Client Interview: Building Trust Through Personal Connection

Jeffro (00:00.876)
Welcome back to Digital Dominance. For today’s episode, we’re talking with another one, my clients. So once again, you’re going to get the inside scoop on what it’s like to have Frobro on your team. Timothy Barry is my guest today. He is an award winning filmmaker and I’ve done now two websites for him. The first site was his own and the second was more of a collaboration for one of his video clients. Now I’m excited to talk through these projects today. So thanks for joining me, Tim, and welcome to the show.

Tim (00:26.791)
Thank you for having me and thank you for killing it on two awesome websites that I love showing off.

Jeffro (00:31.658)
Awesome. Yeah. Well, and, and one thing I was surprised to see when you came on was your mustache. You didn’t have them before. So I don’t know. Is that going to be a new thing you’re going to keep?

Tim (00:40.115)
I might. was, my hair had grown out really long. I don’t have the structure for the fro that you do. It turns into toddler hair. And when I got caught, Barbara left this for fun and I was like, you know what? My family will love it on Thanksgiving. So I got it.

Jeffro (00:48.749)
Ha

Jeffro (00:55.531)
All right, well, there you go. Now I want to give the listeners a little bit of background before we continue to dive in. Your company is called 1904 Productions and you and I met in September, 2023, I believe at the B2B Marketing Expo in Los Angeles. So, Frobro had a booth, we ended up talking there, but I was curious to hear from you. What was it that made you stop by the booth?

Tim (01:18.085)
Yeah, I loved the fact that you had what I call bite-sized marketing for branding. You you said your name was Frobro. I saw the fro. You were really easy to talk with. And I was like, that’s the perfect combination. Someone that understands, you know, quick and effective marketing and a good handshake.

Jeffro (01:35.628)
Yeah, and I had a lot of fun, you know, putting together our booth and the banner and everything too. And I actually gave a presentation as well called, how to make sure your website isn’t terrible. Did you end up watching that too?

Tim (01:47.123)
I haven’t seen that, but I’ve seen you talk about it. And one thing I really liked was in one of your writings was talking about the hero banner and it has to really be a hook. can’t just chuck information at an audience.

Jeffro (01:59.584)
Yeah. I mean, there’s so many things I go into in that particular presentation. I do break down. I do an analogy of, if your website’s like a race car, here’s how you make it go faster. And this is the engine. This is the hosting and kind of went through all that. So it’s pretty cool. If you guys listening to this one, I hear about it. Just send me a DM on Instagram called, I don’t know, put terrible or something. Give me a little more context. Say I, I want to make sure my website’s not terrible and I’ll give you the breakdown or the recording, but what was it about our conversation? So you said, you know, liked the booth and you saw the logo and everything, but we actually talked. What was it that made you decide not only that you liked kind of what I was doing, but also that you wanted to work with me for your own website?

Tim (02:42.621)
Sure, I follow my intuition when I meet people. I’m a big handshake guy. I get all my clients off of direct marketing. And when someone comes to me and they have confidence and I can see that they’re passionate about what they do, I’m gonna assume they’re good at making a website. My question is, are they someone I wanna go forward and work with? And like I said, intuitively, you were cool, you had a good handshake. And then when I did work with you on the website, I was correct. You’re personable, you’re smart. So I was like, this is the right guy. So for me, it’s funny enough, less of the portfolio, but the person behind it.

Jeffro (03:16.599)
Yeah, and obviously, like you said, you need to have the portfolio behind it, but it’s important to also have that personality and be able to connect with people. Otherwise, you won’t get the chance for them to even look at your portfolio.

Tim (03:28.817)
Right. And I talked with other people that had your skillset at that event. And again, they didn’t stand out to me because personality wise, I didn’t feel like they had, I don’t know, just kind of what I’ll call a spark, a bit of that person. They, they seemed like they were doing me a favor just by talking to me where you seemed really excited to clients. And that’s a huge thing. I mean, in sales, which is something I’m internalizing more if I can’t act excited, if I can’t show an excitement to a client, they’re going to be like, well, this isn’t the guy to go on the ride with. So for me, I like that you showed excitement and you had a general energy that I liked. And the funny thing is I didn’t see your website portfolio until after, but I qualified you. was like, this is going to be someone good to work with.

