When it comes to videos, podcasts and Joomla streamers, one name always stands out: Tim Davis!

Is it any coincidence that this real-life pastor is so enthusiastic about sharing both his knowledge and his passion for Joomla!
We asked him about his relationship with the community and how he came to produce such interesting and valuable videos.

Many Joomla users are familiar with your videos and tutorials, but we don't really know much about you. Can you give us a quick introduction?

I’m Tim Davis, I’ve been married to my wife, Susan, for 38 years. We have 3 children who are married and combined they have 6 children, our grandchildren! I was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1965 and grew up an hour and a half north of there. I’ve lived almost half my life in Victoria, British Columbia on the left coast of Canada.

What was your first encounter with Joomla?

In June of 2002, I changed my hosting to a company that would allow me to send emails to a growing newsletter that I had. That hosting account included "Fantastico", a tool for one-click installation of different software packages. One of those packages was Mambo. After playing around with it for a little bit, I discovered that you could buy a template that you liked the look of and install it in Mambo. I was really struggling with the look of my websites and Mambo liberated me from that. 

What made you choose Joomla ?

In 2005, I was pretty happy and enjoying Mambo when I learned that Mambo was going to be forked. The reasons given related to opensource philosophy, which I was unfamiliar with at the time. I realized I was going to have to choose a path and as I evaluated what was being communicated to Mambo users, I decided I should follow the "forkers" because it seemed to me that they were the creative people that had made Mambo what it was for me as a user. Of course, that fork was Joomla.

Why videos? Is it pure chance or is it a format that appeals to you more than others?

I hate typing and creating training material in print or text media because it takes sooooo lonnnnnnng to get precise and polished enough to adequately communicate the nuances and "secret knowledge" that many people, like me, lack when looking for a solution to a problem. As I often say, "Everything is obvious to the person who knows how to do it." Oftentimes the people who document how to do things leave out what is obvious to them, but those things are often the missing link for the person who is stuck.

It is this reality that inspired the tone of my Basic Joomla Tutorials YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/basicjoomla) I had purchased a template for my Joomla site and I wanted to customize some css. I was able to find the developper’s documentation on how to do it, but I was at a total loss as to how to actually execute it. I remember staring at the screen knowing I was in the right place and that the answer was there, but feeling totally lost. Eventually, after 2 hours, I was able to figure it out. I knew I could show others how they could do it without going through the same quest. Doing that was so much easier for me than typing and curating static screenshots of the process.

Another thing I prefer about video is that it gives more control over the environment in which the viewer is learning. People successfully seeking and receiving help is often hindered by the fear of being judged by those offering assistance or by internal feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. I don’t base my own self worth, or the worth of others, on having a certain level of technical knowledge and so I try very hard to create an atmosphere of invitation to learn with me instead of from me, because it’s no secret I’ve got a lot to learn about Joomla! Video helps me to help anxious people relax, which is a much better learning environment.

I know you used to be a pastor. Can we say that you entered Joomla the same way we enter religion?

Specifically speaking, my becoming a pastor and my getting into Joomla were very different paths. When I was 15 years old, there was a very specific moment that I sensed God was calling me to be a pastor and I answered, "Yes." Whereas with Joomla, as I have already described above, my entry was very unstructured and serendipitous. However, I do see a parallel between my faith Journey and how I ended up in Joomla.

I grew up in a religious home, in the sense that we only knew about rule keeping and nothing about a personal experience with the person of god. And here is the thing, we weren’t a family that was good at keeping all the rules, so like lots of religious people we struggled through life while keeping some of the rules that were easier for us and at the same time blindly hoping that we would be good enough to get into heaven. It wasn’t until I was 13 that I learned and believed that God wanted to help me in this life too, and that when it came to earning the next life, he had already paid the price for me. This meant that instead of working to keep up appearances for the our own vain satisfaction, and that of people who were better at religion, I could instead live, move, and simply *be* in a relationship and journey with God that will continue after I die.

Similarly, Joomla delivered me from rules I could not master, best practices I did not know, and producing works (websites) that were uninspiring to look at. All I could produce with Dreamweaver were boxy and flat styled websites that looked like they had crashed in the middle of a creative desert, and crawled to civilization in a desperate attempt at survival (and I’m not even telling you how my Microsoft Frontpage web pages made me feel, lol.) Suffice it to say, when I saw websites that looked amazing and inviting, I wished I could do better and felt badly that I couldn’t.

But Joomla delivered me from that because it set me free from doing what I could not. Someone else, Joomla as an opensource community, had already done the work, allowing me to skip the impossible part and freeing me to enjoy having a website, something I think we all want.

Am I saying that Jesus and Joomla have both saved me from deadends? I guess I am, but of course Jesus is infinitely better than Joomla because entry into heaven is not dependent on having a Joomla site!

You make videos but you also produce live streams. What's the most complicated part? What do you prefer to do and why?

I started doing live streams because I wanted to get my total watchtime hours up to the level YouTube requires to monetize a channel (4,000 hours in the previous 12 months.) So I started going live and working on my Joomla sites. In the beginning, nobody was watching live but I still talked as if people were watching because I knew some might be watching the replay.  Eventually people did start watching and I started mixing up the topics (ie. looking at new extensions, the latest Joomla releases, and inviting guests) because the content was better than watching me break my sites or try to figure things out in real time week after week. The live streams have now become a fun community in themselves with friends who are there every week. It’s always exciting to have new people join in chat too. All are welcome! 

