The cover for female Indy Car driver Milka Dunno's new children's book.

The beautiful and intelligent Indy Car driver turned childrens book author, Milka Duno, will be signing her new book, “Go, Milka, Go!” on April 14th from 6-9PM at Libreria Martinez located in the Artists Village in Santa Ana at 216 N. Broadway.  Bring your kids, nieces, nephews, your camera, and meet Milka while supporting a pillar in the Orange County community and one of the few surviving independent book stores.  Here’s some more info on Milka.  http://bit.ly/bNv1qv

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Libreria Martinez-the bookstore that has been a long time Santa Ana, CA landmark- is owned by Rueben Martinez.  Rueben is a sought after speaker, literacy advocate, and is both a MacArthur and Chapman University Presidential Fellow, which are just two of his many awards and appointments.  Libreria Martinez has recently reopened at its new location 216 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, CA in the Artists Village.

Designers, are you looking to streamline the way you proof with clients? Look no further!

In one of our previous posts, we reviewed the Conceptshare system. The above video is a quick run through highlighting some of the features of the Conceptshare workspace, showing you how the platform could help make your life just a bit easier and your clients much happier.

Well, just hit the jump for 10 great resources that have been tested and reviewed with flying colors! And if you know something that should have made this list but didn’t feel free to leave us a comment and tell us why you love that product!

1) Freshbooks

Freshbooks is invoicing made simple. Featuring client log-ins, professional invoice templates, and custom branding, as well as a ton of ways to track expenses, time, and more, Freshbooks really is a top contender when it comes to tracking your money. In addition to all of these great features, there are a number of other resources that integrate seemlessly into Freshbooks! The free account is a great trial account that limits your number of clients, but to take full advantage of the services, step on up and get a regular account. You won’t be disappointed.

Pricing: The option of a free account. Paid plans begin at $19/month.

2) Zoho Suite

Zoho features a suite of services from invoicing, to CRM, to planners, to project management. With all of these services to choose from, Zoho really does become a one stop shop for all of your business needs.

Pricing: The option of a free account. Paid plans begin at $8/month (this is for their invoicing services only. Check the site for all of their additional services and pricing)

3) Batchbooks

Need help keeping track of communication? Wish you could find out what you said or when you said something to a client? Wish no more. Batchbooks provides a fantastic solution to all of your CRM needs! Contact list? Check. Project list? Check. Seamless integration into Mailchimp by categorizing contacts into lists? Check. Don’t waste time searching through old emails when Batchbooks takes care of everything. In fact, Batchbooks allows you to track all communications via email simply by CC’ing them (through a unique address provided when you sign up). You can take down your wall of Post-its now.

Pricing: 30-day free trial with plans starting at $10/month

4) Basecamp

Basecamp, a go to for anybody looking for project management capabilities. Assign projects, allocate tasks, oversee production stages, file sharing, message boards and more that can be done from the dashboard (that can be customized btw). Straight foward, integrates across multiple platforms and tons of support make this one of the top resources for any designer!

Pricing: Basic plans begin at $24/month.

5) Conceptshare

Looking for a better way to proof work with clients? Tired of driving all across town to get a client to approve a design? Looking for a more reliable way to obtain approvals and track projects? Conceptshare is a great solution for all of the above. Clients can log-in, view artwork, make live notes, and even chat directly with you. A great tool that is definitely a time saver, just be sure to teach your clients how to use it first!

Pricing: Solo packages begin at $24/month.

6) ProofHQ

Similar to Conceptshare, ProofHQ allows for many of the same features but also allows for seemless Basecamp integration, embedding on blogs, and sharing across multiple platforms, making ProofHQ an extremely useful and accessible proofing platform!

Pricing: Micro package begins at $17/month.

7) Dropbox

Dropbox is a fantastically simple, yet very effective way to store and transfer files. Simply create an account and your ready to begin uploading, storing, and sharing files galore! Send unique links to clients, allowing them to upload to their own private folder, send files directly and with 2 GB of storage on the FREE account, it’s a great solution for sharing and storing files!

Pricing: The option of a free account. Pricing plans begin at $10/month

Mailchimp

Do you have time to send massive emails out by typing in individual email addresses or compiling long contact lists that cap off at 50 contacts? Allow the monkey on a mission to do it all for you and make those bulk emails look fabulous! Mailchimp is a powerful tool that allows you to customize and create professional email templates that can be used repeatedly on future email campaigns, but the best part of Mailchimp are the metric it provides you. Track who has opened the email, how many have been bounced back, how many are dead addresses and more through it’s easy to read graphs and charts it provides. Give the free trial account a spin and say goodbye to your boring old emails!