Jeffro (04:12.416)
Yeah. And it’s so interesting that you talk about that. Because I do think some companies just turn their clients into numbers. But for me, the website is such a unique expression of the company and your mission and everything that you’ve done that it has to be custom and unique. Otherwise, what’s the point? Sure, you could do a template yourself for free. But if you actually want a good one that’s going to stand out, I got to know you and the company that you’re building and what makes you special. And that’s the fun part of making these custom websites.

Tim (04:42.661)
Yeah. And I loved what you pitched to me was I had 1904 productions website is a bit of a portfolio. It’s usually not found on SEO. It’s usually found. I meet someone and I direct them there and you understood that. And you guided me to put my profile picture first and say, this is a filmmaker running, you know, this company rather, cause I just said 1904, the logo first. And you, called out very politely. like, that’s great. And people are meeting a person. And I remember being like, my God, I’m going to have my face on the website. But when I saw it and I understand the user experience, I thought it came together great. So it was really fun to have your wisdom influence my decisions. want wise people when I hire them for certain things. that again, great experience.

Jeffro (05:28.844)
Yeah, I felt like I had to nudge you a little bit on that, because it was a big picture on the homepage. A lot of people aren’t necessarily comfortable with that. So I know we had to kind of work up to it a little bit and help you understand why. But it’s kind of like what you were talking about, how you met me and that connection is what helped you trust me and feel like you wanted to learn more. Same thing on a website. So I do think that came together pretty well.

Tim (05:52.635)
And I’ll admit I was holding on to like old, I guess, feelings around my branding. had a, let’s be mysterious about 1904 because people always ask, what does it mean? And it’s not a revelation in the end. but that’s fun to a degree. But when you’re trying to hook people in the corporate world, they want to know who’s hand they’re shaking. And then as well, usually I meet a point of contact and they’re sharing my portfolio with someone more on the purchasing side. So when they get to see my face, it just feels personable across the board. And that’s a great thing.

Jeffro (06:02.517)
Mm-hmm.

Jeffro (06:22.655)
Yeah. So we met a few months past after that because you weren’t quite ready to pull the trigger. But then once you did, we got started. What was your experience with that initial process of getting to work on the website?

Tim (06:36.031)
it was great. And I’ll admit, I it was a little nerve wracking because again, I had to put myself forward, you know, so you were really good at making sure I was

Jeffro (06:42.132)
Mm-hmm.

Tim (06:45.661)
finding key points and putting them forward about my business. Because again, I was being a bit meek and saying, it’s just a portfolio. And you wanted to give it a more proper container. And I thought your vision was really, really good. I liked how you encouraged me to put certain things forward. And then I’ve had filmmakers look at my website that do what I do. They’re filmmakers in the corporate world. And they were really impressed. They thought the balance between the two was great. So I just really appreciated you coaxing me to be more confident in certain ways. It was really helpful.

Jeffro (07:15.711)
Yeah. Well, I’m glad you are happy with that end result. the original site was just very basic and it did do a great job, I felt, of highlighting what you’re capable of, all these projects that you’ve done. And so that’s kind of what I wanted to do is help showcase those a little bit more. But when you decided you needed a new website, what was it that you actually wanted out of the new site? Was there something specific or you’re just like, eh, it could be better?

Tim (07:40.883)
I needed someone with your skill set to make it look very professional. And I wanted a user experience that showed that If as a filmmaker, you know, we get called out for detail and you know, giving a whole experience. I was like, can’t say, Hey, I’m ready to take on a you as a client, but have a website that’s undercooked. So by bringing you in and you elevating my website, my whole profile across the board is elevated. And as you know, I’m going towards clients that have, you know, scientific processes. So I have short films that are not safe for work and those are fun, but may not translate selling someone to bring me in as a marketing person. So I needed a very, very good looking website that looked very professional more than others. So people believed me as an entire professional being because as well as say when people hear filmmaker, they’re like, well, isn’t that just your nephew that that shot something with a camcorder? So I needed to be like, when I say filmmaker, I’m attempting to look of a certain, I’ll say prestige.

Jeffro (08:41.918)
Yeah, it’s a hard line to walk sometimes, especially when you’re in your own head and maybe you’re trying not to be proud of like, well, this is what I do, but it often does take someone else to come in and say, no, no, you’re not like an aspiring filmmaker. You are a filmmaker. You’ve built these things. So let’s highlight them for what they are. And I think it’s so important that you brought that up. I think a lot of people don’t recognize that there is a connection between the quality of the website and the choice that someone makes when they’re choosing who to hire. You know, a plumber might say, I don’t care if my website’s not good, I don’t build websites, I do plumbing, right? I’m great at plumbing. But in the client’s mind, that website is the first impression and they’re looking to see that the quality and effort that you bring to every aspect of your business, the website included, that’s going to carry across into the work that they do. Like there is that just implicit assumption. And so that’s part of why it’s so important that we do that.

