Building a Boutique Web Agency with Studio Monty

Speaker 0: Hi, guys. Welcome back to another episode of I Made This. I'm your host, Brian Gillespie, developer advocate here at Directus, and I have got my extra special guest with me today, mister Miguel Stevens from Studio Monti. Miguel, happy to have you, man.

Speaker 1: Hi. Thanks for having me. Glad

Speaker 0: to Yeah. Yeah. So, hey. Like, you and I have talked inside our directus community a couple times through Discord or, I I think, even on several, like, GitHub issues probably. But, you know, for those who don't know you, maybe, give us a little intro or, you know, what's the backstory?

Speaker 1: Sure. So my studio is called Studio Monty. We're a Belgium based web company. We do lifestyle websites, boutique kind of websites, so not not a big technical prod products, but more like the the well and refined designed projects. And we always offer CMS, of course, which is direct us.

Speaker 0: So we don't necessarily have to dive in, directly to direct us. Super glad that you're using that. But, you know, tell me a a little more about the agency. Like, how did you get started? What what led you to that?

You know? If we back up even further, like, how did you how did you get into development?

Speaker 1: Okay. Cool. Good question. I think for me, the case, like many people, has been like a a child passion. When I was 8 years old, my dad bought me a a Pentium 386 or what was this called?

I don't even remember it.

Speaker 0: And I was I'm not sure.

Speaker 1: The 386. Old computer with with floppy disks.

Speaker 0: Okay.

Speaker 1: Yeah. And the

Speaker 0: I'm trying to think of, like, what the what the the megahertz they were running back in the day. I think the first computer I had was, like, maybe, like, 96 megahertz or something

Speaker 1: like that. Right? The people remember. No, like a diskette disk. How do you call it in English?

It's 3.14 megabytes or something.

Speaker 0: Yeah. There you go.

Speaker 1: And the floppies were even less than that. But I started experimenting with Microsoft FrontPage, which, like, Dreamweaver is really old, but FrontPage, that's a whole other level. So I think I just roll I I started making small websites with cheat codes for roller coaster tycoon, things like that. Hey. There you go.

So then my my whole journey has been development. I worked in some big development companies in Ghent, and I worked in some boutique agencies, but it's always been about about design and development. Yeah. So I I I love both. I'm a 100% developer.

I it has to be beautiful. Right?

Speaker 0: I guess it. Yeah. So and you guys mentioned that you focus on boutique websites. Could you, you know, like, expand that a little bit? Like, specifically, like, what does the average project look like for you guys?

Speaker 1: Sure. I think with boutique, I mean, those are mostly websites with less than 10 pages. Design is very important. They wanna have something unique about them. So we we don't do it's not like WordPress templates, where you can clear a seed template.

We always work with a designer. We we do custom designs, and custom development. It's it's very much focused on the specific needs of each client. And yeah. And then it's in the lifestyle sector, so, it's fun companies, interior design, architecture, things like that.

Yeah. Very local as well.

Speaker 0: Yeah. So, hey, smaller businesses, clients who are very concerned with image and design and, looking professional.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Is

Speaker 0: that a fair summarization?

Speaker 1: Yeah. Very fair.

Speaker 0: What does your what does your process look like on those projects? Like, on the front end, like, how how you mentioned it's local, but how how do most of these clients find you?

Speaker 1: Yeah. For us, it's been a case of. Right? So, I think we started only 1 year ago, and all projects we've had have been through local Netflix. You make a website for someone you know.

Before you know it, their uncle wants a website, and then you really get started and and your network grows. I do try to there's a we're based in Ghent, Belgium, and there's a good community of, of, people that are, yeah, entrepreneurs. What's the word in English?

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. You got it. You nailed it. What?

Speaker 1: Yeah. So there's a lot of events, that we that I tried to go to to meet people, to talk about how we can help people. So it's been word-of-mouth. That's the English Cool.

Speaker 0: You're primarily. Excellent. Yeah. Talk to me about your process. Like, yeah, being a, like, you're doing smaller projects that are, let's say, not, like, super data intensive.

If like, what's your like, what's the time span from, like, conception or or, like, the idea phase to, like, launching a project? Talk me talk me through your process because I'm super curious on that. Like, what those type of projects actually like, what the flow looks like.

Speaker 1: Okay. Good question. I've been refining this because I feel process is really important to make something replicable and scalable. So what's important for for me is I always start with a very intense strategy session. And so it's, like, 1 to 2 hours where we sit down with the client and really listen, like, what what are your challenges?

Where do you wanna go with your business? Who do you wanna be in 5 years' time? It it can be very personal because each business has, like, these typical problems. They want more revenue. They want the right type of client.

