![[Fully Managed] Angelo Frisina from Sunlight Media Ep. 187](https://penji.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/BLOG-IMAGE-Angelo-Frisina.jpg)
Fake or Real News Game
Daniela (D): Okay, let’s start with the news. Scientists train octopuses to solve Rubik’s cubes, and they’re faster than humans. Is this fake or real?
Angelo Frisina (AF): Instinct tells me fake, but I’m going to go with real.
D: It’s real. There you go.
AF: That’s crazy.
D: Okay, next one. Man legally marries his emotional support alligator.
AF: Oh, God. If it was in Florida, I would have to say real because everyone’s crazy there, of course. I’m going to go with fake on this one.
D: It’s real. A man in Pennsylvania actually married his personal alligator. His name is Wally, and he gave him all the emotional support.
AF: Good for him and Wally.
D: Congratulations to them both.
AF: Congrats.
D: Next one. There’s a new reality show that’s going to put influencers on a desert island without Wi-Fi.
AF: Influencers on a desert island without Wi-Fi.
D: Yeah, it’s a Netflix one. They just announced it. Real or fake?
AF: Let’s go with fake.
D: Yeah, you’re right. It’s fake. No, that reality show has not been announced. Does not exist. Probably should, but not a thing.
AF: I don’t think we need any more reality shows, so that’s a good fake.
D: Yeah. And last one. Hollywood is going to remake classic films, but they’re only going to use AI actors.
AF: I’m going to have to go with fake.
D: Yeah, it’s fake. I guess it’s not that far-fetched, but fake.
AF: I’m sure they will at some point, but I don’t think they’ll stop using real actors, or at least I hope not.
D: Yeah, no, it was fake. You did pretty well. I tried to make the craziest ones the real ones, and more normal ones fake. And you kind of saw right through that. So you did really well.
AF: Apart from the alligator, I didn’t pick that one, but interesting.
D: That was really unhinged. I didn’t even know you were able to marry an alligator. Like I had to read into that because I had no idea that you could do that.
AF: Now we know.
Introducing the Guest
D: Guys, you have heard it. This is Angelo, and he is the founder of Sunlight Media, our guest today. And you all know the drill. Welcome to Fully Managed. This is where we discuss marketing tips, business tips, and help assist you guys in your business journeys. I’m your host, Daniela, and I’m Penji’s partnership coordinator. Like we said, we were with Angelo. We were just playing our game for today, fake or real, and he guessed all of the fake and real news headlines. Angelo, it’s so great to have you today on the podcast. I’m so excited to film our episode.
AF: Thanks for having me, Daniela. I’m looking forward to this.
D: I’m looking forward to it too. Now to get the ball rolling, we obviously already got to know each other a little bit, but I want you to tell us a little bit about yourself, about Sunlight Media, everything that we need to know to introduce everyone listening or watching who is not familiar with who you are, what you do, about you and about your company.
Angelo’s Background and Sunlight Media
AF: Sure. Okay. Well, as you know, my name’s Angelo. I run Sunlight Media. It’s a digital marketing agency here in Los Angeles. It’s been operational since—we have a small team of designers, developers, and digital marketing experts. Their skills range between user interface and logo design right through to web development and app development. We work with a lot of different open-source frameworks, a variety of different clients, and a lot of cool projects.
I set up Sunlight Media in—before that I was just a freelancer. I come from a music background. I was a professional musician for over twenty years, toured and traveled the world. And during that time, I was working on just little projects because, as you may or may not know, there’s a lot of downtime when you’re a musician. There’s a lot of travel involved, and oftentimes you’re stuck on a plane or a bus or some form of transport with not much to do. So if you’ve got a laptop, you can fill your time, which I did—working on various web design projects.
I worked a lot with Flash, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop back in the day because they were the industry standard in building websites. I was only really able to take on one or two projects at a time because I was working as a solo developer, and I was missing out on a lot of projects because people would contact me and I’d be like, “I’ll be available in a couple of weeks or a month,” depending on my workload. When I circled back to those people, they’d moved on and found someone else. So I was missing out on a lot of business.
I soon realized that, which led me to set up Sunlight Media. I put a small team together, and now we’re able to take on multiple projects because we have a bigger team in place. My focus these days is really on business development, contracts, and proposals. I do a little bit of project management, but most of that is handled by my senior guy, William.
From Creative Arts to Creative Tech
D: Awesome. I think that’s inspiring for people coming from creative industries. For a lot of artists, after a certain period of doing their art, transitioning out can be scary—especially if they haven’t built a network for job opportunities and their résumé is all artistic work. Your story could resonate with them.
What I’m curious about is, with your background as a musician—music is a highly marketable career, and success often involves good marketing. Did that influence how you approached Sunlight Media, or were they completely separate worlds?
AF: I wasn’t really involved in the marketing side of music because I was more of a hired gun—paid to show up and play drums. But I learned a little from management and people running bands I worked with, and I applied those skills to Sunlight Media.
In the early stages, most of my clients were music and entertainment-related because they knew I was in the business. I worked with musicians, studios, production houses—more entertainment-related clients because my background attracted them. I did websites for fellow bands and musicians. That grew organically.