Tim (09:36.223)
I completely agree. I think that implicit assumption is so, big. And I would imagine there’s people that have warmed up towards purchasing a service and has seen a website and been like, you know, if they don’t have their website squared off, we can assume that that goes into other areas. And I’m actually one of those people, if I’m hiring, say, certain freelancers, or I’m going to look at like a post house or a 3d guy, and I go to their website, and I’m see that you like, don’t have your again, I’m bad at this SSL certification or something, It points to a bigger picture where the inverse is if your website is prim and proper and good I’m like this is a person taking their business serious across the board

Jeffro (10:13.193)
Yeah, and you used to be able to get away with it, let’s say 10 years ago or whatever, but now more and more, the longer you go without fixing the website, you’re just not even going to get the chance, right? People are going to glance at it and say, next, and move on to the next guy. You won’t even get the chance to be evaluated fully. So it’s no longer a nice to have. So let’s talk about the communication process as we built out the new site, because obviously there’s a lot of back and forth.

Tim (10:29.747)
Yeah.

Jeffro (10:37.553)
making sure I understand what you offer and getting the information I need to have a description about the projects that you’ve done and kind of figuring that out. What was that like for you on your end?

Tim (10:47.447)
was in explaining to you what I did. actually helped me understand what I did in a certain way because there’s a great quote from, believe, Jose Ortega. We’re never just us. We are who we are in our circumstances. And I was at a point where I was developing relationships with a lot of companies that were looking to spend money on some pretty premier corporate projects. And then as well, a brand that didn’t come through, but basically I wanted to hit the market and I wanted to look really good. And.

Jeffro (10:52.657)
Mm-hmm.

Tim (11:16.005)
Sorry, am I answering your question? Sometimes I ran it. Yeah, sorry. So for the communication process, it was really important to have you as my guy because again, you pulled stuff out of me, but

Jeffro (11:18.227)
Well, I asking about the communication process as we worked through the site.

Tim (11:30.257)
It went, it went great. You, you told me what I could expect at certain times. You told me options of where I could take the website. Cause remember I was really committed to the black and yellow and you were like, told me very, very straight up. Like this is not the best format for a website and you made a great adjustment when you recommended the more charcoal and yellow, if that was what I’d call the colors. So when I was telling you my vision for the website, I really appreciated you, you know, adjusting it along with me, you know, you know, promptly emailing me about any way we could take something. And I thought the communication was good. It was so good. So I don’t have a giant thing to say about it. I hope, I hope, I hope I didn’t undercut this question.

Jeffro (12:10.866)
No, that’s fine. I just want to hear from your perspective because I think people have had experiences with other website companies before. And a lot of times what happens is they say, need a new website. And then the company’s like, all right. And they don’t hear from them for a month. And then they come back and say, here’s your new site. And they’re like, well, that’s not exactly what I wanted. And they’re like, well, you only get one more revision. Something dumb like that where it’s not a collaborative experience. And it’s really frustrating because you’re paying all this money and you’re not really getting what you want. So part of what I wanna do is make sure I am communicating. So upfront, I do ask you all those questions and draw out as much information as possible so that as we’re building this, I can put something together, come back to you and say, okay, does this work? And you can see it, understand, okay, yes, that is great. I just need to tweak this one thing and we do it and we keep running with that. That makes a much better end result than just disappearing for a couple of weeks and then building something that you may or may not like.

Tim (12:47.826)
Yeah.

Tim (13:05.263)
Yeah, I would say now that you pointed out the situation, people, you know, don’t want to get into web designer. You always communicated to me deadlines. You always communicated to me expectations. I think again, I loved anyone who provides alternatives because if you, if you point out a problem, but don’t have an alternative, I think you’re admiring the problem. So I appreciated you helping me push my website. But yeah, you communicated across the board. So I didn’t get any experience of being like, all right, he’s gone and he’ll come back in a month. You it’s not my dad with a box of cigarettes, pack of cigarettes, he came back.