Pricing: The option of a free account. Pricing plans begin at $30/month

9) Xpenser

Have you ever been driving to a meeting and thought to yourself, “Geez I wish there was a way to be tracking all of these business miles aside from on a pen and paper.” Well, Xpenser has your back! Track all sorts of expenses from money to mileage from your mobile device, laptop, or desktop. No more writing down miles, or tracking and calculating those receipts. Make your purchase, log it into xpenser wherever you are, and be on your way!

Pricing: Absolutely FREE!

10) Graphic Artists Guild

The purpose of the Graphic Artists Guild is to promote and protect the social, economic and professional interests of its members.

The Guild is committed to improving conditions for all graphic artists (including, but not limited to: animators, cartoonists, designers, illustrators, and digital artists) and raising standards for the entire industry. The Guild embraces graphic artists at all skill levels.

No real need to elaborate any further, they said it pretty good. Join up and reap the benefits including a discount on the annual edition of “graphic artists guild handbook pricing & ethical guidelines”.

Pricing: $30 initiation fee for all levels. $200 annual professional fee.

11) AIGA

AIGA’s mission is to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool and vital cultural force.

With chapter’s all over the US (and 3 in the Southern California area: San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange County) being a member of AIGA allows for plenty of opportunity to grow, learn, and associate with other designers.

Pricing: $315 annual professional fee. Save $20 by registering online!

If you’ve read any business books, you’ll know that many of them touch on a lot of the same basic principals of being a successful entrepreneur/business person. This shouldn’t discourage you from reading a diverse collection of business material because reading these books will help hammer home some of the fundamental core values of being successful. Some business books are anecdotal, some are fact based, and all are valuable assets to have in your home library, easy for you to reference when you’re feeling discouraged, lost, or just need that boast to know that somewhere along time ago, there were people going through the same issues/success you are experiencing right now.

*As always, any prices listed below are based off of Amazon.com

Hit the jump for the full reviews!

1) Book Title: One Minute Entrepreneur Author: Ken Blanchard Price: $19.99
A great book and a very easy and quick read. The principals in this book are laid out in quick anecdotes as you follow along with a young entrepreneur as he progresses through life and business while learning how to manage both effectively. Some of these principals are surprisingly effective and provide a strong foundation for any company or organization to be built on.

2) Book Title: Ignore everybody Author: Hugh MacLeod Price: $23.95
Hugh MacLeod (@gapingvoid) kills it with this book. For the reader with the short attention span, MacLeod lays out 40 keys to staying true to yourself in a world of pleasing others. No BS. No cute fluffy words. He cuts through the crap and tells you like it is and in most cases….tells you what you need to hear.

3) Book Title: Getting Things Done Author: David Allen Price: $16.00
The title says it all. If you’re finding yourself constantly thinking about projects, what you need to do next, how you’re gonna get those things done, all while drowning in a see of post-it notes and clutter, buy this book. Now. Allen’s system is a simple and DOABLE system that allows you to focus on the jobs and tasks that really matter, while keeping all of the mental, and physical clutter sorted and placed in places that streamline your efficiency and turn you in to well-oiled working machine.

4) Book Title: The Richest Man in Babylon Author: George Clason Price: $6.99
A classic entrepreneur/personal finances/business book that touches on solid principals of business, financial investment and security, and sound decision making in the form of parables. Principals such as how to efficiently allocate all of your paycheck told in the form of biblical parables makes for an interesting reading. Applying these ideas to ones life can make financial planning a stress-free enjoyable tolerable event!

5) Book Title: Strengthsfinder 2.0 Author: Tom Rath Price: $22.95
There’s not much to say about this book except wow. A recommendation from Luke Mysse, this is probably one of the most influential books I’ve read recently. And the kicker is, there really isn’t even any reading. Within this book is the real treasure in the form of a detailed 30 minute quiz, which analyzes your strengths based off your series of responses. This quiz pulls from millions of responses to give you a very detailed and accurate results sheet. Your strengths are presented to you in 5 of 32 different strengths. I could sit here and go into detail about each one, but I’d much rather you go and take the test. My results were so accurate in some areas that only voodoo could have made such magic occur.

There are tons of books out there that I’ve yet to read so if you know of a book that has inspired you, leave a comment and let me know!

