Today we’d like to introduce you to Frank McCright.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
The idea of Yogomi came up back in 2006. Video game montages were a popular thing on YouTube which was still pretty new at the time. I thought it would be a great idea to make a site similar to YouTube, but strictly focused on video games. I got together with a few friends to discuss, had a few meetings, but nothing ever materialize. Fast forward about six years later, I still have the name Yogomi and I’m wondering what to do with it. And then I attend my first comic con. I have always been into geek culture: comic books, manga, anime, movies, manga, gaming, cosplay, the whole gamut, but I had never been to a con and been around a massive amount of people who were also into the same things. At that point I said to myself, “I have to be a part of this!” So, I revived the Yogomi name and decided to create a project along with a portal/site to not only contribute to geek culture, but also become a resource to help share and express the culture in new ways. Some approaches I use to contribute is through video shoots, photoshoots, interviews and short docs with artists and other creators, interviews with gaming studios, convention and exposition coverage, and other original content.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
One of the struggles I’ve encountered is gaining trust from companies, artists and other people or organizations I want to work with. This is an age where numbers matter. What I mean by that is people equate a high number of followers or views to quality or legitimacy. That is a false concept. On the Yogomi Instagram account alone, I delete followers every day because they are not real people or are clearly gaming the system to promote their own product.
In just about every case what they’re promoting has absolutely nothing to do with the subjects of my content. I want real followers because it’s all about engagement. The whole point of this project is to “nerd out” with fellow geeks! Another problem is being taken for granted or advantage of. I’ve found that the more I offer to help promote someone and give, the more people take, take, take. For example, I will work with someone and create a piece of content. The content created is not just for Yogomi, but I make to sure express to them that it also belongs to the artist to promote their own art or projects. Often, I never hear from them again or receive no credit, mention, or even a follow. Often the same artist is quick to ask for support or a follow for their own projects. This happened so often that it required me to change my strategy and be more selective on who I choose to work with.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Yogomi – what should we know?
Yogomi is passion project for my love of all things geek. Over the past few years I’ve noticed several sites and portals that cover a lot of the same subjects, but in different ways. I wanted to be part of the conversation and I thought the best way would be to create content myself and contribute to the culture. The first thing I did was come up with the name “Yogomi”. The name is meant to read/sound like a Japanese name because of the huge influence Japanese culture had on me in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s through anime, cartoons, and manga. Not to mention I have always been a huge fan of Japanese product design. How I came up with the name was I did a search for foreign translations for the words “play”, “game”, “compete”, “fun”, and other similar words. Ironically, the majority of the words I found were from European languages, none of them were from Asian languages. So, I pulled a few syllables from each word and ended up with “go”, “mi”, and “yo”. I switched and swapped the two-letter pairs until I ended up with “Yogomi”. With that out of the way, I had to come up a logo. The logo you see now is the third and final design concept of what is basically a play button that you would see a game controller or a Blu-ray player. What I specialize in is content creation produced at the highest quality I can manage. I have a huge background in design, photography, video, motion graphics, music production, audio engineering, and much more. So, I decided to take all of these skills I’ve learned over the past 20-30 years and apply them to this passion. What I believe sets me apart is also one of the things I’m most proud of and that’s a professional presentation. In my professional career of over 20 years I’ve worked with brands like Samsung, AT&T, 7-11, NEC, Intuit, and many more. I bring that experience to this small passion project that gives it more validity, polish, and quality. And I think organizations notice that. I’ve added live game streaming to the project as well.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
This project is mostly run and supported by me alone. When I started Yogomi in its current form, I reached out to a few people to get them excited and see if they wanted to jump on board and bring it to life. Unfortunately, people fall off or lose interest when things don’t happen as fast as they’d like. We live in an age where someone can get famous overnight from a cellphone video, but a project like this takes a lot of work and requires time to create something I feel proud of and meets the high-quality standard I set. That being said, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some really talented artist since I’ve started Yogomi. Some supporting artists that are definitely worth a look are The Geeky Seamstress and Kevin Lewis (Imaginary FX). While they often play heroes with their cosplay or art, they are real heroes to me. There’s also one of my best friends Gus Aguirre. He’s been a long-time friend and fellow geek. My girlfriend Tricia is one of my biggest supporters and there’s something to be said for your significant other being behind your ambitions and ideas. She’s so selfless and giving and one of the most beautiful people I know. I’m lucky to have her support.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yogomi.com
- Phone: 214-334-7918
- Email: info@yogomi.com
Image Credit:
Green Lantern – Akumakuma Cosplay; Wonder Woman – DFW Wonder Woman; Spider-Woman – Royal Court Cosplay; Spider-Man – JT Cosplay. All photos were taken by Frank B. McCright IV for Yogomi.
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