Jeffro (13:32.593)
Ha

Jeffro (13:37.649)
Good, that means we did our job. So you also mentioned some people saw your site, they liked it. Can you tell us more about what they said specifically or what they liked?

Tim (13:46.301)
They said specifically, want that website. And that is from my friend who is a filmmaker who I’ve collaborated with for years, who I actually brought out for my last gig. He worked on Night Pro as well. He worked on Night Pro in the last gig as the official videographer, cinematographer. And basically for him, he wants to look professional. Again, that’s just our desire is we are aware as filmmakers.

Jeffro (13:48.518)
Hahaha

Tim (14:10.053)
that, and I don’t, I don’t hate on any social media. I love that. I love tick talk. I love Instagram. I love that. Anyone can be on camera. I’ve never held anything against that, but as, they’re taking the market to a degree good for them, you know, make money in this world. So we do have to create a contrast being like, tell clients, I don’t do tick talk dances. do you know, corporate video that drives awareness with, with specific buyers. So again, as I, as I, I I need a professional look across the board. He sees that and it was like, wow, that’s the contrast I need. Cause these filmmakers don’t want to be riding the line of, we’ll just offer you $400 for a quick tick tock shoot. Like we always want to be coming off as, I’d say as serious as our work is because they have taken really great clients. He’s on, he’s on the Disney lock today. I don’t know what he’s doing.

You know, if a filmmaker posts a picture from Universal or the lot, they’ll never say why they always put it in mysterious. But these are the people that want to be taken seriously. They saw the website and they’re like, that’s that’s how filmmakers should show up.

Jeffro (15:06.063)
Awesome. Well, again, that means we did our job, right? We achieved the vision that communicated what we wanted to. So in the months after launching the new site, you started getting some additional clients and recently some bigger projects. And one of the projects was for an optical manufacturing company that you just mentioned called NYPRO. And you roll the website design into your proposal for them, right? So you ended up writing the copy for that. And then we built the site. So this project was obviously a little different because you were kind of now a middleman for a lot of it.

Tim (15:25.341)
Yes.

Jeffro (15:35.29)
But my goal is to make sure you were never waiting on us for things when it comes to the website project. How was it working on that project compared to the first one?

Tim (15:45.199)
Way more difficult. I mean, it was generally immensely difficult having to learn electroforming, diamond turning, thin film coatings, know, and zero shift thin film coating for substrates. I didn’t know that sentence six months ago.

Jeffro (15:58.958)
I don’t know that stuff either, so I’m glad you were the one having to understand that and writing the copy for it. But what about…

Tim (16:05.843)
Thank you, it was wonderful.

Jeffro (16:08.452)
Yeah, what about the website process itself though? obviously working with that client was a very technical thing, which obviously makes it a little more challenging. let’s say taking that and comparing it on the website side, if you handed me stuff and asked for changes, was it still a similar process where we, again, like I said, it’s a different setup, but we tried to go back and forth.

Tim (16:32.767)
It was better. It was better because you actually you were dealing with the stuff I was dealing with indirectly and you stayed cool. And you know, I’m having to make a lot of changes. I found out I’m doing things wrong. It’s like, that’s not the vacuum deposition chamber. So you were always very attentive. You responded, you know, you have a team with you. So they responded, they gave me updates. So it was really nice to have you as a strategic partner who kept cool when I was under pressure, because then I feel confident telling you, hey, I’ll need more time for this. You know, this media delivery wasn’t correct. So can we change this photo out for that? And you were really gracious through it all, which I really appreciated because I would imagine other companies might see me struggling a bit and not offer such a bridge, but your door is always open. You were always up to date on what was going on and saying, Hey, I’m ready to do this or that when it’s, you know, around the corner, you know, we finished copy now we need to do pictures. felt like you were always structured to be there. So I’m not in a situation as one of your clients where I’m like, I got blown off a week from now. Hopefully he’ll call me. Like I don’t have that relationship with you where I’ve had clients who you’re like in two weeks they’ll get back to me and that’s never fun so I appreciated you being very communicative and understanding that I was in a new situation a pretty difficult one.

Jeffro (17:52.856)
Yeah, but we got it done. I think it’s a very cool. Awesome. So it was cool to kind of see some of that and again, highlight what makes it unique because that’s the fun part, right? Everybody’s got something that’s, you know, they’re good at or that is special about the way they do things. So that’s the fun of bringing it out in the website for everybody to see. Do you plan to do more collaborative projects like that with us?

