decided to give them to you. If you want one, all you need to do is drop a review for Creative Independence on either your blog. Then, head on over to our Linked In group and respond to the post. Give us a link to your blog review, or tell us which review is yours on iTunes and we’ll send you an invitation. Good while invitations last, and ONLY valid if left on the Linked In group discussion.

Posted in: Marketing.

Haven’t Seen Avatar

Feb 11th, 2010
by Chris.
No comments yet

Update: On February, 14, a full 8 weekends into its run, I took my wife to see Avatar, hoping it would be a nice diversion from the recent death of her mother and shooting of her sister. It worked just fine. To make sure that we would NOT miss it again, I bought tickets online. Though it felt overly cautious to do so, I just didn’t want to take the chance. I’m glad I did, because once again, the movie was sold out. When was the last time YOU saw a movie sell out in its 8th weekend?

I haven’t seen Avatar yet. I can hardly believe it myself. I wanted to go opening weekend, but my wife who had recently had surgery wasn’t feeling up to it Christmas, and I really want to go with her. We tried the next day, and it was sold out. We tried again two weekends later, and again it was sold out. Why didn’t I buy tickets online, you ask? Because it was the third weekend out, and in this day and age, who expects a movie to sell out in its third weekend? Its rare enough to get a sell out on opening weekend, certainly not 3 weekends into the run. We had made further plans which have been thwarted for the past month due to family circumstances. We’re making plans for this weekend. Let’s hope.

Anyway, I’d intended to write this post after that third weekend sellout. As bummed as I was that I didn’t get in, I was also happy. You see, if you catch what I’m getting at, this is a big deal for the movie theater industry. You’d probably agree that its almost unheard of for a movie to sell out after opening weekend, and this movie was a prime example of someone trying something and doing it right. Movie theaters have been trying new things for decades; contending with home videos since the very early 80s, shorter and shorter time spans between the theatre and home video releases, and contending with home theater systems and direct download movies. Instead of doing nothing new, theaters, as well as movie studios who enjoy the double income from both box office sales and home video sales, have come together to produce ever better viewing experiences. They are constantly looking for new ways to deliver unique and better experiences.

This stands in stark contrast to the book store industry who seems to be doing not much. Last year, J.C. Hutchins teamed up with viral game designer Jordan Weisman and they created the novel, Personal Effects: Dark Art. I say created rather than written because even though it’s sold in book stores and the main component is the stand alone novel, there is much much more to it. Each book ships with a number of artifacts, all with clues so that you can follow along and try to work out the story as you go. Phone numbers in the story and on the artifacts work, as do website addresses. You can even google the characters and find sites for them. Its a bold new experiment for sure, but more than that, its the kind of idea that could help keep printed media relevant. You simply can’t get these artifacts on a Kindle.

What’s my point? Its that the movie theater industry has been trying lots of new things, from IMAX to 3D to unparalleled audio to pre-roll advertising. Not everything they try sticks, but at least they’re experimenting. Book stores on the other hand don’t seem to try so hard. J.C.’s book should have been front and center in EVERY book store in the country, just to SEE if it was an idea that could take off. The stores, if they were interested at all in finding new ways to stay relevant, should have embraced the effort. Instead, either not wanting to take a chance on a new author, a new idea, or simply because they didn’t understand the concept, they pretty much ignored it. Its too bad, too, because I love book stores and would like to see them remain relevant (see previous post for more on that).

What does this mean for you? Well, what’s going on in your industry? If things are changing, especially if those changes are starting to make you irrelevant, it might be time to start trying something new. Pay attention to what others are doing differently as well, and take note of what seems to be working. Do a bunch of things differently. If an idea comes along, just try it. If it fails, fine, but at least you know what doesn’t work, and its harder to weed through the bad ideas and find the good ones if you’re not producing any ideas at all.

Posted in: Business, Driving Creativity.
Tagged: · · · · · ·

Sharpening the Saw: Mental

Feb 10th, 2010
by Chris.
No comments yet

About mid January most of my team at work took a 2 day course on the principles from Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The 7th habit, Sharpening the Saw, refers to the process of scheduling time for personal growth, relaxation, health and exploration. He breaks the areas we need to focus on into 4 groups, Physical, Social/Emotional, Mental and Spiritual.

When we got to the 7th Habit, we broke the room into 4 groups and each group had to come up with ideas on how or where we could find ways to continue to progress in our area. My group, of course, had Mental as our topic. This is the list of ideas we came up with. After class, I wrote them up and emailed them to the entire group so that the others could follow up on them if they wanted to.

Going through my inbox today, I realized that some of you might benefit from this list as well, since having a sharp, fresh mind is one way to really keep us creative and alert to possibilities.