I learned most of the marketing on the fly. I studied SEO and other digital marketing skills. The creative aspect of music carried over to web design. Back then, Flash was huge—it had cool interactive video and audio playlists, fully animated. That excited me because it appealed to entertainment clients. Eventually Flash went out of fashion, which was good—it pushed me to learn different tech stacks like WordPress and PHP, which are more versatile.
Scaling Sunlight Media
D: What I’m also curious about is how you were able to scale this. You mentioned starting with a small team and growing consistently over the years. How was the experience of actually scaling Sunlight Media and taking on bigger projects?
AF: That’s the challenge with every business—how to scale, grow, get more clients, generate more leads, and build a team. In the early stages, it was a lot of referrals and repeat business. Then I developed an interest in SEO—search engine optimization. I learned how to optimize my website to gain more organic traffic through Google, and that’s how we grew organically.
It wasn’t just the website; it was our Google Business profile too. We currently dominate search if you’re in Los Angeles, within a five-to-ten-mile radius of downtown where our office is located. If you type “web design,” “web developer,” or “website design” into Google, our Google Business profile will usually show up in the top three results.
SEO on the website and on Google Business generates a lot of leads for us. We’re also listed on business directories like Clutch and UpCity, which are specific to creative agencies, as well as Yelp, DesignRush, MerchantCircle, and others. But if I had to pinpoint one source that generates most of our business, it’s definitely SEO.
Advice for Business Owners New to SEO
D: SEO has really changed digital marketing. A lot of agency owners tell me it’s essential. But many business owners find it intimidating. For those getting started who aren’t marketing-savvy, what’s your advice for getting the ball rolling?
AF: I’d say they should contact Sunlight Media and have us take care of their SEO needs. But seriously, they should either learn as much as they can on their own—just the fundamentals—or hire someone who can handle it.
Even if you’re not doing the work yourself, understanding the basics helps you have informed conversations with SEO or marketing experts. You can then decide whether to delegate to a team member, hire a freelancer, or work with an agency. The important thing is knowing enough to recognize whether what’s being proposed makes sense for your business.
Building Client Relationships and Trust
D: Marketing agencies are built on client relationships. Over the years, what’s been your experience in building trust with clients—especially with people who’ve been burned by agencies before?
AF: A lot of it comes down to reputation. Smart clients will research you before reaching out. We have over fifty or sixty five-star reviews on our Google Business profile. Our Clutch and UpCity profiles also have numerous positive reviews.
To maintain that reputation, we deliver projects on time and within budget. If there are issues, we fix them. If tasks are out of scope, we explain the costs and try to give a fair deal. Everything is clearly defined in contracts and proposals so there’s no miscommunication.
Our priority is establishing long-term relationships. Some clients have been with us ten to fifteen years—some even started with me when I was freelancing before Sunlight Media and stayed on with our team.
Defining the Ideal Client
D: Do you have a specific type of ideal client, like we do at Penji, or do you take a more generalized approach?
AF: There’s definitely an ideal client for us. First, they need to be within our budget range. We’re not the most expensive, but we’re not cheap. Second, their project needs to be within our wheelhouse. Third, communication is key—if a client is vague and doesn’t know what they want, it can make scoping the project difficult.
If the budget is too low or the project is too unclear, we may refer them to a freelancer or politely decline.
Local vs. International Clients
D: I know you work mostly with people in the Los Angeles area. Do you find location matters, or can you work just as effectively with someone in, say, New York?
AF: We can work effectively with anyone. Most of our clients are in Southern California, but we have clients in Hong Kong, Japan, Europe, and across the U.S. Some clients prefer working with a local team for time zone convenience or the option of meeting in person.
For international clients, there are sometimes cultural differences to navigate. Luckily, my travels and being from another country help me understand different cultures. Many of our overseas clients come to us because they want to expand into the U.S. market, so we advise them on rebranding, marketing approaches, and what works here versus in their home market.
Closing the Conversation
D: That’s amazing. I think pivoting branding based on location is one of the hardest but most important things for success. This is a great note to end the podcast on, Angelo. Before we wrap up, is there anything you’d like to plug?
AF: Absolutely. If anyone’s looking for a great agency to market their brand, product, or service, please visit us at sunlightmedia.org. You can also Google “Sunlight Media LLC” and see our reviews. We love helping businesses expand, grow, and succeed—so reach out and let’s get involved.
D: Awesome. I’ll add links to your website in the description. Guys, click the link, subscribe, and follow us for more episodes. Angelo, it was great to have you on the podcast today.
AF: It’s been a pleasure, Daniela. Thanks for having me—I really enjoyed our conversation.
D: Thank you so much, guys. I’ll see you on the next episode.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-frisina
About the author
Table of Contents
- Fake or Real News Game
- Introducing the Guest
- Angelo’s Background and Sunlight Media
- From Creative Arts to Creative Tech
- Scaling Sunlight Media
- Advice for Business Owners New to SEO
- Building Client Relationships and Trust
- Defining the Ideal Client
- Local vs. International Clients
- Closing the Conversation
