Drone to 1K Podcast by Drone Launch Academy

DRONE TO $1K PODCAST SEASON 3 / EPISODE 7 WITH PHILIP HURST   Philip Hurst is the owner of Philip Hurst Media.   Introduction   Philip got his first drone about a year ago. He was working for an architectural company and had the idea of using a drone for roof inspections. He ended up using his drone to take videos of ongoing construction projects, as well.   Philip felt like he was really onto something with drones.   He pitched the idea of incorporating more drone work into his job to his boss, but nothing ever really came of it.   In the meantime, Philip had been posting his drone work (cinematic videography, 3D mapping, photography, etc.) on Instagram, and it was catching people’s attention.   People were reaching out to him, asking if he would do drone work for them.   Philip knew he needed to get his Part 107 license so that he could start accepting these jobs and making money. Within a month of getting his drone, he took and passed the Part 107 Exam.   Philip was able to get enough business to quit his architecture job, start an LLC, and fly drones full time!   “It’s really about the hustle and the drive.”   Philip felt lucky to be able to learn how to fly drones with a DJI Mavic because it was pretty easy to fly that drone.   He dedicated lots of time to practicing flying and taking photos and videos.   He also spent time branding his business and adding more and more content to his Instagram page.   David: When you were still working at the architectural firm and starting to use drones for roof inspections, was that when you started practicing a lot? Or did that come later?   Philip was practicing during his lunch breaks at work. He actually had his first accident during one of his lunch break flights – on the first day he had his drone!   Philip took his drone everywhere. Whenever he had a free moment, he would grab his drone and start practicing.   He tried flying in difficult situations, like through tight spaces. He also tried flying the drone towards him so he could practice with the controls being backwards… which ended in a crash. Luckily, his drone was okay, though!   David: What was the first job you ever got? Did you reach out to people or did someone come to you?   Philip races mountain bikes and knew one of the promoters of a big race. The promoter reached out to him and asked if he could get some drone footage of the race.   After that, Philip went on Zillow and found $500,000+ homes. Then, he sent emails to the real estate agents that listed those homes and let them know that he would shoot footage of their listings for free. He said that the first listing would be free, and that his work would help get their houses sold. He sent out about 500 of those emails over the course of two days.   He ended up landing about 15 jobs from that email outreach.   Philip says that being willing to do free work is very important because it will be hard to land jobs if you don’t have a portfolio of previous work to show your potential clients.   “When I send them to my Instagram, the proof is in my work.”   Philip sends his potential clients to his Instagram page to see his work. BUT, he also sends them to other drone pilot’s Instagram pages and shows them what they SHOULDN’T want from the drone pro they hire. He’ll point out things like jerky, non-cinematic footage in others’ work, which helps him prove that his footage is smoother and higher quality.   David: What part of the country are you in?   Philip is in Ohio. He says that he is “the best in the Midwest.”   “When it comes down to it, I’m not just a pilot. I’m just also a media professional and I’m a cinematic photographer and videographer. So yeah, I can catch great content and I can do good drone work, but I like to find the value in my end product, because like I said, drone work are just establishing shots to help support a much bigger story.”   David: Of the 15 free jobs you landed from your Zillow outreach, how many of those turned into paying clients?   Out of those 15, about 8 of them have become routine clients for Philip.   Philip is also branching out into other industries. Some of his friends are shooting a pilot for ABC and they asked him to capture some establishing drone shots. Now, Philip’s name is going to be on IMDb!   Philip emphasizes that he started about 6 months ago. It’s awesome to see how much his business has grown in just half a year.   He says that his drone is one of his most powerful tools.   “You gotta put the time in. You gotta grind, you gotta believe in yourself. You gotta have that confidence. You know, you gotta walk the walk and talk the talk. Go out there and look professional.”   Philip says that you need to make potential clients feel confident in choosing to hire you as a drone pilot.   He also stresses that you need to be posting on all social media platforms. But, you can tailor your messaging on each platform.   David: How would you do something differently for Instagram vs. Facebook vs. LinkedIn?   For Instagram, Philip will post short, 15-second clips or stories. His Instagram grid is a bit more curated. He’ll curate his Instagram grid based on the seasons or even moods. The coloring and moodiness will change as you scroll down his Instagram feed. His stories are usually behind-the-scenes footage.   For LinkedIn, Philip likes to have his feed look a little more polished.   As far as TikTok goes, Philip says, “If you’re not on TikTok, you’re missing the boat.” He says that you can reach millions of people on TikTok. He says it’s a great place to brand yourself.   David says that one of his friends is on TikTok and that one of his posts got half a million views.   One of Philip’s TikToks actually got 5 million views in the first week!   Philip says that he treats his drone work very seriously.   When he gets home from a shoot, Philip removes his memory cards and uploads all of his footage so it doesn’t get lost. He also unpacks, cleans, and inspects all of his equipment. Philip says he treats his equipment well because it makes him money.   He says that networking is very important. If you want to be successful, get to know successful people. You never know who someone may be friends with or who they might be able to introduce you to.   Strive to become known as “the drone guy” or “the drone gal” in your town so that people will immediately think of you whenever they (or someone they know) need drone work.   Because David started Drone Launch Academy, many times people will reach out to him for drone work. Once, he made $1,300 on a shoot for commercial properties that a friend recommended him for.   Philip says that calling himself “the best in the Midwest,” saying his name is “Maverick,” and constantly talking about and posting about drones helps people to associate him with drones. When someone thinks of drones, they usually immediately think of Philip because of the way he’s branded and marketed himself.   Other drone pilots have actually reached out to Philip to see if he’d do a tutorial video on how he edits.   David says even if you have the best product on the market,...

