Hey everyone!

It’s been quite some time since my last post but hey, rather than dwelling on what’s already in the past, it’s time to get back to the grind.

Anyway, I wanted to reflect on the past 6 months of what I’ve been working on non-stop. Aside from the fact that I’m still learning how to handle my 2 1/2 year old son and my twin girls, MOJO Themes has been at the top of my list.  I wanted to share what my experience has been like thus far. On top of that, I want to give you some advice that I used first hand with my marketplace.

My Advice to You:

Launch now!

If you’re reading this right now and you’re working on a project that you just can’t wait to launch until you get it perfect. Then it’s time to stop being a perfectionist and get that bad boy launched.

Rewind MOJO Themes 6 Months Ago…

If ever read the 37 Signals blog or their books, Getting Real & ReWork you’ll know what philosophies they use to build their apps. I love it and used a lot of their ideas for motivation and guidance for this venture. Agile development, boot-strapping, less is more, getting into the trenches and grinding ALL DAY LONG.

Speaking of Agile Development, we took the idea to the next level. No joke, just days before launching out of BETA, we knocked off big parts of what we wanted/intended to launch with.

Let me give one of the reasons why I’m telling you to Launch Now.

You don’t know everything.

6 months ago, there are things I never even thought of nor would I ever have considered if I didn’t launch the MOJO Themes Marketplace when I did. On top of that, there was a huge, long list of items that we’re set to be complete before launch. Scratch those items of the launch list.

2 of the biggest items we DIDN’T launch with:

• Affiliate Program
• Forum

Leaving these out of the launch list was difficult but looking back, I’m glad we waited. It gave us time to really plan out the right way to setup the MOJO affiliate program.

On top of that, we found a gap within this niche that needed to be filled. Instead of finishing out the launch items right away, we put them in the back seat to unveil a new feature within our marketplace. Let me explain why…

All of our sellers have different skill sets. Some are rockstar designers and others are programming ninjas. With that being said, we realized sellers we’re in need of way to collaborate with one another. If we could create a solution for our sellers to focus on their skills the items they upload would be top notch.

From there, we created and launched the very first collaboration program called JOINT FORCES. It finally unites designers and developers. As sellers upload items, they input their team members details and “Join Forces” on the item their uploading. From there, our system takes care of all the logistics for a seamless allocation of their commissions. It’s cool because it gives our sellers a chance to focus on what they do best and leave us to take care of the details.

Quick look at some of my favorite themes

FolioStudio Business & Portfolio Wordpress Theme – VIEW DETAILS ($50)

I love this business wordpress theme because it’s one of the very first themes I’ve seen released that utilizes all the features of Wordpress 3.0. Everything from the new menus/nav feature to the custom post types. It uses 3 different custom post types that allow you to manage specific types of content. (Slider, Portfolio & Team Members).

Photobox Photography Wordpress Theme – VIEW DETAILS ($35)

Easily one of the best sellers on our marketplace so far. I think one of the reasons is because of all the different layouts you can use with this theme. Seeing that it’s geared towards photographers, it seems to suit all their needs.

Altered Perspective Tumblr Theme – VIEW DETAILS ($12)

It’s amazing to me that MOJO Themes is one of the first to enter the “Premium Tumblr Theme” market along side some good company. Altered Perspective, in my opinion, set’s the bar pretty high in terms of innovation. All the content scrolls horizontally and the design couldn’t be sexier.

MOJO Today:

I couldn’t be happier with how far we’ve come in such a short amount of time. We only opened our doors to Buyers & Sellers at the first of April. Just shy of 3 months, we’re gaining some serious momentum and I can’t even imagine where we’ll be in another 3 months.

I feel like our success thus far is a combination of having a passion for what you do everyday, not being afraid to shy away from the gameplan and ALWAYS looking for ways to be the leader and innovate on what’s already out there.

There’s still items on our launch list that we’ve yet to complete but I think we’ll continue to keep things agile. We’ll use our experience so far and take the feedback from our users to help guide us on what is higher priority over another.

As I keep working through this venture, I’ll do my best to keep my site updated and start sharing more details about what’s going on behind scenes with MOJO!

Yes, I know. I haven’t posted in quite some time but I thought this was worth sharing.

This is how I spent my Tuesday evening. As a kid I loved Teen Wolf and somehow I ended up drawing a juiced up teen wolf. Sort of odd but at the same time pretty cool…

This past Father’s day was my second in my short “daddy career” but will be remembered forever. To me, it’s an absolute privilege to be called a dad so to have a day for all of the dads out there makes you feel that much more special. The past 18 months with my son have been the best adventure of my life. Everyday there’s something new and exciting he does.

I’m already picturing us sitting at Fenway Park watching the Boston Red Sox play while we eat a ballpark frank every inning BUT now I get to picture that scene with two more gifts from our heavenly father. That’s right, the day before Father’s day (June 20th) my wife and I were greeted with our brand new baby girls, Kate & Grace.

Could anyone think of a better Fathers day present than twin girls? No way.

This is a completely raw single cut of one of Isaac’s songs called – Greed & Hate. Meaning there’s absolutely no editing, just pure awesomeness. Isaac is in the final stages of releasing his fully-funded debut album. I wanted to share one of my favorite songs from his album.

Be sure to check out Isaac Farr’s Official Website for updates on when the album will release!

Enjoy…

Greed and Hate – Isaac Farr

I can’t even begin to describe what it’s like to be Dad.

The last year and a half has flown by. Luckily, we’ll have pictures like this to hold onto.

