This week, Guillermo Wenzel joins us to talk about how he’s built and scaled his drone business, Drone Sky Visuals. Since starting his business in 2019, Guillermo has gotten experience working in the real estate, construction, inspection, and event industries. During this episode, he talks about how he’s used word-of-mouth advertising, Google Ads, social media, and more to successfully grow his drone business. Listen to this week’s episode to hear all about Guillermo’s story and how he’s scaled ...
Aug 13, 2021•52 min•Season 4Ep. 7
This week on the Drone to $1K Podcast, you’ll get to hear from Derek Cameron of 3805 Productions. Derek does photography and videography, as well as 3D mapping and modeling. Derek first started his business just before the country shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, he’s had to overcome many obstacles to build his business. Since then, Derek has worked with many different clients, including local business owners, realtors, construction companies, and even a candidate running ...
Aug 10, 2021•55 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Our guest on this week’s episode is Jeff Carrillo from Tarillo Vue. Over the past few years, Jeff has used drones to do creative work and inspection work for clients in many industries. One of the services he specializes in is drone thermography. During the episode, Jeff talks about how he got started with his business, how he learned how to do thermography, and some of the cool projects he’s worked on. If you’re interested in learning more about how drones are being used to conduct thermal scan...
Aug 02, 2021•51 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Merrill McKee from Northern Perspectives joins us on this week’s episode of the Drone to $1K Podcast. Merrill went from listening to the Drone to $1K Podcast and hoping to someday achieve what our guests have accomplished, to now being a D$1K Podcast guest himself – which means that he now owns and operates his own successful drone business! During this episode, Merrill tells us all about his aerial photography and videography business, which is based in northern New York. Since starting his bus...
Jul 27, 2021•54 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Our guest this week is James Grace of JMG Aerial Imagery. James provides aerial photography and videography services for clients in the construction and real estate industries. Before starting his own drone business in early 2019, James worked in post-production at Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures. While there, he learned the editing process, and he built a LinkedIn network of 10,000+ connections. James has used his previous industry knowledge, as well as social media, to start and grow his bus...
Jul 18, 2021•42 min•Season 4Ep. 3
This week, Kevin Olson of Maryland Drone Guy joins us to talk about his aerial photography and videographer business, which he’s successfully grown over the past year. Kevin first started flying drones at the beginning of the COVID pandemic and got his Part 107 license last July. Since then, Kevin has had the opportunity to work with many local businesses, including wineries and breweries, restaurants, gyms, a drive-in movie theater, an engineering company, and more. Kevin has used Instagram to ...
Jul 13, 2021•42 min•Season 4Ep. 2
DRONE TO $1K PODCAST SEASON 4 / EPISODE 1 WITH JEN ALLEN Season 4 of the Drone to $1K Podcast is officially here! In this week’s episode, Jen Allen of Wildwood Media tells us all about how she’s used drones to capture aerial photos and videos for her real estate and wedding clients. Jen has been doing wedding photography and videography with her husband for years, but when the coronavirus pandemic started, the majority of their weddings were rescheduled. Jen has been able to find a new source of...
Jul 05, 2021•42 min•Season 4Ep. 1
DRONE TO $1K PODCAST SEASON 3 / EPISODE 10 WITH CALEB RANDALL On this week’s episode, Caleb Randall of Randall Productions joins us to talk about how he’s used drones to grow his business to making 6 figures a year. Caleb started out doing wedding videography, but eventually shifted to creating marketing and branding films for businesses. He’s worked with big-name companies like Geico, as well as smaller businesses, to tell their stories through the art of video. Caleb discusses how he got start...
Mar 17, 2021•51 min•Season 3Ep. 10
DRONE TO $1K PODCAST SEASON 3 / EPISODE 9 WITH JORGE CASAMIQUELA This week, Jorge Casamiquela, our student support manager here at Drone Launch, joins us to talk about how he has successfully built his drone business, all while working part-time for Drone Launch Academy. In this episode, Jorge tells us all about how he landed his first clients, the lessons he learned along the way, and the advice he has for anyone who’s thinking about starting their own drone business! Don’t forget to enter our ...