They want they want their website to provide more information, better customer service for their clients. So we really drill down the goals for each website, and only then do we start going to wireframing to to design and development.

Speaker 0: Gotcha. Now in that strategy call, is that, like, after you've already quoted them and and they sent them a proposal?

Speaker 1: Or Oh, yeah. Right. I forgot that part. So I think it starts with a sales conversation. You you call on the phone mostly, or you go face to face and you just listen.

Can we help you? I think it's important. The big money topic. There's a lot of interesting videos about this, but a lot of people I read about, a lot of starting people are afraid to discuss money. They all wanna talk about money upfront, but I think it's important that you know what's in what's their budget, what can we do to help them, and, how can we make it work?

So it's I think it's this first sales call is is very important.

Speaker 0: Yeah. That's that's always the toughest, like, conversation. Right?

Speaker 1: Right. Like, how come I've got

Speaker 0: a I've I've got a number in my head. You've got a number. Right. Yeah. Like, how do we talk about like, how do you how do you address that with clients?

Like, you said you you don't shy away from it.

Speaker 1: I think during those first 15 minutes, it has to be clear what the budget is. So if it's not clear from them, tell you, you can just ask upfront, like, what budget do you have in mind? And if that range is acceptable for the type of websites, then we can then we can go for that. For example, startups, I wouldn't work with a fresh startup because they don't need a custom built website. Startups can use Wix or Squarespace, which is mostly enough to help them.

So it it would be it wouldn't be good customer service of me to try to sell them a website because they don't need custom websites in their first month. Yeah. So I try to be very honest. I'm not the type of person who just takes on a client to get the money and then, no. I can't help them.

If I can send them to Squarespace, then we'll happily do that. Yeah. Yeah. It's honesty and transparency. Right?

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. That's super critical. You know?

Mhmm. And even being like, you said you started the agency about a year ago. I can imagine, like, in the early days, it's a little harder to do that. Right? Where like, hey.

We need a couple of projects through the door, but, still, if it's not a right fit, you you turn them away anyway. That's that's, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. At the beginning, you have to take on a lot of projects, obviously, because you just started and there's no, no real cash flow, but yeah.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Well, cool. So you have the strategy session. You guys get into, like, their company goals and, like, aspirations and things like that. And then how do how do things progress from there?

Speaker 1: Sure. Once we know after the strategy session, I make a content model, which is like a sitemap, but for each page, I also include elements. This happens after research. So we look at competitors. You look at the industry.

What does the industry expect from websites of that sector, and and, what does the competition do? What do they do good? What don't they do good? And then we discuss some styles. There's there's more meetings.

And then it's onto the design phase. For bigger projects, we do a style guide first. If there's a copywriter to be involved, you're a copywriter, obviously, and that's onto design. Yeah.

Speaker 0: Gotcha. Like, do you have any, like, philosophy? Like, what's your design philosophy? Yeah. I I I think for me, when I used to do projects, like, doing competitor research is is absolutely critical.

Right? You gotta know what the landscape is, but how do you how do you not let that inform your own design? You know what I mean? Like, you you don't wanna just, like, copy competitors or you don't want to on the surface, you may not know whether that is actually working well for the competitor or not. Right?

So, hey. Like, what is your philosophy on design, and, like, how do you navigate, just hey. Like, hey. Here's what everybody else is doing. Here's what we think is gonna actually work well for you as a to your clients.

Speaker 1: Mhmm. I think it's it's important obviously to look at the top ten. Right? We we we don't compare with businesses that are on page 20 on Google. And I think it's important if you're looking at, like, what's the content going to be to only focus on the content.

It's like you just said, we try to if we see, like, interesting piece of content, I I copy paste the text and put it in Figma in, like, a sort of prototype. We don't screenshot designs because, like you say, if you start screenshotting designs from other companies, your design will be influenced by that. So I think it's important in the in the first phases where the content is being decided, that you just focus on what's what's being written, what's being told. I also saw an interesting video by The Future, and they they make this comparison like, a website has to answer questions. So we always start with that in mind.

I write the quote and I'll accept it, and they say, a website is like a conversation. Right? You come to my website. It's like you come into my house, and you you have questions for me. Like, will this product help me feel more whatever.

I don't know. So the the order of your website, the content has to answer all people's questions. This is something we I try to keep in mind when building the content model.

Speaker 0: Yeah. I I love to hear you say that because everybody says that you should be content first, but, like, what I see a lot of times is, like, there's a whole board of inspiration of, like, hey. We like this site. We like this site. We like this site.