16 Feb 202149min

Jonathan Stettler is the owner of Steady Focus Media, a business that specializes in providing photography and videography services for businesses and real estate.   Introduction   Jonathan has always been into drones. The first time he saw a drone, his friend was flying one of the original DJI Mavic Pros. Jonathan thought it was cool, but he didn’t actually buy a drone until years later.   Jonathan’s background is in photography. He had tried wedding photography, but he didn’t love it. He wanted to be a photographer, but he just wasn’t sure what industry he should try to get into.   Last year, Jonathan bought a DJI Ronin gimbal so that he could put together a video for his taekwondo school. He had never tried videography, but he decided to give it a go. Once he sat down to edit the video, he was surprised at how much he enjoyed the editing process. When he showed the video to the taekwondo school, they were really impressed.   Jonathan started Steady Focus Media to create promotional videos for small businesses. Once he actually started his business, he felt like he was officially a photographer and it really helped him to take it seriously.   He ended up buying a drone, and then a few months later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. All of the small businesses (his normal clients) shut down. He wasn’t sure what to do. He had the idea that maybe he could make money with his drone. So, he looked into it and figured out that there were Part 107 regulations he’d need to learn so he could pass the exam to be able to fly his drone commercially.   He went online and found Drone Launch Academy. He enrolled in our FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Exam Prep Course and it helped him study for and pass the exam on the first try.   Then, he enrolled in our Drone to $1K program, which helped him to grow his business.   David: How’d you get your first client?   He found his first client through a local Facebook Classifieds group. He put up a post that said he was looking for a realtor that wants a free home tour. He got responses back from people asking what the catch was. He said that there were no strings attached, he was just trying to build his portfolio. He ended up getting a response from a realty team. He went out to the house that they told him about and it was a super nice, $800,000 house that had an indoor pool and a tennis court!   Although the realtor loved the video, Jonathan didn’t really hear anything back from them. He tried to use Facebook to promote his business, but he wasn’t getting any leads. After about a month, he heard back from the realtor he had worked with and they asked if he could also do another video, as well as photos for another house.   As he landed more jobs, he had more and more material that he could use for demo reels and for promotional materials for his own business.   Jonathan stresses the importance of having a portfolio of your work. He says that doing free work when you’re first starting out will help you get the content and footage you need to build your portfolio.   “It’s the thing you need to start building the ladder to get to where you need to go.”   Since Jonathan started using drones when the pandemic hit, he hasn’t shot photos and videos for a single home without wearing a mask. He realized that photography and videography is a job that you can do even during the pandemic.   “It’s still a viable business, even when everything’s going wrong.”   Jonathan’s business slowly grew from $200 the first month, to $500 the second month, and then 3-4 jobs a week. Jonathan is now working with several local realtors.   David: How did you go from having one client to then getting booked 3 times in the same week?   Jonathan says that it all happened very organically. A realtor that he had been communicating with a month before ended up reaching out to him because she had a house that she needed photos and video for. Jonathan went out and shot photos and video of the house and sent everything over to the realtor that same night. After that, she became one of his consistent clients.   Because of the pandemic, Jonathan couldn’t physically go into realtors’ offices to introduce himself, so he decided to take a different approach. He created flyers for his business and mailed them out to local realtors’ offices. That landed him a job with one of the bigger realty companies. After that, their marketing director called him to ask if he did headshots. He took a headshot for one of their realtors and she then told the rest of the realtors about Jonathan’s business and his pricing. That led to lots of jobs for him.   Over the past 3 months, Jonathan has had at least one job per week.   David: Do you have a full-time job in addition to your drone work?   Jonathan does have a full-time job that pays well, which has helped him to be able to build his drone business. Jonathan loves that his drone work gives him the opportunity to be creative.   One thing that Jonathan stresses is that you need to be willing to put the work in if you want to succeed with your drone business.   “You absolutely have got to put the work in, because the thing is, if you think you’re just gonna stand around and, like you said earlier, the money’s just gonna come to you, it’s not gonna happen.”   Jonathan says that the initial startup costs for a drone business can be a little expensive, but once you put that money into the business, you’ll earn it back – you just have to persevere and stick with it.   David says that many times, people don’t feel like their work is good enough and they struggle to find content that they’re confident enough to post online. David says that you can post photos now, and then keep practicing and taking more photos. Once you have work that you’re happier with, just use them to replace the original photos you had posted.   Jonathan says that when he looks back at the pictures that he was impressed with 10 years ago, they are very different from the photos he’s proud of now. He says that your opinion of what looks good will change over time.   You can also work with others and help each other grow your businesses. David says it’s important to have a community of people to bounce ideas off of. He says that the drone community is usually willing to help each other out and give advice.   David says that a drone is just a tool. In order to succeed with a drone business, you need to know about the industry you’re in and you need to have business skills. Jonathan agrees that you really need to be knowledgeable about the industry that you’re working in.   “Walking into a job with confidence – that’s key.”   One way that you can get industry-specific knowledge is by offering to do free work. If you’re in the roofing industry, you could offer to do a couple of free drone roof inspections for a roofing company. If it goes well, you could build a friendship with the company and start to learn about the industry first-hand.   David: Do you want to stay in the real estate industry?   Although Jonathan didn’t initially intend to work in the real estate industry, he actually really enjoys it.   David: How are you pricing your drone services right now?   Jonathan has noticed that people don’t like complication. For photographs, Jonathan’s flat rate is $125. For video, his flat rate is $200-$250 (usually a 3 to 5-minute edited v...

