We had the good fortune of connecting with Mo Kim and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mo, what’s the most important thing you’ve done for your children?
Children are a beautiful blank canvas, and as a parent, there is no sufficient handbook that can prepare you when your kids come into this world. I was lucky enough to stay home with my newborns for the first 4 years, and nobody tells you how much introspection you have to do to become the parent your kids deserve. If you want your kids to be great, then it’s up to you as the parent to set the example and be great at everything that you do and to strive for excellence in a range of topics from drawing and painting, to health, nutrition, and fitness, and be consistent with your guidance. That will form the foundation for them to build upon. All I can hope for is that they will become curious, kind, confident and courageous.

As they get older, I continue to keep my eyes and ears open to see and hear how they’re perceiving the world as it opens up around them. I try my best to not only prepare them tasty and heathy meals, but also to keep their minds healthy by curating age-appropriate content.

Education from my point of view is learning HOW to think, not WHAT to think, and with the ocean of information that is available to anyone especially now, I stress the importance of learning how to analyze information and to then form a conclusion based on research as opposed to the barrage of headlines that tends to be on the surface.

As a parent, I keep their focus on those things that they love to do; for my daughter it happens to be drawing, painting, and creating with her hands, whereas for my son it’s his love for basketball from an early age. Luckily, I can guide them both in those areas, and when they have question or are ready to level up, I will be there for them.

They’ve impacted my life more than they will ever realize until they have their own children!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
When I decided to start VisualPops in 2015, I had to ask myself “WHY?” With art, you may make artwork for validation or to express an idea, or strictly for money. When I dug down to understand why I wanted to do what I wanted to do, I realized that it always lead back to helping good people. I was trading my expertise in composition, color theory, copywriting, messaging, camera operation, editing, painting, and more to help my clients achieve their goals.

Although being a Jack-of-All-Trades was once frowned upon, I realized that the speed in which I could deliver at the price point that I could offer – being mostly a solo-preneur – have become my biggest strength in comparison to a larger creative agency. I get to work directly with the client to first discover their aspirations and goals, then create the plan to deliver the visual assets that they would need for their brand via websites, social media ads, stills or a larger video advertising campaign.

I would strive to build a bigger book of business as VisualPops scales, and just like any small business, I am always looking for multiple streams of revenue as well.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I have to say that I don’t enjoy heavily crowded places where there’s no parking or long waits. That being said, if you come to the South Bay area, you can’t go wrong with the coastline from Santa Barbara, through Manhattan beach and Redondo Beach, all the way down to Newport Beach and Laguna Beach.

If you go into the city the Los Angeles, I would consider the Getty Museum for its sights and artwork, and eating Tsukemen at Fujita on Sawtelle. There are also great authentic Japanese food like Otakfuku where they serve handmade udon and soba in Gardena, and also great Vietnamese food like Nam as well.

There are also great Italian food at Eatalian in Gardena, and La Bocca Feliz in San Pedro as well. Pitfire Pizza in Manhattan Beach also come to mind as well as Slice and Pint in El Segundo for great pizza!

California definitely spoils you when it come to great food!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Some very close friends growing up have always recognized my talents more than I could, so I am grateful for their feedback, advice, and appreciation as we go through this Game of Life together.

In adulthood when I decided to change my career to pursue art as a living, I met many great teachers at The Gnomon School of Visual Effects, which then lead me to Red Engine Studios, then The Animation Guild in Burbank, and now to Brainstorm School where I continue to learn as well as teach DC1: Designing with Color and Light. John Park and James Paick who run the school have been great mentors in my Art Journey, and they’ve given me the confidence to become the teacher that I am today, almost 10 years in!

In the creative entrepreneurial field, I came across Chris Do who leads his team at theFutur. He has been a great resource for artists to develop their business acumen.

My worldviews have been formed by listening to a very well-renowned podcast called the No Agenda Show, and now there are countless other podcasts and books that fill my mind with a wealth of knowledge.

I’ve enjoyed books by Dr. Daniel Amen who is Brain Imaging expert and other authors such as Joe Dispenza, Gabor Mate, and Paul Conti who explain how the mind forms in relationship to its past which I’ve found recently to be fascinating. In the physical world we reside in, there is only so much we can do to build our bodies or acquire things, but the expansion of the mind is limitless!

Website: http://www.VisualPops.com

Instagram: @mo_visualpops

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mokimvisualpops/

Image Credits
Mo Kim (@mo_visualpops)

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