And then you're working backwards of, like, hey. Let's let's incorporate this theme and, hey. Like, take some ideas from this. And what I'm hearing you say is that you guys you you don't take screenshots of other websites. You might, like, snip some content, but it is very much, like, content driven.

There's no like, when you're in the design process, there's no, like, outside influences from other websites. Is that right?

Speaker 1: Yeah. Maybe a bit. I I mean, I have a designer who I work with, and she, she loves designing, so she's not content first. I'm a big fan of content first, but I think it depends. It's it's one of the biggest chicken or egg problems in the web design industry for me is do you do the content first and then have your designer build around the content?

Or do you have the designer design first and then put the content in the available space that the designer chose. It's we we've been trying both, ways of working, and there's no winner yet. I get you.

Speaker 0: Yeah. I I I think it's just just like the messy middle

Speaker 1: of, like, hey. Yeah.

Speaker 0: Like, where things come together.

Speaker 1: I don't know if there's an answer to if someone has an answer to the the big chicken or egg design versus content first question. Please let me know.

Speaker 0: Okay. Cool. And sales great. So I like, going through the design phase, like, obviously, hey. Like, are you who does the development?

Like, the actual like, are you doing a lot

Speaker 1: of the actual code at

Speaker 0: this point or got somebody else on the team? Like, what does that look like?

Speaker 1: Yeah. I it depends if it's, if it's really busy and I'm like doing a lot of intakes and strategy, then I outsource the development. I'm working with someone who is really capable. I had to look, for a long time before I found him, but I have someone who helps me out. And sometimes I do projects myself.

It's good to to stay in the flow. Right? So Nxt is evolving very quickly. Direct is evolving really quickly, and I I wanna, be up to date with everything. So I I still like to to, develop as well.

To if it's still

Speaker 0: like to jump in. Yeah.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 0: I I think that's, like, a common case for a lot of us. Right? You get into it. Like, you you love building stuff, and then, like, inevitably, you've gotta take on more of the business stuff, and that gets in the way of of, like, the fun stuff of actually building and creating. And it's very much the same way for me where, like, I I love to build and create, and, like, the other stuff kinda I I I enjoy that as well, but it kinda gets in the way.

Right?

Speaker 1: I I think it's you never wanna have, like, 0 or 100 to to one side. I think it's always I always love developing. Maybe it's the same for you. Yeah. When there's time, it's it's great to just put on your headphones and be in the flow for a whole afternoon, writing code.

It's amazing. It's still fun.

Speaker 0: Yeah. But excellent. Well, what what is the average timeline? So, like, we we've talked about the process. Like, it start to finish, like, how quickly are you you know, how long does it take for the average project to Mhmm.

Start to launch?

Speaker 1: I think in theory, it would take, like, 1 month. But in practice, it's always 2, 3, 4 month. It's because I think there's something we're struggling with. It's very hard to to really I mean, it's only 1 year since we started, but it's very difficult for me right now to know exactly how long something will take. Sure.

Depending on on how how fast does the design go, what types of content. So sometimes the client wants to write a copy himself, which is mostly something that will take long because nobody likes writing copy unless you're a copyright. Make your friends. I noticed that clients seems to seem to, like, not want to do it, so they they keep on, delaying it, and then it never happens. So it's it's a combination of waiting for assets.

There's, like, a photographer involved, which is something for the types of websites. In the CGM Monti builds, we I wanna work with good photography. And minimal design is really important. So then you have a photographer who has to, be involved in the process. So there's a lot of variables, right, that can stretch or tend the timeline, but you you don't know in advance.

Speaker 0: Yeah. They like, on the photography side, do you require your clients to to work with a professional photographer? Or

Speaker 1: Well, this is something I started doing now since the last client. Yeah. I guess It's secured in the in the in the offer as well. I used to add, like, an an add on, like, photography optional, but there people are paying a lot of websites a lot of money for a website, and they're like, I don't need good pictures. So now it's just included in the price, and it's, yeah.

Speaker 0: Oh, that's smart. Yeah. I I always hate to see a well designed website and then, like, the same stock photos that you've seen on 35 other websites. It just ruins it ruins everything.

Speaker 1: The stock photos are the worst. I think the dark iPhone picture by the owner is even better than the stock.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. At least it's real.

Yeah. Or it feels real. I I'm sure that's a real person in the stock photo, but, you know, some of those stock photos, I I don't know, like, how people make those poses. Like, I think you never see that stuff in real life. Right?

Speaker 1: Well, I think it's it's your eye sees it directly. I mean, your stock photo, you can see it from very far, and it it gives the site a sort of fake feeling. It's it doesn't feel right when you see stock photos.