Tim (18:16.753)
absolutely. I have told your services to like four or five guys, specifically engineers. I can’t say who but there’s like a I mean, not that a general audience would know who they are. But there’s more companies that do amazing work. mean, outstanding engineering, substations for municipalities throughout the state of California, people that are doing engineering for massive hospital complexes, meaning a lot of money, and their websites are unimpressive. And I’ve mentioned to them,

I’m doing this with night pro. can copy this and do it going forward. And I actually really, really like that because as much as I love filmmaking, I love the website creating along with, you you helped out a lot for that writing the copy. And I just liked delivering that package. felt very complete. So it’s very much an intent to do it going forward. Now that we have night pro done.

I’m able to contact a lot of people I met at conventions and be like, this is what I’ve been talking about. So I think 2025 is when that package that I’m going to try and sell the website, the video is going to be like a very, very much an offer I’ll be putting forward just before just video.

Jeffro (19:27.278)
Yeah. And I liked how you have essentially put it together as a package because that’s what it is. think a lot of people in their mind, they separate out like advertising efforts. Like here’s our video, here’s our website over here. But you got to remember the website is the hub of all your marketing efforts. So if you’re publishing a video or running an ad, it’s supposed to drive people to the website. And if the video is awesome, then they get to the website and it’s terrible. They’re going be like, that was not what I was expecting. well, let me keep looking. Right. You got to have the same level of experience all the way through. So otherwise people feel like you’re trying to trick them somehow and, you know, confused customer doesn’t buy essentially. So it’s gotta be good.

Tim (20:06.823)
Yeah, yeah. They see that mismatch. And I think that mismatch is a huge, that’s what I was, what I want to tell clients is like, and I have a lot of conversations and I’m sure as you know, they go really far, they’re super excited and then they pull out last second. Unfortunately that happens. But I, I enjoy those conversations. say, you know, I can get you videos. If you let me do the website as well, it’ll start with a great offer. You’ll get the videos on the website and I, I see that they get, they’ll start to get hesitant and that’s all right. made, you know, make my offer. But if an, if a client understands that he’s got to spend money to get the package, then what I’m saying rings really well. And that’s why I rang rang to NYPRO is they, they understood they wanted to get a rebranding. So when I made this offer, they were like, this is great. It does a lot of things and it was received really well. So I’m hoping I find more clients that get that energy and it’s less having to switch and though.

Jeffro (21:01.059)
Yeah, because the end to end process, if you do it right, it makes such a huge impact on your company going forward. You you’re going to get more clients out of it. You’re not going to waste as many leads and visitors because more of them are going to convert. And they’re going to be ready to hire you by the time they’ve gone through your stuff, as opposed to still being hesitant if they’re not sure if you’re the right fit.

Tim (21:21.265)
Yeah, and to articulate who that person is really quick, know, again, it’s usually say, you you got a giant corporation, they’re looking at this engineering company, the CEO is not the first person to look at the website. It’s usually someone my age who’s going to make an argument at a meeting, you know, say the upcoming Friday to look at this company. And again, you know, people our age, we just have a lot better intuition on what design is, what a good website is, and you will, you will lose them if they see that mismatching quality.

Jeffro (21:47.917)
Yeah. Well, I’m glad we were able to talk through this. think it’s really cool for people to see kind of what goes into these projects and understand why it matters. So is there anything else you’d like to add before we wrap up?

Tim (22:00.827)
I just think what we did is a great one, two punch. I think that it was a, it was a great strategic relationship and I am excited to begin the year with that portfolio. So, you know, we can keep showing it to more people and then I’ll, I’ll, know the process a bit better, so it’ll be less of a headache for you. Again, very, very, very, very grateful. You were gracious with me when I was figuring it all out.

Jeffro (22:16.035)
Yeah.

Jeffro (22:23.339)
Yeah, well, I’m looking forward to doing more projects with you as well. Tim, thank you for joining me today. It’s fun to look back at what’s been done and the impact that it has. So for those of you listening, if you’re in the Los Angeles area and you need an innovative filmmaker for your commercial or promo video, go to 1904productions.com and Tim will take care of you. And if you want Frobro to help you with your website the way that we help Tim, go to frobro.com and set up a call. Thanks again, Tim, for being here. And thanks to all of you guys for listening. Take care and I’ll see you back here next time.

for digital dominance.

Tim (22:54.237)
Thanks for having me.