This is just too funny not to share with all of the million’s of people that read this blog

I want to throw out a thought that has really made me think. Are you great at one thing or good at many things?

Occasionally, I like to take a step back and think about where my focus is, my motivation is and if I’m moving in the right direction. If you don’t know me you have to understand something about me. I’m the type of person who wants to know how to do everything and if I don’t know how to do it I want to know how. At my work I sometimes think of myself as a “Utility” guy. Almost like a human Swiss Army knife. I know how to do many things and I think I am good at them but am I truly great at something?

My brother Clayton hit home when I read a post from him the other day.

I got the message early on that I can do about anything. However, it wasn’t until quite a bit later that I realized I can’t do everything.

This made my mind start thinking about great at one thing or good at many things. I have heard this before but my brain just can’t seem to understand it. Especially nowadays right? I mean think about how fast things change? I find myself worrying if I spend all of my time focusing on becoming great at something that by the time I perfect that “thing” it could be out of date. Is anything really scalable anymore besides Google?

I commend anyone who has perfected one thing in their life. My hat’s off to you my fellow friend. The problem for me is my brain just isn’t programmed that way. I am truly a life learner. If I can learn something new everyday I feel like I grow as a person. (Geez this is getting deep huh? Sorry we’re almost done.)

Anyway, just a thought that you should really take a step back and look at. The one problem I see with trying to be good at SO many things could lead to not having a enough time to focus on things that actually create value. To me it’s a balancing act.

I say, don’t limit yourself but just be carefull to not strecth yourself too thin. It can’t hurt to learn new things because you naturally grow as a person.

What about you? Are you great at one thing or good at many things?

For some strange and unknown reason the peeps and Twitter have more then one search function for Twitter. It almost seems that Twitter has neglected to fix one of the search tools too. I guess the other one is cooler.

The “Twitter Search” I am refering to today is the one you’ll find at the footer of Twitter. Also know as “search.twitter.com” If it happens to be your first time using search.twitter you’ll see why they have neglected to fix the other search tool.

Twitter Search isn’t only used to Increase Followers

Some of you might be surprised that Twitter Search has more benefits then increasing your followers. Most are guilty for it but it seems like more and more people will follow you to get the follow back. In the past week I have had a handful of new followers and when I go to look at their profile I see something like this:

“lgkajlsdkjrlkeja” is now following you!

562 Following, 28 Follwers, & 2 Updates.

I mean following someone for the simple reason that they have something in common with you would just be insane right? (Insert Sarcasim). Wrong. Think about this. No matter what interests you have, what industry you work in or even what your favorite baseball team is (*Cough* Boston Red Sox) there are people on Twitter that have more in common with you then you think.

Use Twitter Search to Leverage “Trending” Topics

This can be very helpful to find up to date information on any specific topic. The best part about using Twitter Search to do it, is you’ll see hundreds and thousands of different views on the subject. It’s not like you get the story from a single persons opinion. You can spend 5-10 minutes learning the details of the story and create your own point of view.

Also, depending on what type of work your involved in this can get you a head start. Maybe you’re a blogger wanting to publish a new post about this topic, an affiliate marketer wanting to see trends, or whatever the case may be I think you get my point.

Follow fellow Twitterers with your Same Interests

Here’s what I find powerful about Twitter. I live and breath anything online – marketing, blogging, design, etc. I follow people on Twitter that are complete geniuses about my industry and they openly share their knowledge. I can’t even count how many times a new app has come out or someone reviewed a new keyword tool and I was lucky enough to come across it before a big majority of people do.

Also, when following and be followed by people with your interests you help each other. I know I find myself asking for feedback or advice and I’ll get instant responses. The same works on the flip side. The point of Twitter is to be social, so be sure to return the favor and in the end, everyone is happy.

Twitter is Valuable

Use Twitter to your advantage. Find people with your interests, create and build relationships and be the biggest sponge you can be because there’s no shortage of valuable information from this awesome community.

Call me crazy but this is what I think, do you Agree or Disagree?

Hey! Check out the new look of my site. Let me know what you think by leaving me a comment below.

I have been toying around with the design of my site forever.  I am always looking to change things up and move things around.  I finally decided on a clean & sophisticated look. The new look of my site isn’t flashy and there’s really not much too it, but I like it.  I think the typography (font) is much easier on the eyes to read and it’s very easy to navigate.

Different is Good Right?

I like to think so.  Why not start out 2009 with something different. This actually ties into my whole new vision on how I want to own the year of 2009. This design represents a clean, fresh and un-cluttered feeling to it. That’s what I want to go for in 2009. I feel that I have become very sophisticated in many aspects of my life, from a professional and personal standpoint and I want to show that.  I have a lot of good intentions in this new year and this will be a great reminder of how I want things to go in ‘09.

So… Yay or Nay?

Let me know what you think of the new look.  Maybe after you see what my intentions were behind the change you’ll understand what looks boring & un-flashy at first, is actually clean, fresh, un-cluttered awesomeness.  That’s exactly what I want my 2009 to be.

Today I wanted to share a productivity app called Evernote.  I wrote a post about tips to stay organized awhile back that touched on Evernote.  I have been using Evernote on my Mac and iPhone for that last month or so.  Evernote has really helped me stay more organized and remember things.  The app is free and it’s available for Mac users and Window’s Users.

If you’ve been looking for a great organizing app that stores notes, images, audio clips, videos, etc.  Evernote does it all.  Check out this video to see what I’m talking about.

Visit the official Evernote website to download Evernote for FREE.