Speaker 0: Yeah.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 0: So, like, shifting into, like, the tools that you're using to build the sites, like, what does your preferred, like, stack look like? You know? Right? What tools are you using on the front end, on the back end, that sort of stuff?

Speaker 1: So it's, for us, it's Nuxtree on the front end and then Directus, on the back end. Yeah. Gotcha. We're running it on Docker containers for our production servers as well as, local local hosting. It's also on Docker.

Speaker 0: Nice. Yeah. You're definitely one of my preferred stacks. But, like, what what led you to those 2 pieces? Like, you know, were you using those a year ago when you started?

Or yeah. I know you mentioned front page that you were using way back in the day to build stuff. Like, walk walk me through the progression because that's that's super interesting for me because I I remember front page. I remember Dreamweaver. Right.

I even I'm I'm not sure I I'm not sure if Angel Fire or, like, GeoCities were ever popular outside the US, but it was like a it was like a free website builder where you could get on and have all the animated GIFs and, like, all the all the crazy counters and all that stuff back in the day. But that's that's how I got my start in the industry as well. It was back in the day using those tools to kinda scratch stuff together.

Speaker 1: I think that you said this rings a bell, but I I never heard of for this Angelfire. Angelfire.

Speaker 0: It was yeah. It's basically like a a free website builder host. Like, you could you could throw, like, crazy backgrounds and stuff on there and write your text. But the rest of it, you know, back in those days, it was all just whatever HTML you could throw together yourself.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Marquee elements and stuff like that.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1: So, I started my development. I mean, my first company I worked with was Laravel. So it was PHP. I loved Laravel. It's it was easy to use for me.

It was a a dream come true after writing spaghetti code in PHP. But the older I got, and I started working with Vue, and I started loving JavaScript a lot. For me, it feels much cleaner, the syntax and PHP. I'm stirring some feathers here. I know.

It's a big discussion. PHP lovers are everywhere and the JavaScript lovers. But for me, it's always been JavaScript. So when I started this company 1 year ago, I promised no PHP. So, my first thought was, okay.

I need a I need a JavaScript back end. So I started looking into headless CMS systems. Strapi Strapi. I don't know how you pronounce it. Yeah.

Was the first one I tried, but I I found it difficult to work with. I don't know. It was it didn't feel right. So I tried a few others. I tried story block.

I tried content folks for a while, and then someone on Reddit mentioned Directus. Mhmm. I think version 10 was just released. When was it released? Do you know version 10?

Speaker 0: Version 10 or version 9. Version 10 was that's Yeah. Version 10 was not so long ago. Version 9 was, like, a big change. Version version 8 was on PHP.

Speaker 1: Oh, really?

Speaker 0: Version 9 version 9 was, like, the switch to to node to, like, the JavaScript side of things. And that was a a crazy big shift. That was about the same time that I actually found directives myself.

Speaker 1: Okay. That's

Speaker 0: when when version 9 was released,

Speaker 1: which was You weren't there in the BHP era.

Speaker 0: I I was not. No. I I wasn't even aware of the tool, which is Okay. Which is wild.

Speaker 1: Yeah. And that's why I think it's someone on Reddit brought me to Directus, and I I tried it out, set it up. The documentation is great, and I just got it working. And then I just built my first website.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Nice. So I like, what were you said, like, the other tools didn't feel right, and that that definitely feels like a like a designer thing of a it doesn't feel right. But were there a like, any, like, issues that you encountered that were you were like, hey. This is this is not working for me?

Like, can you even remember any of those tools? Like, what were the the red flags, like, if you can remember any?

Speaker 1: Yeah. I think for me, now that I think about it, the biggest thing was since I mean, headless CMS systems can be used for, like, internal tools, for softwares. But for our studio, it's always going to be a CMS system. So my thought was if a client I remember with Strapi, I thought, if a client has to work on this, it's gonna be complicated. And for with directors, it just felt very calm.

I could see my even less tech savvy clients work in this system. So for me, it was mostly a choice of, okay, which system are people my clients going to be able to work in without having to call me too much with questions. It it Not having to do a 12 hour CMS training.

Speaker 0: It is very much from, like, the client perspective. Yeah. I I can remember that personally, like, seeing it like, I I went through a bunch of those as well. And, like, the seeing the white space and just I you mentioned calmness or the the calm, of, like, hey. This is really well designed, and it's open source, which is great.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 0: But I can remember looking at it and like, hey. Like, okay. Yeah. This feels right. Yeah.

I think it

Speaker 1: was a gut feeling. It's like a first impression. Right? You always set up doc. You open the tool and it's okay.