—

TED: Ideas Worth Spreading – http://www.ted.com/
These talks were all recorded from TED conferences from around the world. The topics cover all areas of human life, from Technology and Science to Entertainment, Art and Design to Business and Global Issues. These talks are given by people you know and have great reputations in their fields. Politicians, authors, scientists, CEOs, and the like. Most of these talks are NOT industry or vocational in nature; they generally take high-level thinking from their field and apply its impact to the world scene and our every day lives. I don’t believe I’ve heard a ‘bad’ TED talk yet (or maybe the bad ones never make it to their website :) . Many of these videos are posted on their site. There are also several iPhone apps that will allow you to stream content directly to your iPhone.

Big Ideas Video – http://www.tvo.org/TVOsites/WebObjects/TvoMicrosite.woa?bigideas
Big Ideas Video Feed – http://feeds.tvo.org/tvobigideasVideo
Like TED, this video series features a number of talks on various topics from many different speakers, each a recognized leader in their field, and making application to current or future trends.

Seth Godin’s Blog – http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
Seth (who is also a TED speaker) is the author of a number of bestselling books about critical thinking. Because he tends to apply these thoughts to marketing and business, this is where you will generally find them in the book store, but in reality, the principles in many of his books can be applied to everyone’s every day lives. His blog offers a daily thought of the kind that keeps you thinking far outside of the box. Jim and I highly recommend it.

Podcasts
If you’re like me and enjoy (and are able) to listen to audio while you work or exercise, I recommend trying audio podcasts. There are video podcasts as well, but unless they are really good, like the TED talks, I generally don’t have time for watching.

There are podcasts that cover just about every topic. Some are amateur (like mine), some are VERY amateur (ouch), and some of professional (even Disney & ESPN release both recycled and original content in podcast format). Podcasts can be downloaded to your MP3 player of choice or listened to directly from your computer. To see what is out there, I recommend using the iTunes application which has an extensive directory as well as offers ease of use.

If you just want to start with fan-voted best of the best, check out the winners from this year at:
http://www.podcastawards.com/

Other directories can be found online and include:
http://podcastpickle.com/
http://podcastalley.com/
http://podcastdirectory.com/

Posted in: Books, Driving Creativity.
Tagged: · · · · ·

Touched by Violence

Feb 7th, 2010
by Chris.
5 comments

This is a phrase I’ve heard used before to describe situations where a person or place has endured a violent episode. Right now the phrase feels inadequate. Dainty, even. It certainly doesn’t live up to the task at hand. This post is especially for those of you who have been with me for more than a couple of years. If that’s you, then you might remember that in December of 2007, Manessa, my then 16 year old sister-in-law had run away from her home, and many of you worked with me to help my family and I find her. What we didn’t know then is that she was actually running away from a man who was hurting her; a relative who wintered with the family, fooling everyone and hiding his activity with her from everyone including her mother. About a year later, Manessa found the courage to tell her mother what had happened. The police and courts got involved after that, and after pleading guilty to lesser charges, he was released on 6 years probation.

This past month has been a rough time for my family. My wife lost her mother, and her sister was put in the hospital when this man entered their Florida-based home office and shot all four people on the premises. My mother-in-law, Kathryn Kalisz (Kitty), was shot dead in front of Manessa, who in turn took what appears to have been 6 bullets herself. As the person who had gotten him in trouble, there seems little doubt that he never intended her to get up again, but she’s a tough kid and after 3 weeks in the hospital is recovering well, though she and her fiance have lost their unborn child.

Besides Kitty and her daughter, he also shot and killed the office manager, Deborah Tillotson, and injured a relatively new employee, Amy Wilson, (whom we are happy to have been told has been released from the hospital). He then fled down the highway where he was finally stopped in a shoot out with police that cost the life of Sheriff’s Captain, Chad Reed. Fortunately, Kitty’s middle daughter had left early for an appointment that day and escaped physically unharmed.

If you heard anything about this story, it was probably in relation to the slain police officer. With tens of thousands dead in Haiti, this event was a relatively minor story, and rightly so. What happened in Haiti is a tragedy on a scale I’m sure that I can’t quite imagine. Understand that I don’t want to take anything away from that, but you should know that in the life of my own family, Haiti was a distant cry compared to what was happening around us. In fact, when the news was first reported to us, we were told that Kitty and both sisters, my wife’s entire family, had been shot and killed. So in truth, as first the news that Manessa was alive but in critical condition in the hospital, and later that Suzie was safe, was revealed to us, it can honestly be said that news got better as the evening wore on.