9 Feb 202147min

Alex is the owner of LA Aerial Image. Introduction Alex was the first guest when the podcast came out about a year and a half ago. Alex was an original RC plane flyer. Then when he was older, he was able to afford this stuff. One day at the airfield, he saw some guy with a quad copter and knew he needed to have one. Then he decided that he didn't just want it to be a hobby. So he took his photography background as a hobbyist and then just got into video and just started doing video with drones. He does a whole array of different things, such as 3-D modeling for construction sites David: Do you do real estate? I tell a lot of people to start with the real estate because it's easy to get in. Everybody knows a realtor and you can get jobs fairly easy, but you can't stay in the industry. For Alex, he says, it's just not fun. In the meantime, he picked up an Amazon prime show called The Bay and he’s also been shooting for the Pop Star network for three seasons now. David: How did you land your first construction client? What did they want? My first construction job was subcontracted from another guy. They did some progress shots and 3-D modeling. Alex has done 3-D modeling for rock quarries too, so they can judge their materials and measure them. The person who subcontracted to him found Alex on Google. He needed a pilot in LA because he was getting business there but lived in Oregon. David: One thing people are asking who are interested in industries like construction, but don't know the lingo, is “How do I give a sales pitch to an engineering firm or construction or contractor?” What would be your sales pitch for 3-D models? I don’t have to do sales pitches right now; the contractor is doing them. I learned a lot of the lingo onsite because when I first went in, I didn't know either. I learned the lingo just talking to the guys onsite. For the most part you just need to explain that it will save them time and money. Construction guys are busy as hell. If you can send them an “as built”, which is a PDF that shows all the information. David: How often did they have you go out there and do a 3-D model of the whole site? It depends on where they're at in the building. In some cases it was once per week, in others cases every other week. “We’re going to do a testimony video of one of the biggest companies we work with, how they used the 3-D model, how it worked and how it saved them money. We’ve saved them tens of thousands of dollars in the long run.” David: How much are you able to charge these construction companies or engineering firms for flying every other week and doing a three D model? About $1500 bucks a flight in total is what the contractor charges. It takes Alex only about 45 minutes to do a model and then he makes $300 when most of the guys on the site made $50 or $60 an hour. David: What’s your favorite type of thing to work on: What's the most fun for you? What do you like doing the best? “I like the film stuff; I like being on set. As the drone guy, there’s lot of waiting around, which can be a little stressful, but other than that, it’s fun.” David: Do you think the Inspire 2 has helped you get those jobs? Yes, for sure. If you don’t have an Inspire 2, they’re not going to be hiring you for that job. David: What would you say you’ve learned that's new in the drone world? Are you getting better at the stuff you already know how to do, or do you feel like you've honed any specific skills? With nine years of drone flying under his belt, Alex has had more crashes in the last couple of years than ever. “I think I got complacent with my flying and I'm thinking ‘I got this.’ I think I need to get back to the basics and be a little more aware. I got a little loose.” Sometimes you might just get on autopilot and not really be thinking it through as carefully.   David: When you're flying for these construction sites, do they require you to have a tight amount of insurance? You have to have insurance and a lot of times it's at least 2 million. It could be up to 5 million. They have really expensive workers' comp and they have to pay the personnel. They preach safety all day long.   David: What’s changed from getting business now from when you were first doing it. Now, are you actively searching for any business or it just all comes to you? Alex says he wants to get better at looking for it. All his work lately has been “just coming to him.” He spends about $50-$100 per month on Google Click ads. And, he says, he doesn’t even get that many people from Google. Most of it is referral. “As long as you’re good at what you do, they're going to call you back or they're going to pass your number to someone else. Don’t get discouraged. You have to work actively on your business to grow it.” Alex says it isn’t about just buying a drone. You have to learn to be a good business owner, provide good customer service and create relationships. You might have to do some free jobs here and there to get the people to know your services and to know your work. Alex says, “Just start somewhere and build it.” Connect with Alex: Instagram: @laaerialimage Have a Drone Business? Want to be Interviewed for Season 3? Complete this questionnaire: Drone to 1K Business Owner Application Training from Drone Launch Academy Part 107 Exam Prep Course ($50 off) Aerial Photo Pro Course ($50 off) Aerial Video A to Z Course ($100 off) Aerial Roof Inspection Pro Course ($100 off) Drones 101 Course ($20 off) Other Places to Listen iTunes Stitcher Google Play Spotify TuneIn