This feels good. And I think what I also remember is the image handling direct is is is perfect. For CMS systems, there are always gonna be images, and the I think the file library and all the systems around it are built really, really solidly. So, yeah, that's a big plus

Speaker 0: as well. What does, like, the average project look like for you inside Directus for for a client? You know, like, maybe through, like, the data model. You know? Or maybe just talk me through some of those, and and I think you've got a few things to show us.

But, maybe just so you could, like, talk me through how the projects look inside Directus before we jump into that.

Speaker 1: Okay. Cool. I think the last three projects were mostly similar. So we have pages. We have a page builder using the, many to any builder system.

And then we have just like projects, testimonials, the team page. So it's mostly, managing data. We're not too heavy on flows at the moment. There's a few flows for, like, building, which we'll get into in a in a few minutes. But, yeah, it's mostly page builder.

That's the biggest, chunk. And we use blocks. So every page, you can just, compose yourself with blocks. Clients don't really use that too much. It's mostly for myself.

A block is reusable. It's a nice, neat piece of code, which can even be reused in in other projects. So yeah.

Speaker 0: How do you, like, how do you present, like, the CMS and, like, direct us to your clients, like, through that phase? Is that, like, a discussion that you have, like, at the very beginning of a project? Is it like, hey. Oh, we got your website. You're gonna be able to edit all the content through this CMS.

Yeah. Are you, like, talking me through how you present that solution to the client?

Speaker 1: Sounds good. In my last, few offers, I included, screenshots or a video of directors. And the good thing is that clients mostly come from WordPress. So when they see directors, they're like, this is impossible. They almost can't believe how easy it is.

Crazy. The the reactions are just amazing. The last two clients were really like, this is so easy. Essentially what they said. I sat next to them for the CMS training.

We put in some data together and just they came from WordPress. They were like, this is really easy. So it feels really good to have clients, have this this sort of really good experience.

Speaker 0: Now are are most of them coming from, like, the the drag and drop page builders where they've gotta go in and manage, like, all the padding and spacing and colors and all of that? Okay.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Or from WordPress installations that are like a plug in hell, and everything's a plug in, and there there have to be and people don't like that. I think directors, you can also you can protect your clients. Like, you give them roles, and they only they can only edit what they're assigned to do. I know you can do that in WordPress as well, but WordPress feels like very, very much.

And clients, they mostly don't have a lot of time. They maybe want to add a new testimonial. They had just want to log in, click testimonial, add new, and be done with it.

Speaker 0: So Yeah. They they don't wanna, yeah, geek out on the the software or the tools like like we do. They just wanna get

Speaker 1: them out.

Speaker 0: They've got other stuff to do.

Speaker 1: Yeah. They don't care what tool it is. It just has to be easy enough.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Cool. Well, do you wanna maybe share your screen and and show us, you know, like I would love to share with the audience, like, what the the typical, like, front end project looks like for you, And then, you know, maybe show us around the the back end if you're if you're able to.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Sure. Let me just share my screen real quick. K. Cool.

So this is a project we finished, 2 months ago. It's a website for a company that does funding. Yeah. We like white space. We like beautiful fonts.

These pages are so this is Nextree. This is a statically generated website. So Okay. It's on it's built on Netlify. So it's not SSR.

It's SS SSG.

Speaker 0: What's what is the what's the the display font there? Like, all the headings.

Speaker 1: The this font?

Speaker 0: Yeah. I I I really like that font. Have a look.

Speaker 1: I should know that. Ah, silica. It's silica. Right. Silca.

It's nice having font.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. It looks great. I and, like, I've got another project that I'm working on personally that, I I've been eyeing fonts, and, like, that process is always, like, such a nightmare of, like, going through and trying to suss out just the perfect font for a project. This one looks great.

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 0: Might have to worry about.

Speaker 1: Beautiful fonts are mostly really expensive, which is fair.

Speaker 0: True. True.

Speaker 1: And this is actually just a page built and page builder. They have cases, which are like, yeah, project cases. And what I love about this, it feels really snappy. I mean, this is Nuxt. Yeah.

It's pre rendered, so that's the speed is the speed is amazing. Speed score is also really good. There's a form in here which will, be sent to directors as well. Nice. Yeah.

And it's a dynamic form if you if you go to a case and you wanna be then your case will be prefilled here. This all will be sent to directors. Yeah. That's cool. What's

Speaker 0: a great great looking site.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Thanks.

Speaker 0: Very clean.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 0: What are you, what are you using for, like, the the transitions and the animations? Is it, are you, like I'm just custom coded CSS, or is it, like, a different library?

Speaker 1: It's a wrapper component. It's called scroll transition dot view. I made it together with someone else, I think. We used it in a previous project. Yeah.

