Click Bait : Telling Stories that Get Results

Barbara Daly has moved from on-air personality to behind-the-camera talent.

The Stockton videographer who runs the video production company Daly Video Services got her start as an on-air reporter in Santa Rosa, El Paso, and Tucson. When her husband landed an on-air reporting gig for Channel 10 in Sacramento, the duo moved their family to Stockton and Barbara shifted focus. She filled the spaces in between parenting—if those even exist—with video projects.

Over the last 25 years Barbara has added hundreds of videos to her resume, representing works in nonprofits, commercials, and internal business productions.

Daly Video Services is behind both the series of videos created for the City of Stockton’s Stockton is Home project and the four-minute video recently shown at the Emergency Food Bank’s donor appreciation breakfast.

“The key is always storytelling,” she says.

Nonprofit videos, mainly three to five minute packages showcased at fundraisers and shared online to encourage donors to give to a cause, make up the bulk of the workload.

Barbara’s first big client, St. Mary’s Dining Room—a nonprofit organization that continues to use Daly Video Services 25 years later—gave Barbara her start in Stockton’s tight-knit nonprofit world.

“We focus not on a director or a CEO but on people who have benefitted from the organization,” Barbara explains. “We get to the heart of their story and that helps people understand the good work being done.”

For years, Barbara created her videos alone, but in 2016 Tim retired from his on-air gig and joined the family business. Together they continue to produce videos that add to their collection of stories about remarkable people in the region.

“I’ve waited for years to have his talent on board,” Barbara says.

Barbara says she was able to organically grow her business because of Tim’s support. Tim, of course, insists it’s Barbara’s talents that got Daly Video Services where it is today. Still, the low-pressure situation allowed her to value substance over a payday—at least to an extent. “He never asked me to bring home the bacon,” Barbara laughs.

It’s not lost on us that today her business provides both of their bacon.

Working in TV news, Barbara built the talents she needed to become a successful videographer. “We get in some really delicate conversations and not being afraid to ask a question comes along with the news background,” Barbara says.

She also learned to write, edit, and shoot, on the job, skills that allow Barbara to offer full packages, including sound mixing and voiceovers, at a fair price.

Tim brings his own lessons from more than 30 years in television. He says, “being in news you are trained to work fast and efficient and accurate. News creates efficiency.”

Just like the news, for every video the duo creates a timeline, writes a script, and makes a plan. It’s presented to and approved by the company purchasing the services. Once Barbara and Tim get started, those plans often go out the window, but the results are the same: meaningful videos that encourage people to get involved in the community, whether it’s giving to the NICU at Adventist Health Lodi Memorial or joining neighbors at the annual Asparagus Festival.

It hasn’t always been easy to make it as a videographer in Stockton as work constantly ebbs and flows in the male-dominated profession. But Barbara has found her niche in nonprofits.

She says the seesawing once stressed her out, however Barbara has since learned to flow with the uncertainty. She knows to enjoy the quiet months instead of dread them because a busy month will always follow a slow one.

“With any small business you’re always dealing with ups and downs and it’s no different in this business,” she says.

Barbara relies on word of mouth marketing to gain new business. Tim puts it like this: “We like to think our videos speak for themselves.”

One year, a donor told Barbara and Tim that their video inspired him to change his $500 contribution to the non-profit agency to $5,000.

“I just love the process of learning about an organization that’s doing good in the community,” Barbara says. “To then turn that lesson into a compelling story is what it’s all about. We’re all just working to make the community better and that’s what I see as my role in doing these videos.”

Reach Out:
Daly Video Services
(209) 951-9264
DalyVideoServices.com