Can you tell us about the process of creating a short video?

Over the years, I have really tried to shorten my edited videos as much as possible because the people have spoken (sometimes rudely, lol) and that’s what they wanted. The source of my topics for short video varies from little things I have learned when working on projects, to answers to questions I have seen on FB or on other forums, to other more immediately relevant things like new features in Joomla or (rarely) when something with a new release has gone south and help is needed getting the solution out.

Do you have any advice for people who want to create video content the way you do?

As much as I have said making videos is easier for me than making printed or text material, making videos is a lot of work and if you start to make videos at some point you're going to hate it. That is why it is imperative that you are making videos about something you are passionate about, because that passion will most likely carry you over the rough spots.

Also, you don’t need to be an expert in everything in order to make a video about something. You need only know (or learn) something that someone else might be looking to learn themselves. Part of me is confused at times as to why more companies and developers aren’t doing YouTube videos about their products, but then I remember they are extremely gifted in, and busy with, other things. And, maybe they wonder things about me, lol!

There is lots of room for other Joomlers to make videos about extensions that don’t necessarily have good video tutorials. Simply pick an extension you use extensively and start sharing your knowledge and experience with it. You will be adding great value to our community and you may be surprised at the doors it opens for you in business or simply in life, because putting yourself out there on YouTube will change you - it changed me!

On the technical side of things, I live stream with Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), edit screen-captured video with Camtasia and Audiate, and make my thumbnails in Camtasia. I capture my face with a Logitech C920 webcam, and my voice with a Blue Yeti! USB microphone. You may be able to produce the same results using lower priced things than I use, but keep in mind that your time is valuable so if cheaper is more time consuming be sure to buy back your time with better tech as soon as you can afford it. Also, remember that viewers may forgive you for poor video quality, but not poor audio. 

Which video are you most proud of? Which one is closest to your heart?

One of my most recent videos that I am proud of is my video, "How to Become a Joomla Tester" (https://www.cybersalt.com/joomla-training-cohort/how-to-become-a-joomla-tester). For years, testing was something I could not figure out how to do, even with some help that was out there. So when I finally "got it" after help from Olivier Buisard and also watching some of the video that was put out for Pizza, Bugs and Fun, I was excited to finally show how to do it on my channel.

The video closest to my heart would be any of the livestreams where, after the topic at hand was covered, I’ve gotten to simply visit with the guest and talk about Joomla life, and life itself. I love the Joomla Community and the feeling that comes when I remember I am a part of it. 

I know your content is shared on Youtube, but do you do anything else with it?

One of my team takes my videos and adds them to my site at www.cybersalt.com Having them on the site offers the option to organize them in ways that Youtube does not have. Each video is embedded in its own Joomla article, taking advantage of organizing them using the core Joomla category and tags component. That helps people find related videos. I should also be using Joomla’s core custom fields component in the mix, but I'm not confident enough in using those and I am not in the place, right now, to slow down and learn the rest.

For years, I have enjoyed my friend Phil Taylor’s sponsorship of my channel and a number of my videos are on his site: especially the ones inspired by tools on mysites.guru They have helped me learn a lot of things when it comes to managing and securing a Joomla site. In fact, I have a way to go to catch up on the many more videos I should make from this resource.

I also do the support for php-web-design.com and have used my channel to create support videos that cover the most common support requests and questions that come in for their extensions. Right now, that has been limited to MigrateMe 4 (https://cybersalt.com/migrating-joomla-3-to-4/migrateme-4), which I think is the best J3 to J4 migration helping tool for Joomla users like me. Stageit, another of PWD’s extensions, has been growing in popularity so adding support videos for that extension  is definitely on the agenda.

You are well-known in the international community, what is/was your involvement?

I have been blessed to be a guest at a number of Joomla user Groups (JUGs) and participate and speak (mostly virtually) in a bunch of Joomla days. I attended the Forum for the Future in Spain (just before the pandemic) and for a while co-hosted the JoomCast podcast with Chetan Madaan. Being part of such a talented and multi-national community is very exciting and enriching!

What are your future projects? Still Joomla?

If I ever get my Joomla business running to the point where it isn’t so dependent upon me, I would like to start another YouTube channel geared to spiritual content. Even though I have retired from pastoring, my life is still very pastoral in nature in some of my interactions with people.

I just turned 59, an age when some people think you should have everything figured out, but recently discovered that I have been masking the pain of a childhood hurt (from over 45 years ago) with some bad habits. So just like in Joomla, I am still learning things and I want to share those things with others who are looking for an answer to similar things in their lives.

As for "Still Joomla?", yes, still Joomla! I love the Joomla community and I love Joomla as well. As long as Joomla does not get in the way of providing financially for my family, and doesn’t prevent me from being present in a healthy way in my marriage and the lives of my children and grandchildren, I will be a Joomler until I die - and at 59, let me tell you, that seems to be rushing sooner and sooner, lol.

If you had just one sentence to say to our readers, what would it be?

Thank you, everyone, for being a part of Joomla and therefore a part of changing my life.

Website Tim Davis: www.cybersalt.com