And it just, yeah, it shifted into, into view.

Speaker 0: As yeah. It's it's very tasteful. I think for me, that's one of the other things that I always struggle with on some websites is, like, everything is animated. There's, like, a crazy amount of motion, and it it just distracts from the the story in some cases. But this is this looks really well done.

Speaker 1: I think it it has to be subtle. What I would like now is for, like, working on some images that, like, slide in from the right. Some some tiny animations, but I don't want it to be much more than this.

Speaker 0: Yeah. It looks great.

Speaker 1: So for the for the back end, as you see the models we have, this is heavily based on the agency OS, by the way, which I think which you wrote most part of it.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Most of it is mine.

Speaker 1: So thank you for this. Yeah. No. Great.

Speaker 0: How No. Happy to you know, that project was like a labor of love because it it it took me a long time to figure out how to manage, like, the page blocks. And I was like, okay. Like, once you see it and and you've got a a reference, it's much easier to understand. But when I first came to Directus, I knew this functionality was available.

It just like, there weren't any good references reference points to to use. So I I'm happy that it's been helpful for you. 100%.

Speaker 1: Oh, it yeah. It is. I don't know if I would have managed without. I think it's also it's a plus point because there's a lot of back end systems, but you guys took the time to write out a full front end to showcase how it can be used. So that's I'm very grateful for it.

It's, it's amazing. You probably see it's heavily based on agency OS. Right? Yeah. There's a page.

You have the blocks. You can move them.

Speaker 0: Yeah. It looks very familiar.

Speaker 1: Yeah. This marquee, this text, that's the one you see here. So it's it's very easy for the client to work in. What's interesting about this project and, something I told you about is the the the flows, that we built. Because it's statically generated, you can use, like, a Netlify hook that each time you save a change you made, Netlify will start building.

But the problem you get when 3 or 4 people are changing content is you get a queue of 20, 30 builds, the day. Yeah.

Speaker 0: Or the client changes a couple of different pages. Right? And they They go through it.

Speaker 1: They they press save. They change something else, and it's it's triggering bills the whole time. Yep. And on NettoFi. So what, I contacted I wrote down his username, Arud Arud on Arud.

Yeah. Arud. Do you know him?

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. He, he won several of the or I think he won at least one of our hackathons.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Speaker 0: Nice. Yeah. Yeah. He started

Speaker 1: to on on Discord.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Very helpful member of the community. 100%.

Speaker 1: So he started the idea of, these 3 flows you see in green, and then I finished it. There was one issue, and we worked on it together, reached out a bit. So what this does is every time a change is pushed, we set a flag, like change pushed through, and we set a time stamp.

Speaker 0: Mhmm.

Speaker 1: And what these three flows together do is they only trigger a build every 5 minutes. So you could And and only when there's changes. Right. Yeah.

Speaker 0: Oh, that's cool.

Speaker 1: For example, this one, every 5 minutes, it will look inside the general settings and check if the variable has changes if it's set to true, and that will trigger this other flow.

Speaker 0: Okay.

Speaker 1: And this other flow will trigger an Sify build and update the current build time and update the settings. So it's,

Speaker 0: I gotcha.

Speaker 1: Yeah. And then there's one more, the publish queue on save. This one just watches, if you save anything.

Speaker 0: Okay. Yeah. So it's watching the content collections.

Speaker 1: Yeah. All of them.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Gotcha.

Speaker 1: And then it checks if it's older than 5 minutes, and then it triggers a flow. Or if it's not, it updates that we have some changes. It looks easy now, but we had some work with this.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine. Hey. Like, hey.

Trying to figure out, like, how to structure the flow and and actually building it, I'm sure. Like, how long did it take you to actually nail it nail the the flow, like, these 3 separate flows?

Speaker 1: Yeah. Is it well, Arutz did most of it. It was almost great. He had some issues that were remaining. I think we fixed it with, I'm not sure.

I don't remember really because I was also a a FlowDB. I I hadn't used Flows before. So for me, it was a a very thorough introduction into flows.

Speaker 0: I yeah. Yeah. Well, now you're an expert. So it was awesome.

Speaker 1: Mostly with a with a bit of help from Discord.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Hey. The community members are amazing. Yeah, that that was how I learned most when I first started with Directus, as well.

Speaker 1: I've had I don't know if the other have the CMS systems out there, have this community, but the Discord is amazing. It's for me, it's a it's a big plus. I mean, probably everyone has good community, but the the the director's Discord is really amazing. Yeah.

Speaker 0: Yeah. You you you gotta get this one updated too. I see you're on 10 dot 6 dot 3. You can get it updated to to 10 dot 7 so you can, use the theming. And I think Yeah.