1 Feb 202150min

Spencer is the owner of Aerodrone Solutions. Introduction: Spencer started Aerodrone early in COVID. He’d been in military, then went to college, found drones and did military contracting in Middle East. Because that work was touch-and-go, when he returned from Afghanistan in April and in May, he decided to start his own company. David: What I want to know first is--are there any similarities to flying drones in Afghanistan to flying your DJI drones? Spencer says it's similar in how the camera works. The DJI is more simplified but flying is different since he was flying fixed wing UAVs for the military. David: You were one of the first people to sign up for D$1K—ready to get after it—which is a big reason why you're successful. Obviously, you were in drones in the military, but from a civilian standpoint, how did that process start for you? Spencer signed up for the Part 107, started it, did five minutes of it and didn't touch it again for two years. His friend Gail is a commercial pilot in Ocala who had the idea of starting something casually. Because of the uncertainty of the virus, Spencer was real nervous—but other than drones, what could he do? So he went with what he liked, and started up the drone idea. Spencer says, “I loved the idea of having my own company and putting into it and getting something else. It's super rewarding.” Spencer is a local and has a lot friends who are real estate agents, so he thought it would be really easy. For two months, he did no business, but all of a sudden the flood gates opened and he was overwhelmed with work. David: Take us through those two months, what did you do to get the first client? At first, he didn’t know where to get contacts. He found good ideas from Facebook pages of guys that were starting out. He went to Zillow, found 300 of the top agents in the area and sent out an email, getting not one response. He then started doing direct messaging on Facebook, Instagram (a little on LinkedIn)—letting people know what he does that makes him stand out more. That's when it started clicking with people, Spencer says, mostly because the email was a template and the messages were more personalized. David: Things picked up for you when you started doing more direct reach out. What was your first client? Was it paid? How much did you charge for that? Spencer’s first client was someone he knew, who was a pretty good realtor in his area. She said she’d called three other people and Spencer was the first one to pick up. “What’s huge is answering all your phone calls and also being available. Agents have listings that need to get on the market ASAP. They call and you need to be there soon.” Spencer’s first gig was paid but he gave her a discount for the drone service and a free 3D tour of everything.  Normally that would have been around $299 or $295. Spencer gave it to her for $195, which also included full interior/exterior HDR bracketed photos and drone photography. David: After your first job, where did it go from there? From there, Spencer says, it went word of mouth to a couple of different realtors and some other friends that were slowly coming out of the woodwork. He had a photographer reach out that does shoots and mermaid portraits for kids. “I had no other option because I'm engaged, I have family, I just want to be home. I knew I had to make this work and that's why I've been so hungry for it.” Spencer continued to go on Facebook, asking if realtors in the neighborhood had needs and getting a few potential contacts from that. He’s also gone to happy hours for realtors, showing up with flyers. He says it’s important to market yourself, in the most budget friendly way to do it. Spencer has continued to get random requests other than real estate, which keeps it interesting. He says that specializing in something is good. It’s important to get in the door and make some money. David: You started charging for these jobs and making some money. When did you break $1K for a month? It took two months...in July he hit $1K. He's still growing. Spencer says that growing was like a domino effect because one person tells another person. He just needed to keep being professional, instead of stressing out over a job that should take two hours and it taking 20 hours. David: Let’s say someone is listening to this and says ‘I want to do my own thing’ or ‘It sounds incredible to fly drones on the side’. They say, ‘Spencer, I heard you on the podcast, you sound like you’re a credible person and you know what you're doing. What should I do? Where should I start? What should I learn?' Spencer says that he would tell them first to get their Part 107. “Do the course that Drone Launch offers. It has everything you need for a foundation. Get someone who knows SEO. If you're doing it on the side, it's going to be different managing your time, but be patient. As long as you're professional, produce a good product and chip away at it, you’ll eventually get some good business out of it.” David: Where do you see things going for you moving forward? Do you want to stay in real estate? Are you hoping to branch out into other areas? Spencer wants to do some roof inspections. Being in Florida, they get a lot of hurricanes. He also wants to focus on real estate because he enjoys it. His goal is seven listings a week, which he says is pretty doable in the future. Connect with Spencer: Facebook: Aerodrone Solutions Instagram: @aerodronesolutionsllc Have a Drone Business? Want to be Interviewed for Season 3? Complete this questionnaire: Drone to 1K Business Owner Application Training from Drone Launch Academy Part 107 Exam Prep Course ($50 off) Aerial Photo Pro Course ($50 off) Aerial Video A to Z Course ($100 off) Aerial Roof Inspection Pro Course ($100 off) Drones 101 Course ($20 off) Other Places to Listen iTunes Stitcher Google Play Spotify