Kathryn was my mother-in-law. She was an artist and an internationally acclaimed color expert. Color expert. What does that even mean? Its hard to explain in a sentence, but she knew all about color from an artistic and scientific point of view. I doubt there are more than a dozen people alive who could match her knowledge of color and how it worked. Only a small fraction of her knowledge is in her book, Understanding Your Color. I had always joked that she’d forgotten more about color than I would ever know. About 11 years ago Kitty started crafting the pieces for her own business based on color and its application to life and health. She worked it every day for about 2 years, self-publishing her own book, manufacturing her own products in her basement, developing her own curriculum and teaching her courses herself. Once everything was developed, she then launched her business in earnest under the name Sci\ART. Over time her business began growing. It has become one of the most respected names in its industry, and has the most color-accurate products offered in the field of color analysis. As of January this year, she still manufactured her own products in her home, but she had the help of 4 employees (two were her daughters) and has certified trainers on 4 continents teaching her curriculum to students all around the world.

In fact, Bob Ostrom and I were slated to travel to Florida this February to pick up some training from her on color mixing and matching, and we were going to start teaching classes for her ourselves. Its odd, but even though most of the illustrations in her book were mine, even though her websites have all been designed by me, even though much of her marketing materials were my design and I helped her put together her swatchbook designs, my schedule never allowed me to attend any of her classes. After 8 years of supporting her business and her teaching, I honestly can’t believe I had never made the time to actually sit through a weekend course, since I’d always wanted to. I’ve been told there are taped sessions. I hope I can get hold of a copy of them someday soon.

As great a loss to our family as she was, it just doesn’t stop there. The business was the sole source of income for both of my wife’s sisters. When you stop to think about it, you realize that a sizable portion of company was put out of commission that day. Scores, if not hundreds, of businesses depend on the products that Sci\ART manufactures so that they can do business, and the one person who knew every detail of the business is gone. Suzanna Grief, the middle daughter, is working hard to keep Sci\ART going and to completely wrap her head around the intricacies of the business. Even so, with all of the accounts and records in Kitty’s name and the legal red tape Suzie is dealing with right now, it will be a while before things will be completely back ‘on track’. We have full faith that she can do it, but to her credit, she’s doing it without having had a pay-day in over 3 weeks.

Even if Manessa could get paid to work right now, she still couldn’t work, and most likely won’t be able to for a while longer. She’ll be held up in the hospital for several more weeks, recovering for a time, and then will still face at least one more very serious surgery in late spring with another few months of recovery after that. True enough, while in the hospital her own needs are more or less being met, but she has a horse, which is apparently a bit more expensive to keep than my cat, and other expenses that need to be met. We are praying for a full recovery for Manessa in time. Also, we hope that since he’s facing 3 murder charges in a state with the death penalty, Manessa will never have to fear her attacker again. Through it all, its possible that the darkest chapter of this ordeal is actually behind her.

As for me, my wife has been gone 3 weeks now, tending to her sister in the hospital. Now that Manessa has been moved to rehab, which is apparently hospital code for ‘its time for the patient to learn to take care of herself’, my wife will be returning home to my daughter and I this weekend. We can’t wait to see her.

A few donations from other family members that have come in have helped to offset the costs these two are facing for now, but will most likely not be enough to get them through to the end. They are accepting donations at their mother’s memorial site (link at the bottom).

Bob would tell me that I don’t need to apologize to anyone, and I suppose that really I don’t, but I certainly want to, especially those of you who have stuck with me over the years. I know you haven’t heard from me in almost a month, and certainly not regularly. I had just started to blog regularly and Bob and I had just gotten our podcast back onto a somewhat regular twice-monthly schedule. Now, not only have those been affected, but you probably haven’t seen me much, if at all on Twitter, Facebook or any other sites lately. With all that has happened, and with my wife across the country tending to her sister, I’ve been holding down the day job, running my wife’s business when needed, doing all of the ‘at home’ stuff (shopping, cleaning, laundry, etc.) and devoting the rest of my free time to taking care of my little girl who has cried herself to sleep the majority of the evenings; I’ve just been trying to be there for her while keeping her routine going. She grew up in Grandma’s house, her aunt Nessa is really more of a big sister to her, and mom isn’t here. And she got a cold the first week out (refer to the ‘mom isn’t here’ part for impact on that news).

I’d like to take a moment to praise my team at ESPN as well. I don’t know if this applies to the entire company, or even to the entire Disney family of companies, but MY TEAM at ESPN has been very supportive and helpful. Even to the point of my working slightly shortened but very focused days so that I didn’t have to hire a sitter to stay with my girl after school let out. These guys rock. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I couldn’t ask to work with a better group of folks.

So, again, for basically disappearing on you guys, I’d like to apologize. I know with certainty that you will understand, but really, I should have at least given you a reason. Anyway, my schedule has been so tight that not even Bob has been able to really get any of my attention, so if that’s any indication, you know I’ve just dropped off the face of the earth. I wish I could say it was over, but chances are Louanna and I will be distracted for a little while to come between probate, helping Suzie where we can, and when Manessa gets out of the hospital, we’ll be scraping up funds for tickets and flying down for funeral services. However, Bob and I have lined up interviews with the ever-determined Dani Jones and an old buddy of our, Dan Thompson, so even if our Twitter episode gets put off a few weeks, we won’t be leaving you completely hanging.