I think 10 dot 8 went actually last night as well.

Speaker 1: Oh, really?

Speaker 0: Which has, like, some preset themes that are available. But Okay.

Speaker 1: Nice. Yeah. I saw the video you guys did on the what was enabled to week with with all the everyday video?

Speaker 0: Leap week.

Speaker 1: Leap week. Yeah. Very nice. I think, like, content versioning is also under 10.7. Right?

Speaker 0: It's yeah. That's on 10.7 as well. Yeah. It could be I I'd say for your clients, maybe not, super helpful. I I doubt they have, like, a ton of different versions of content, but for, larger sites where you need to to manage changes, definitely helpful.

Speaker 1: Mhmm. Yeah. And the team, and I need to try it. It's a coincidence, but the director's team is matches this website really good.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love the purple. Yeah.

Maybe that's Yeah. Maybe that's what, issue what drew my eye to it or or what I, yes, subconsciously I was like, hey. This looks amazing. That purple plays into it for sure.

Speaker 1: Yeah. There's, there's one more website I wanted to show. This is

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.

Speaker 1: This is a website for an interior, high end design store, in our city, and they they loved, directors. They used to work with WordPress, and they were very excited when I showed them the finished CMS and how easy it was to change things. But this is also a project very heavy on good photography. And Directus was great in this one because I managed to use the the block system and and the for, like, for example, if we have a a blog and there's a Mhmm. This is in Dutch.

I don't, suppose you can read it. But the we are using the blog builder. I think I I I read it here. If you go to the to the block, and then you have a block. And we're using the blocks as well to, really write the content.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. So what do you do? A client can embed, like, rich rich content, like videos and and things like that.

Speaker 1: Video is not yet. Sorry. But images, we can this is a a text block. They could add a a gallery block in which they can combine images. Yeah.

So it's Nice.

Speaker 0: Yeah. It's cool. Like, especially because it's very photo heavy. And they do I learned

Speaker 1: a lot from from directors for this project, especially like the blocks. Sorry.

Speaker 0: Oh, I was gonna say, do they is it a furniture business? Is that what it is?

Speaker 1: They do high end furniture. Like, the Eames chair is something they sell, like, the classical higher end brands.

Speaker 0: I gotcha.

Speaker 1: Yeah. So they they you just have they have a big collection as well. For example, is a brand. And in this one, they can also write text, and then you can add these images themselves. And inside directors, they can choose.

I want this image to be a size small, medium, or large, and the grid will using a series as grid, we'll place them like this. So it was a fun project. Learned a lot about directors, about the the the m to a system. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 0: It looks really nice. Yeah. And I like that you're giving clients a little little control over presentation, but, you know, like, not enough to break the design.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And so I think that's the problem with with WordPress sometimes is there's a lot of things the client can do wrong, and and I think people like it. You can just change only what they want to change. Right?

Speaker 0: Yeah. Like, honestly, like, I the clients that I worked with in the past, like WordPress and and stuff like Squarespace, it gives them it it's distracting. Right? Because what I really need them to do or needed them to do was go in and add content and photos, and what they ended up doing was, like, tweaking the spacing. Like, you know, like, hey.

This doesn't look right. Or Yeah. Yeah. They spend 3 hours tweaking the design on the website, and they and they skip over the content. Right?

Speaker 1: Yeah. I know what you mean. I know exactly what you mean. Yeah.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Well, I I appreciate the tour. It looks amazing. You know? What's what is the the future?

It's something I I like to ask everybody. I I before we we started recording, you said you gave a a talk on chat GPT and stuff, but, that would could be an interesting little thread. But what what are your future plans for your agency? You know, what what kind of projects are you guys working on now or or getting ready to launch soon? Like, what's in the cards for you?

Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that I have some exciting I have 2 projects coming up, and they both need multi language. It's something which I'm very afraid to start doing because I don't know how I'm gonna do it. I was hoping you would have done it in the agency OS.

Speaker 0: That's the next version. Right?

Speaker 1: I'll wait for you to finish that.

Speaker 0: Yeah.

Speaker 1: Oh, so I think, with directors, I I took on some small projects. I blocked one really big project because I was afraid because I don't know yet how to do it. So for me, the future really is to get these bigger projects up and running in directives, see if I can use multi language, together with Nuxt and the block builder system. I know it's possible in directives. I just have to find out how to do it.

Speaker 0: Yeah. I I think it's a matter of just, like, getting into it. It's it's it's one that I'm keen to explore as well. So I like, as you get into it, definitely hit me up. Yeah.