26 Jan 202142min

Chris is the owner of Chris Dantonio Drone Photography Introduction: Chris says he got in a “little late” and “by accident”, because he started about four years ago at 43 years old. His parents bought him a little toy drone that had a small camera. He flew it for a week, broke it and knew he needed something better. He then bought a $100 drone and broke that in about a month. The DJI Phantom 3 Standard was his first real drone. He started taking pictures around Philadelphia just as a hobby, and really enjoyed it because he’d grown up around photography. His father, a photograph teacher at the local high school, would set up backgrounds to do portraits in the living room. “Photography has always been a part of my life and to be able to do it with a drone and be able to show people things in the city, especially that you didn't even know were there, is nice.” He could show people things that are very rarely seen from the ground level, which intrigued him more. He started an Instagram account, which has been a godsend, Chris says, because it's free. It doesn't cost any money and, with good work and hard work, you get followers. Chris just hit 10,000 followers a couple of months ago. After that, Chris knew he had to get licensed in order to sell pictures. Sure enough, he bought a study guide, studied for six months and took the test. “It's because of the study guide, I did really well. For those of you wondering ‘Should I get a study guide?’ I’d highly recommended it...” Then the business started, almost by accident. David: What year did you get your first Phantom and when did you say, ‘let’s get rolling on this’ and decide to get your Part 107? Do you do drones as a full-time gig or do you have a full-time job or some other supplemental income to go along with your drone business? I got the Phantom in 2016, started studying in 2017 and took the test in early 2018. This is a part time thing for me. Leaving my day job is really far off. I’m also an executive chef for an elite school outside of Philadelphia, so I have a job that allows me to do the drone thing, since nights and weekends are perfect for drone work. David: It's nice to have something that covers your bills and provides the freedom to experiment and pursue things without pressure to make immediate income. There’s pressure to get it going, but you don't want so much overwhelming stress that you're just going to crumble. Chris agrees that it adds stress to a day job—in addition to family and everything else going in in his life, but it’s also nice to pick and choose what jobs you want to do because your next mortgage payment isn't relying on that. Chris hasn't bought a drone with his own money for two years; the business has paid for all of the equipment. In early 2018, Chris got an email from an Instagram follower who worked for American Idol who was from Philadelphia and had seen Chris’ work. That was his first real big job. He had to join ICG Local 600 to shoot as a contractor for the show, which he pays dues for, but found out how beneficial it would be down the road for future work.  The show was high stress, they worked all day, but got a very high reward. The third shot of the opening of American Idol was their shot.  When subsequent clients came, it helped because they knew that we had already worked for a popular show. David: With American Idol were you just shooting content and handing it over and their guys were editing it? For all his major jobs, Chris gave them raw footage and they had somebody in their organization that handled all of the editing, cutting and doing everything with it. This was the case for Comcast, American Idol, and NFL films. David: What happened next? How did your next client find you? The next person to call was Comcast who wanted to purchase rights to footage for unlimited use. Chris says every job they've had—big or small—has all found them through Instagram. Chris says, “it's a smart business tool that doesn't cost money...the key is getting reposted to get your name out there.” With Comcast, a higher-up had been following him for a while, seeing Chris post shots of cool and different angles of the city. He has never really done any outbound sales activities to pursue clients. “I would be out there shooting regardless. If I had a thousand followers or less, I would still be out there shooting that much because I love it, which makes it easier.  if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.” David: One of the things people love on this podcast is specifics and numbers. It inspires people to know what's possible. Can you tell us what you make? His daily rate early on (for American Idol) was $1500 for an all-day shoot. Comcast wanted five photographs and five 15 to 30 second videos. He quoted $500 per still/$1000 per video. He said he’d give them the whole package for $6,000—they didn't bat an eyelash and wrote the check. To come up with those numbers, Chris researched what rights he was giving up for unlimited use. If it had been exclusive—where he was never allowed to use that footage—the number would have doubled because he’d lose all future profit from that footage. He did a lot of research as to what Getty images charges for a single image and then cut the deal. Chris says, “It's extremely important to go online and research things, as well as talk to friends in the photography industry, who you will meet through Instagram. They will help you figure out what your service is worth to you.” Later, a photography director for NFL films reached out, asking for footage of the NFL films building for the opening of a new show. He shot all kinds of things for three hours, getting paid $1500. He got to work with cameramen who’d shot some of the most important sporting events of our time. They knew exactly what they wanted, which made it so much easier on Chris to be directed in that way. David: It sounds like you're getting pretty good pricing per gig. How many jobs are you flying per month and what are you getting paid these days? Chris tends to average two or three jobs a month, but sometimes those jobs have multiple flights. His pricing has increased a little bit—his hourly rate is now $300/hr; his daily rate is $2000. David: One of the biggest questions is ‘How do I find clients?’, ‘How do I find work?’ For Chris, many commercial projects have come from family members or people he knew in high school. He got a Land Rover Jaguar job from a high school friend who is now the sales manager there. He knew Chris was into this because he posted on Facebook constantly. It was all about getting the word out that that he’s “the drone guy” on social media. David: Obviously, it pays to have really good photos that are worth sharing...Do you have any strategies when you're posting on Instagram? Are you also posting to Facebook or doing them independently? Chris does not post to Facebook every time because he has a separate Facebook account just for the drone business. Philly Drone Shots is the only Instagram account he has, and it’s listed as a business. He usually posts directly and separately to Facebook. Chris’ advice is, “When posting to Instagram, hashtagging and tagging are how you get seen with little followers. If you're just starting out on Instagram, hashtag and tag large accounts in the city you live in with things like #gameofdrones, #photooftheday, #dronephotography. When people look at those hashtags, they see your photos, whether they follow you or not. That's how...

