We recently connected with Trey Duffey and have shared our conversation below.

Trey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success, for me, has always been a journey. I think a lot of people look at success as a destination they’re trying to reach, then when they get there it’s either a little disappointing or underwhelming. I’ve always loved football, college football in particular, and one of the traits I admire about some of the most successful coaches is that they love the grind of what they do. It’s a very cliche saying, “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”, but it’s been true for me since starting Intelligent Design in 2018. If you love the grind, are always trying to improve, critically thinking and honing your craft, and care about how you treat your clients, then success will show up in the details and all along the journey. My hope is that one day, maybe in my 60s or 70s, I’ll be able to look back on the work that I did and say that I did all those things to the best of my ability every day, regardless of how much money did or didn’t come in.

Trey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Since graduating from LaGrange College in 2012 with a degree in Music, I’ve worked extensively in video production, digital media, and on-screen storytelling. I began Intelligent Design Productions in 2018 with the goal to help small businesses and non-profit organizations with video production needs. The first two years were a huge learning curve for me. I didn’t go to school for business so I really had to learn things like managing taxes on the fly.

During the pandemic in 2020, I partnered with another independent business owner to form Black Bear Collective, a more extensive digital marketing agency that includes Web & Graphic Design, Photography, Animation, Social Media Management, Video Production, & Creative Consulting. COVID had a huge impact on our ability to be able to go out into the field and work on projects, so we needed to pivot to other services we could provide remotely.

I think the thing I’m most proud of is being able to provide clients with an end product that identifies directly with what they see in their heads. When you work in the creative field, understanding people is so important. Being able to connect with clients, understand their businesses and personalities, and translate those things into a product and message we’re both proud of is something that really makes me smile.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I was on staff at a church from 2012-2018 and my business partner and his wife had been attending the church before I started. He’d majored in communications in college and had recently moved to the Atlanta area to start looking for work as an actor. Him and I did countless projects together for the church I worked for and he was my go-to when it came time to put anyone on screen for a talking head or informative segment. Going into business with someone is a huge deal and requires a lot trust, patience, empathy, and understanding. Fortunately him and I had the opportunity to build those things in the time I was on staff and when we were doing work together.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

We were doing some work on the back end of a client’s website one day and I changed some things that caused me, and their staff as well, to get locked out while also bringing the site itself down. We weren’t handed access to the hosting site (their website was being hosted by a bigger parent company), which is where I needed to get to to get everything back up and running. Those were probably the most excruciating 15-16 hours of work I can remember. In the end, we got everything resolved, but I think I lost a few years off of my life in the process.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.intelligentdesignproductions.com | www.theblackbearcollective.com
• Instagram: @treyduffey
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/intelligentdesignproductions | https://www.facebook.com/theblackbearcollective
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trey-duffey-b80963168/
• Twitter: @treyduff

Image Credits
Zachary Deloach