For those loyal readers who have been with Mobo Media and our blog since it’s inception, you might remember a post I wrote entitled “#3 Shot Burst #1: Top Reasons to Use Viddler” (check it out if you haven’t read it).  In the article, I discussed the premise of what was supposed to become a series of posts in a written in a “top 3″ format.  I was also fortunate enough to interview Viddler co-founder and President, Robert Sandie and he provided the basis for the first “3 Shot Burst” (rhyming was intentional).

Well after a brief hiatus, I’ve finally put together “3 Shot Burst #2: Top Rules for Life and Business” as given to me by my good friend, Fraternity brother (Pi Kappa Alpha), fellow Combat Veteran, one time Congressional candidate and Senior Marketing Specialist at FedEx: Jason Hernandez.  You should be applying these rules to both your personal and professional life.  If you’re not, you definitely need to click the jump to read Jason Hernandez’s “Top Rules for Life and Business”.Note: I had to afford Jason the opportunity to speak on his interpretation of the 3 shot burst.  As a former Sailor in the US Navy, Jason could not let this former Soldier be the only word in military terminology.  Carry on!

To begin, I will reiterate what was previously described by one Jason Moore-Brown as the genesis of the three-round burst.  In the Navy, operators use a weapon called the MP5N Navy Model, developed by H&K.  This weapon has three specific settings that can fire a 9mm round in single shot fire, three-round bursts, or fully automatic at 800 rounds per minute.  I will, for the purpose of this conversation, select the three-round burst to disclose my revelations as it pertains to my rules of business and the potential applicability to life.
Rule #1: Don’t say anything stupid. This rule of business is, clearly, applicable in all facets of life.  One might be surprised by the truly ridiculous comments made during the course of a business interaction.   Keep jokes, criticisms, and otherwise meaningless observations to a strict minimum.  I was once conducting an interview with a seasoned professional who thought it would be a good idea to discuss the value of circumcision.  He was not hired.

Rule #2: Look both ways before you cross. This is a great life-lesson gleaned at a young age that should be applied to the administration of business.  To put it in other terms…before initiating a course of action, evaluate and weigh the risks involved and associated with such an action before proceeding.  Most errant business decisions can be traced back to poorly considering risks and improperly evaluating conditions.

Rule #3: Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg. This is another pearl of wisdom originating from the brilliance of Aesop.  For those who have forgotten the story…A man possesses a goose which laid a golden egg every day. Lucky though he was, he believed he were not getting rich fast enough, and, imagining the bird must be made of gold inside, decided to kill it. Then, he thought, he could obtain the whole store of gold at once; however, upon cutting the goose open, he found it to be like that of any other goose.  This is a great metaphor for business, in that, a short-sighted action that may bring an immediate reward may ultimately prove disastrous.  Greed destroys the source of good.

A while back I posted up a video expressing my opinion on the Quiznos “free sandwich” disaster. Trying not to let one bad apple spoil the bunch I chalked it up to one bad company making a stupid decision and kept the faith that other franchises did not make the same mistake.

Enter Kentucky Fried Chicken’s recent “free grilled chicken” promotion.

They wanted to push their new “grilled” chicken in a big way by challenging El Pollo Loco’s grilled chicken to a nation-wide taste test. Well El Pollo Loco stepped up, gave their chicken away to the masses that swarmed all of their locations. KFC on the other hand? Oh they apparently failed to realize the number of people out there that would kill for Free food (read: me) and canceled their promotion 2 days into it.

WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?! Really? You didn’t anticipate the turnouts? argh.

Above is the “apology” by KFC’s president who took a page out of Dominoes Pizza’s president and sent the apology out via YouTube. Stay tuned for my own review when I go visit my local KFC to find out what the deal was.

Just a quick walk through of the LG exhibit at CTIA 2009 in lovely Las Vegas. I’m going to have to give the LG display the infamous Mobo Media nod for having the most aesthetically pleasing booth at CTIA. It also gets the award for biggest booth by a major handset manufacturer (not sure of actual sq. ft.; just eye-balling).  I know Santa Ana, CA’s Powerwave had a much larger exhibit complete with one of only seven (I think I heard that correctly) full-motion, virtual reality Formula 1 simulators in the world but they’re in a different category altogether (Note: their booth was just as big last year and while the vast majority of CTIA exhibitors downsized, Powerwave maintained sq. ft. and location).