18 Jan 202151min

Nick is the CEO & Lead Photographer for Open House Foto located in Los Angeles. Introduction: Nick bought his first drone, a Phantom2 with a GoPro in 2015 for $2,500. He’d just left his full-time job at a cable company that he hated working for. He knew that he had some creativity but didn't want to buy a drone because the ones he saw were shaky. He also knew he could do better. Nick would fly the drone over a business, take photos and find out if they would like to buy them. That was that; he kept doing a few here and there. Later, he contacted a photographer, saying he did videography, and asking if he’d like to partner up. She agreed and it all started. David: What type of projects do you typically take on today? Nick says their bread and butter is primarily listing videos, highlighting great things about an area. They showcase how properties compare to other areas. When they approach clients for video, Nick tells them they're not trying to sell the condo; they’re trying to sell the lifestyle and the neighborhood. For example, he shot a condo in Venice beach which was small with no ocean views. And, Nick says, “if you see the video, you say ‘I want to buy that thing right now’.” Nick uses an electric skateboard with a stabilizer on it. He stands on it with his remote control and gets beautiful shots of the boardwalk. People ask him “What's the percent of drone usage in the videos?” From a two-minute video, Nick says, the drone is there for 15-20 seconds max. He says, “You can't waste 30 seconds outside of the property--you gotta get inside ASAP. People need to see what inside looks like.” David: You started taking pictures of businesses and seeing if they're interested. Then you got a partnership with a photographer. Now you're at super high end real estate jobs, doing video tours. Help me bridge the gap between how you got from there to where you are now. Nick says, “The secret is content...you need something to show someone what you've done. It's that simple; it all starts from being willing to spend some money.” After getting the drone and partnering with a few people, he decided to drop by a popular Real Estate office on Sunset Boulevard. Nick gave the agent his business card, saying he does real estate videography and walked out. He got a call a week later from them to shoot an iconic home. Nick asked for $500, the agent paid $300. Nick says he shouldn’t even have charged them because he was new and needed to get content. “It’s like high school...were you at Tiffany's birthday? Then you will come to my birthday. It’s free ads; maybe they work, maybe they don't. As soon as the realtor knows that you've shot something for another realtor, you’re IN. That's how it works with them and with developers.” Nick’s advice is to get really cool building shots in a downtown area, find a realtor and try to get some beautiful homes to shoot a couple of frames complimentary. Nick didn't hear from them for a while. Then sometime later another realtor calls saying he saw the videos Nick had done on the previous house, had just taken over the listing and wanted to pay for the rights to the video. Nick said he could also reshoot it for them very cheap if they gave him two more listings. They agreed. One more piece of advice for people is to go to an open house with cookies or pizza and give it to the agent(s). Nick says to the agent, “I know you're here all day. Maybe there's something for you and for people that are visiting...and here's my card.” Sponsoring lunches is also a great idea.  By hiring someone to come make crepes at an office, Nick met one realtor who gave him close to $7000 worth of business over the span of three years AND referred him to another realtor. Nick says that despite all that, it can be easy to get discouraged. He says, “Every time somebody compliments me, I say thank you; that's very encouraging. Because in this kind of business, anyone can go to best buy, buy a drone, knock on a realtor's door to take photos. Realtors (and others) don’t understand that time lost is money lost because when somebody screws up, someone like Nick will have to go back and redo it and they're going to pay him.” “Talk to everyone and make sure they know what you do. Realtors trust me to do my thing. At one house, I heard kids playing in a pool next door so I brought my drone over, told the Mom I’d be flying it for the house next door, would fly over her home but would NOT film the kids. I also invited the kids to watch. She was excited, told the neighbor, who told the realtor, who was very impressed.  This could have been a nightmare, which was avoided by a simple knock on a door and a hello.” Nick also tells people to watch movies because you get to see what techniques the cinematographer used. They do really cool foreground shots to the trees--revealing the home from the bottom up. Then the home looks really massive. David: What are you charging for like a full walkthrough, highlight video of a property of these $5 million homes? Nick charges by square footage. Anything on the West side starts at about $950 for up to 2000ft2. People know how much you know, not from what you tell them, but questions that you ask them. He advises to send them a questionnaire and ask them questions such as, 'do you know how to turn the pool lights on?' Nick has cleaned windows, exchanged light bulbs,  folded the toilet paper in a triangle. All these little touches are pretty important. The realtor sees that that's the important part. Details are EVERYTHING. David: It sounds like you're in with all these really high-end realtors and their offices. How did you get into doing construction and what kind of construction stuff are you doing? Nick got hired for a brand-new build and the developer and architects were there. Nick asked them who captured the progress of construction sites. The developer said they had a drone guy, but Nick gave him his card anyway. Nick also did a video for a roofing company who brought in a massive crane to deliver roof shingles. Six months later, the guy asked if they still had the photos he took because the company told them they delivered one amount, but they got a different amount. Thanks to those photos, they were able to see how many they delivered. The roofer said, “this alone was worth everything we paid you.” In construction, anything you shoot to showcase progress is so, so, so important. Nick uses this to show developers so much more of what he can do for their homes. Connect with Nick: Website: Open House Foto Instagram: @openhousefoto Vimeo: @openhousefoto Have a Drone Business? Want to be Interviewed for Season 3? Complete this questionnaire: Drone to 1K Business Owner Application Training from Drone Launch Academy Part 107 Exam Prep Course ($50 off) Aerial Photo Pro Course ($50 off) Aerial Video A to Z Course ($100 off)