The like, the translation interface, super easy to use inside Directus. Like, the the pieces that I'm not a 100% on, and maybe somebody watching this can, like, school us both. It would it's just, like, how to how the best way to architect that on the front end and and, like, connect it. And I think there's for Nux, there's the, there's a module, I think, that that would potentially play into it. I haven't messed with it, though.

The

Speaker 1: You mean the i18n module or yeah.

Speaker 0: Yeah. I haven't messed with it yet.

Speaker 1: I think it's it's fairly I've used it with a static website. So where the the the translation strings are just adjacent file, it works perfectly. It even hooks into the transition state so that when you change language, you have a fade out that changes.

Speaker 0: Oh, nice.

Speaker 1: Yeah. I think, well, the question will be, like, how do we like, if you do a request to to direct us for a page, do you give back all translations and you filter them out on the front end? Or when the user changes language, do you refresh the request to direct us? I think that would be

Speaker 0: the way. Yeah. That's probably how I would do it. Yeah. I I have to connect you with, the the guys at Heinrichs and Heinrichs.

They were one of the the previous episodes.

Speaker 1: On email.

Speaker 0: Yeah. They've got yeah. They've they've got a project that, they're I I I don't think it was actually, like, 2 different languages, but they were using the translation inside Directus to to manage that side of it. Uh-huh. It was like 2 locations.

Like, they wanted to have 2 versions of the site, but it was all it was all still in English, but they were still using the the translations interface for

Speaker 1: it. I remember. I think they used the translations interface to show these two locations. Right? Yep.

I remember you did a video with them as well. Very interesting guys. Both of them.

Speaker 0: Yeah. So or what's the the future date like for the agency? Or, like, you know, what are your your goals for, you know, I guess, like, a little longer term? You know, a year, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years?

Speaker 1: What what's the

Speaker 0: future on that side?

Speaker 1: Yeah. In the coming year, I wanna be, like, become really good in just next time directors. I mean, some new projects require me to do look something up like this multi language thing. This is something that I don't it's hard to estimate. Client asks how much it's gonna cost me more to have multi language, but I don't know.

So I'm gonna be happy once I I've built a few very complex, integrations between Nuxt and Directus so that I can quickly and correctly estimate future projects and just get them up and running much quicker. And then there's also I have a whole second company I'm starting called Waiyo. It's a it's a we're gonna build sort of a SaaS platform to connect patients with medical professionals. So I want to start exploring multitenancy and directives as well, which is also a big topic.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. I I look forward to seeing more about that project, Miguel.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 0: Well I'll

Speaker 1: be happy to share all my findings with the community. Yeah.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. That's one thing that I love about everybody that works with Directus. Yeah. They're is so helpful and and just willing to share.

I I think, you know, ultimately, that that's what, like, an open source product, like, yeah, that's one of the ways that, we can compete with a as a smaller team with with, like, larger products, you know, some of the the SaaS based headless CMS and and other products. But just our community, amazing community and and full of supportive people like yourself and Arud. We'll make sure we'll get him a a shout out again in this thing. Do that. Yeah.

Speaker 1: I feel like I wonder if, like I think, like, head headless CMS feels like the future to me. Just it's so obvious to decouple the front and the back end. It's it's just like your your data platform and you can do anything you want with it. So I look forward to pretty seeing more of that evolve, in the in the near future.

Speaker 0: And one last parting question before we go. Is there is there anything, you would like to see from us at at Directus, you know, in terms of, it could be features inside the system or, you know, otherwise, you know, something inside the community or documentation or guides or anything like that.

Speaker 1: There's one thing I'm looking forward to, but I saw some threads on GitHub already. It's, what's the correct name? Like, if you upload an image that you can, like, select a part of the image that's the most important.

Speaker 0: Oh, the focus. Yeah. Focal points. That's Yeah. Focal points.

Yeah.

Speaker 1: Focal that's amazing because a lot of clients upload a picture, and, obviously, your website is responsive. And he's like, oh, but my partner's faces out of the picture is like, okay, but it just scales. So it would be amazing to really have the client control what support for them in the picture. But I think Rick was busy with it. I haven't checked, but I'm looking really forward to that one and my clients as well.

Yeah.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. That that's a big one. Yeah. I love that feature in some of the other CMSs I've seen and that, I'm not exactly sure how the implementation of that will work, but one I'm very excited for as well.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Me too.

Speaker 0: Well, well, perfect. Miguel, thanks again, man. I I really enjoyed this conversation looking at the the projects that you've built with Directus and Nuxt. Amazing work, my friend.

Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Thanks. And thanks for having me. It was great talking to you.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. We'll have to do this again sometime.