One more thing I feel really bad about is my preview copy of Seth Godin’s Linchpin. I had received it early with the stipulation with my own hope that I would blog about it, good or bad, before the launch date (Seth wrote to me and corrected my thinking that blogging about it was not part of the agreement, only that I read it). As you probably read from my previous article which was actually posted the day all of this happened, I was well underway with the book. Since then, I’ve continued to pick at it, and I can tell you its really good so far, but I have yet to finish it. Go pick it up. Read it. If you’re the kind of person who finds our podcast useful, then this book was written just for you. I’ll publish my final review of it soon, and I hope that Seth is OK with the fact that I dropped the ball on this entirely.

If you’re interested in reading some of Kitty’s writing, you can find her blog here:
http://blog.coloranalysis.com/

or her book (highly recommended for any artist, but I’m not sure how quickly copies are shipping at this time) here:
http://www.coloranalysis.com/category_s/114.htm
If you’re an artist, skip the client edition and go for the full version. Its written with color analysts in mind, but really, isn’t ever artist a ‘color analyst’ in one form or another?

A small memorial site has been put up here:
http://kathrynleekalisz.com/
and if you’re in a position to help the sisters out a bit, you can make a small online donation as well.

and a tribute from her first student, Maytee Garza:
http://www.revealstyleconsultancy.com/2010/01/kathryn-kalisz-donovanpublished-by-mayte-garza/

There are stories all over the web, but one that has done a decent job of putting together the information without massacring too many of the facts or dwelling too heavily on sensationalism is here:
http://bristolpress.com/articles/2010/01/16/news/doc4b527e48b0429850310794.txt

Posted in: Personal.
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Linchpin: Are You Indespensable?

Jan 14th, 2010
by Chris.
1 comment

I’ve recently started reading a preview copy of Seth Godin’s Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? I’m hoping to make a few updates between now and finishing it, but I wanted to just drop a quick post and let you know that this book is really resonating with me.

See, I stopped freelancing almost 4 years ago because I realized my business wasn’t going in a direction that made me happy, and reading Michael Gerber’s book, The E-Myth Revisited, had pretty much showed me why (I swear that book was written just for me). The E-Myth also laid out a very solid foundation for designing and starting your own business. I just needed some time to think and regroup, so I shut down my time-sucking (60+ hours per week) ‘business’ and took a ‘day job’, where I could show up from 8-5 and then go home and think about and build whatever I wanted, NOT worry about clients.

Now, I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but from my cubicle over the past 4 years, I’ve watched the entire world change. There have been hints and foreshadowing for decades, what with outsourcing of first menial, and then later, highly sophisticated tech jobs; with factories in industrialized nations closing and new ones opening in developing nations; with “health” vacations to India and Thailand becoming more and more common; yes, hints and foreshadowing that much of what we had built, systematized, and standardized was now going to someone other than ourselves. This factory-based system that worked for so long just seems to have stopped working for any but the most rich and the most poor. The rest of us in the middle have been forgotten.

Its not that the systems from Michael Gerber’s E-Myth in and of themselves aren’t a good idea (in fact, I regularly create systems for lots of things, including my personal life, to help smooth things along), but the entire world has been so systematized and outsourced, that our ability to actually participate in these systems seems to be disappearing at a rapid rate.

This seems to be where Seth’s book steps in. Where Gerber’s book looks at the world from an old-system business owner who seeks to standardize the entire business and where the workers in a business are all interchangeable, Seth’s book is looking at our emerging era where the owners (us) actually own our own factories ($500 for a new PC, or $2000 for a new Mac?!?). Where we stop fitting ourselves into the standardized cogs of old-style business and start recreating ourselves as unique, indispensable artists.

The thing we need to realize is that we can’t afford to be compliant laborers anymore, because companies can no longer afford to hire employees who are simply good at their jobs. As Seth writes in his book, “The compliant masses don’t help so much when you don’t know what to do next.” Companies have no idea where to go from here, and a worker who simply shows up is becoming a waste of space. The world we all operated in 10, even 5 years ago is disappearing rapidly, and what we all need are thinkers and creative problem solvers to help find a new direction. And smart companies will pay for it, whether as an employee or a consultant.

I believe that this book will speak directly to most of the listeners of Creative Independence simply because doing things on our own is in our very nature; its in our core. This book is written in such a way to speak to those of us who are part of a new, emerging class of people; those who both own and are the key employees of our own businesses. Check it out when you get a chance. I’ll update more as I finish up this book.

You can pre-order your copy from Amazon by clicking here (affiliate link): Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Posted in: Books, Business, Driving Creativity.
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