12 Jan 202153min

Liam is a Photographer/Videographer and Owner with Bentley Studios Introduction: Liam specializes in photography and video, mostly in the wedding industry, averaging about 40 weddings a year, and incorporating the drone. He also takes photos of the transitions of projects for roofing companies. David: Let's go back, let us know how your business started from the beginning... Liam has been an entrepreneur since he was 15. He started in the iPhone repair business, doing that for three years, repairing over 300 iPhones and saving $10,000 to fund his photography business. He got his first camera was when he was 13. He became the school photographer in High School, when a teacher asked if he would have any interest in filming her wedding.  At 16, Liam sweated through five shirts filming his first wedding. He also realized he loved being a part of someone’s special day, giving them their video or photos and seeing them tear up. After that, he started doing social media videos. He’d call local businesses and say, “I'm starting a business and want to try to get into social media. I see you guys are lacking in that area and I would love to help.” He got a lot of practice doing video production this way. David: What kind of reception did you get when you'd reach out? Some turned Liam down, saying they had their own thing, or they didn’t want to dabble in that. Some said they appreciated that he wanted to do it for free and would give him the opportunity to do so. Liam valued that as a networking opportunity. He got turned down a lot and found out he’d get a better attitude and could find a way to not offend anyone and help people out. David: How did the transition happen from dabbling with free stuff and reaching out to businesses to progressing into your first paying client? Toward the end of high school, Liam did a lot of senior photos which led to more paying opportunities. Every once in a while, he’d try to reach out and get opportunities to film a wedding. As he started to have more work to show people, he started to get booked more. Liam owes a lot of his success to word of mouth. He loves to go out and talk to people and create those friendships. David: When did you start first dabbling in drones? Around the end of his senior year, Liam bought a Phantom 4pro and fell in love with it. At that time, not many local people had any drones, so there was a lot of good opportunity in front of him. David: A lot of people get a drone, then want to know how to start getting clients and paying gigs. So, did your free work just turn into paying gigs or did you have a strategy to start making money? Liam had a gradual increase since he’d started out pretty cheap. Over time, as he had more experience, and his portfolio got larger, he gradually increased his prices because of his experience and equipment. Also, people would see his work on Instagram and message him. Liam says, “It was like a large spider web that expanded, but it was a lot of networking that led to those opportunities.” David: What do you do for your social media? Do you have a system, every time you shoot something, you put it on Instagram or Facebook? Liam has a system. After every shoot, Liam always puts a nice grid on Instagram. He says the first thing people look at when they go onto your page is your grid. The “grid” is some type of theme on your whole feed. Liam says if people see your page and it’s too eclectic, they will bypass it. David: What were you charging for a wedding when you first started out? Liam would charge $500 for a wedding, giving clients an 8-15 min highlight video. He wanted the experience and was young at the time so to make $500 on a Saturday was great. Now, his videos showcase the whole day and the client has total control over what’s in the video. The average price for that is $3000. For photos, he charges an hourly rate of $300 and then there's no minimum or maximum on the hours. An entire wedding runs about $4500-$5000. David: When did you start breaking out into other areas? At the end of high school, Liam got more into the drone. Where he lives—in Youngstown, OH—there are tons of realtors. He’d see on social media that a lot of them were just using their iPhone to take photos, so he offered to do houses for free, saying he wanted to learn. At that time, he was trying to incorporate more of the drone to become the go-to drone pilot in the area. That’s when he fell in love with the drone. Liam still has seven realtors that he messaged on Instagram when in High School that he still does houses for. After he did one house for free, he’d offer to sit down and see what kind of price they wanted to pay. Typically, he’d charge $250 for a full photography package and using the drone would be another $100 on top of that. David: How much of your business is with real estate agents? It sounds like you might be more focused on weddings. Liam is more focused on the weddings, which is where the money is. He has four employees, so he'll double book weekends. He says people LOVE drones at weddings—they think it’s the coolest thing. He also does a decent number of aerial photos for roofing companies. And, sometimes, walkthrough real estate tours for $150. Weddings have led to different opportunities, including meeting an owner of a roofing company locally that specializes in schools and large commercial properties. He asked Liam to film the progress of projects to display to potential clients. Liam goes out once every two weeks to take about 15-20 photos and a 360-degree video of the building. A typical roofing project on a commercial property is 8-10 weeks. He charges a flat rate of $300 per shoot which includes video editing. At the end, he puts together a 1-2 minute video of a time lapse of the whole project. David: When you started with that one roofing company, did you see what they wanted and you reached out to other roofing companies, or how did that work? These companies don't like anyone to share their drone stuff but they will share it with other roofing companies or partners. Liam has gotten contacted from partners or other connections within the contracting industry of his first roofing client. David: Let’s look at a snapshot of your week. How many drone or video productions jobs, including weddings, would you say you're going out to each week? The week prior to the interview, Liam had three drone shoots for the roofing company and then two promotional videos for local businesses—which are “about me” stories that they can put on social media or their website. With Covid preventing people from going to their businesses now, a lot of them want to provide opportunities for people to watch what they offer online. He also had a wedding on Saturday. His average week is about 5-6 jobs.   David: Can you let us know your average revenue in a great month and a slow month? In summer, Liam averages between four and five weddings a month, then usually three projects during the week. In a good month, he averages $10-12,000. In a slow month in the winter, he can make $3000-$5000. David: What advice do you have for me on how to get started and get and get going? What would you say? Liam says the Mavic Mini is a great starting point...mess around with it for a while. Then, after some time, he says to jump up to Mavic Air. Go take some photos and get experience to feel comfortable. Liam also watched a ton of YouTube tutorials on how to get good drone footage. David: When someone then says, “I’m ready to get my first client. How do I do...