I took some pics of noteworthy features and posted them via Twitpic. I’ll get those up on the site soon. I think my ADD kicked in as I walked by the wall of new Xenon’s and I neglected to post a pic of those sexy handsets that occupied a large piece of LG property. Click here to read Nicole Lee’s review of the Xenon on CNET.

I’ll be posting a couple more vids of Michael Bay doing a promo for Transformers (LG was involved with Transformers 2) and the new LG “Transformers” Handset (looks weak).

Full Disclosure: I am half Korean but I assure you that my ethnicity in no way biased my write-up of LG or it’s display. Did I mention Samsung’s exhibit? I kid, I kid. I own two Fords and a Yamaha and have a Blackberry. There!

Note: please forgive the out-of-frame shots. I was using my new Flip MinoHD for the first time and am still getting used to framing my self.

UPDATE: Mobo Media, Inc. is giving away one (1) free ticket, a $40 value to one lucky reader! Just leave a comment on this thread and be sure to include your email address! The winner will be chose @ random via random.org. on Wednesday @ 8 p.m. Good luck to everybody!

The latest event features Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan for those of you on Twitter), a heavy hitter in the worlds of social media and web technologies, who will be speaking on best practices for businesses looking to integrate social media into their marketing plans or rev-up their existing social media initiatives.  A panel of action sports industry insiders–including Gretchen Sheckler (Ryan Sheckler’s Mother and Manager) and Pat McIlvain, Vice President of Sports Marketing for Oakley, Inc–will also be at the event to talk about the latest industry trends and news. 

Hit the jump for more info on the event!

The event will be held at the Oakley Headquarters in Foothill Ranch, CA on March 26th from 6:30PM-10:00PM.  Oakley is sponsoring the event along with Streetwise Concepts+Culture, SocialCast, Optimal Nutrition, Mobo Media, Sonos, and other action sports industry affiliated organizations.

Jason Moore-Brown, President of Mobo Media, Inc., had this to say about the So Cal Action Sports Network and Mobo Media’s realtionship: “Bryan [Elliott] has built a great community that is the So Cal Action Sports Network and I’m happy to help him grow the community and excited to be a part of it.  Chris Brogan is great and I know I’ll be taking away some useful information that will help grow Mobo Media and its clients.”

Please click here to visit the So Cal Action Sports Network site to learn more about the Chris Brogan event on March 26th and to register for it.  Seats are limited.

Mobo Media, Inc. is a boutique media production company that’s four competencies are design, print, photography, and marketing consulting.  The team at Mobo Media operates without ego and is client-centric.  In addition to being modest, they are good at their job.  Don’t take their word for it, ask their clients.  Contact them at info@mobomediainc.com for more information and visit the website to get to know them better.

In the time it take to count to 3, you may have either successfully sold your potential client, or lost them amidst the crowd of your competitors.

Tic. Tock.

Tic. Tock.

Tic. Tock.

Three seconds.

That’s all you’ve really got to make the sale.

Source: The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less (Amazon Link)

I read this great post on Design Sojurn and was immediately struck by that phrase which was the premise of their post. As a designer, it is my job to create visually impacting work that engages the viewer and captures their attention. The writers over at Design Sojurn made a list of how they think you can successfully capture your market’s attention and I think it’s pretty darn good:

1) Create a Unique Design Identity
2) Strategic Designs that Communicate
3) Only Winning Designs may Apply
4) Not Just a Wow Factor, but a Meaningful Wow Factor
5) Consistency is the Key to Prosperity

This is a great list, but I’d like to add a couple more bullets to that list.

Hit the jump to find out what they are!

The bullets I want to add aren’t revolutionary and the great people at Design Sojurn will know, but the first bullet would be:

1a) Effective Communication with your client.

Since design is a visual form of communication, that speaks a sort of subliminal language with it’s market, it is important that we have a good understanding of that language. I’ve blogged about the “Creative Process” and Mobo Media is crazy about understanding what our client wants, and what their market demands.

The other bullet is also common sense, but very important; especially with the new forms of communication that make word-of-mouth marketing almost instantaneous:

6) Data capture & client follow-up

This is simply following up with the client and documenting the reaction to any design/marketing initiative we’ve done. We work hard being a one-stop shop for companies and this requires us to constantly track how our marketing initiatives are being received by our clients customers. This blog post comes at a great time, as we just began work to rebrand a new company that has experienced a lot of success and wants their corporate image to reflect that. We’ve had to listen to what they want and see what their clients demand.

I believe if we use the above 6 steps then we are just one step closer to being successful.