5 Jan 202152min

Fred owns and operates Nashua Video Tours, a real estate video and photography company. David: ”Tell us about your company.” Fred has been doing this for 15 years, starting with putting video online. Because the internet didn't support video very well, realtors didn't have computers, or didn't know what the internet was—it didn’t work out too well. When he was just about to quit, the real estate market tanked and people needed ways to sell properties. At that point, flash became the de facto way of delivering video but there were three or four different types of platforms and none of them were compatible with each other. When broadband came into play and the internet became predominant, Fred realized he could do it. Fred had started doing realtor websites. He jokes, “I've never wanted to be in this world, I just fell into it and I haven't been able to climb out yet.” He says back then, you’d buy a template so websites all looked exactly the same—nothing stood out. What became popular were 360-degree tours that were not well put together; that was when Fred thought that a video walk-through of the house made sense because then you could see the layout and the flow. “I just had this bright idea that it would be a way to do something different—but nobody was doing it because they couldn't. I really got started out of frustration trying to differentiate these people.” David: “Let’s start from when the internet was working, you could put video on the internet, and you had a drone. How did using a drone change things for you— if it did?” Fred says he’d been in the video real estate video space by himself for years but as more people got into it, he needed to differentiate himself again. Back then, you could fly drone for commercial purposes with no licensing, and everything was still very fuzzy. For Fred, the real estate market has been an odd place to be. Some realtors think they can get their nephew to buy a drone and let him take pictures, or they don't see that you need to have a license. We  know there’s a difference between having a drone and pushing a button to take a picture or video—and being a photographer with a drone. “If you don't know how to use your camera, you're not a photographer, you don't have the right eye or the right equipment and you don't know how to do it, so it's not going to look very good. The drone is the least important part of the equation.” Fred says it’s nice to show how a property sits on a big piece of land, but flying around, looking at the roof and gutters, then left and right and up and down for three minutes isn’t all it’s about. A simple top down picture of the roof of a ranch with an ugly front yard and an ugly backyard with dead grass is horrible; it’s more of a detriment than a help. If you're trying to promote a real property, you don't want to show the crap in the neighbor's yard or graffiti on the driveway or bad shingles. Fred advises that you should be truthful, but also show people the highlights. They'll realize that the roof needs replacing or that there's a highway back there, but you don't want to promote that right up front. When Fred shoots a house he does the video, interior, exterior stills, floor plans, all of it—he has about five different cameras for different things, including a camera he can stick out of the top of his car to show the neighborhood—and, of courses, he has a drone. He doesn’t use all of those for every property but chooses what he thinks makes sense. Driving through the neighborhood, for example, his goal is to show whether it’s an older or newer neighborhood, if houses are setback from the street or are right on the street with the trees. His goal is to present the property in the best light. “I treat the drone as just another tool. When I get to a property, I either choose to use it or I don't. It's my choice. I don't want someone saying I need to.” Also, Fred sees a lot of video from new drone pilots that’s too high because the pilot is thinking about max altitude when it’s more important to think about what they’re looking at. Sometimes, Fred doesn’t even know what he’s looking at. David: “The thing people struggle a lot with is wanting to get into this—whether it's real estate marketing, promo videos or photography—but don't really have good methods or know how to get a first client. What advice would you give someone? How would you go about starting fresh?” Fred teamed up with a friend who is a realtor and did all of his first stuff for free. He was able to practice, but also able to get stuff out there for other people to see. “What I did then, I still do now. I make it very easy for someone to find me. It's not a secret. I put my name, phone number, and website at the end of every video. I've done a lot of these and I've never had anybody tell me to take my name off. The biggest thing is if nobody knows how to find you, how are they going to know how to find you?” Fred says the real estate business is a lot of repeat business. He doesn’t even want new business because his regular customers keep him really busy. He says clients want to use you for everything—for every listing. The smart realtors understand you have to spend money to make money but they’re busy too; they don't want to call a photographer, then a videographer, then a drone guy, then a floor plan guy. They call Fred and he goes to house, spends 2-3 hours at the property and does all of it. David: What do you typically charge for a job when you do everything—photos, some video, and some drone. What does your full package include? What's a typical price you would charge for that?” For under 4,000 ft2 and just video, he charges $300-$400. For a full package with drone, floor plans, etc, Fred charges $800. He says that realtors want to pay $300-$500 but if you're spending the same amount of time, it’s not worth it to not make enough money. Fred sees people either charging too much and complaining because they're only shooting one house a month or charging too little that are going to burn out. When someone calls him, Fred tells them to look at his YouTube channel, plug in their house to any video, and that's what theirs will look like. It all doesn't take very long, and you don’t have people wanting to change stuff because expectations are set at the beginning. He does charge $100 if someone wants to change anything. “What I give my clients is very fast turnaround at a fair price. What people don't understand about realtors is they care that you're accessible and affordable (which doesn't mean cheap) and that you turn it around fast and are dependable. That's all that matters.” Fred says that the most valuable part of the video is getting the listing. It's not about selling the house, the house will sell by itself. It's about getting the listing. If you're a listing agent, you're competing with two or three other brokers. The reality is if you're out there at a listing presentation with a seller and you're offering video and the other two aren't, then you have an advantage. Not many use video. Sellers want it...buyers love it. He says it’s funny cause you think if everybody wanted it, more people would do it. But because it's so difficult to do, a lot of people stay away from it because they can't figure out how to price it. It’s really all about workflow—shooting as best you can to get what you need, shooting it so your editing time is minimal, and having the right equipment so you can process it quickly and get it out the door. David: “I've heard from other people that are also really successful that they focused on knowing one thing...

3 Jun 202055min