Mar 09, 2021•47 min•Season 3Ep. 9
DRONE TO $1K PODCAST SEASON 3 / EPISODE 8 WITH RUT PATEL In this week’s episode, Rut Patel of Voyager Industries tells listeners how he grew his engineering business to the point where it’s making hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. A few years ago, Rut quit both of his jobs to pursue his passion for drones and engineering full-time. Now, he has a team of employees and a company that made well over $300,000 in 2020. How did he do it? Listen to find out! Don’t forget to enter our weekly gi...
Mar 01, 2021•59 min•Season 3Ep. 8
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 nothi...
Feb 16, 2021•50 min•Season 3Ep. 7
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 b...
Feb 09, 2021•48 min•Season 3Ep. 6
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. ...
Feb 01, 2021•50 min•Season 3Ep. 5
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 ...
Jan 26, 2021•42 min•Season 3Ep. 4
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 ...
Jan 18, 2021•51 min•Season 3Ep. 3
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; ...
Jan 12, 2021•53 min•Season 3Ep. 2
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, repai...
Jan 05, 2021•53 min•Season 3Ep. 1
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...
Jun 03, 2020•56 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Cody Retlich is founder of Midwest Aerial Productions. David: “Why don't you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and how you got into drones?” Cody is from Wisconsin and went to school for entrepreneurship and professional sales, so he knew he wanted to run his own business. He’d always take the leadership role and knew he wanted to have the freedom to work the way he wanted. His interest in drones started when a friend developed software for agricultural use of drones. Cody helped h...
May 27, 2020•50 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Jeremiah Oschwald owns and operates Beardhouse Media, a real estate marketing business, and Overland Pioneers, an outdoor lifestyle marketing business. David : “Why don't you tell us who you are and what your company is? How did you get into real estate marketing? When did you first mess around with drones?” Jeremiah has been in the real estate marketing business for 4 ½ years, drones for about 3 ½ yrs. There was a big boom in drone popularity but there weren't a lot of people licensed. Jeremiah...
May 19, 2020•53 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Preston owns Jensen Air in North Dakota, working primarily in a seasonal real estate David: “Why don’t you tell us a little bit about your business and what you do? Preston started his drone business on the side. He defined himself as different than other drone business owners because his customer base was already in place. His brother—a real estate broker for Remax—needed someone to do commercial drone footage. Preston did a little research, figured he could do it and “pulled the trigger” on st...
May 13, 2020•35 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Leo Adams is CEO/Co-Founder of SkyeLink, a professional drone service company with a drone marketplace and pilot network. David: “Tell us what kind of services SkyeLink provides for drone services and on the pilot network side?” The main services SkyeLink offers are aerial inspections, aerial mapping and aerial photography. They work in construction, solar, real estate, production and typography. Their pilot network allows them to scale and offer flexibility to clients nationwide. Their drone ma...
May 05, 2020•38 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Mike Jensen, from Sacramento Drone, has been in business for almost 30 years doing wedding and event videos and corporate videography. Mike always offered unique services to clients, such as 8mm film, 360 VR panoramas and aerial shots of wedding venues. In the mid-90s, he did his first aerial by renting an airplane and continued to get aerial footage by renting helicopters. At $400/hr, it was very expensive, but he gathered a reusable library of about 30 to 40 of the most popular wedding venues ...
Apr 28, 2020•39 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Alex is drone photographer and videographer. He is also the author of two of our Drone Launch Academy courses—Aerial Video A to Z and Aerial Photo Pro. David: “Let’s start with you giving us your background.” Alex already had a videography service. When he’d show up to film a corporate event, he said, it nagged at him that he needed to get a drone and a license to fly it. “I could see how much it helped to diversify between camera work and photography,” he said, “it’s easier to sell and rates go...
Apr 21, 2020•52 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Dustin’s company is Full Scope Inspections, a home inspection company in Citrus, FL specializing in roofs made of metal, tile, slate (or anything that shouldn’t be walked on or is too steep or elevated.) David: “When did you first start getting into drones and when did you fly your first drone?” Dustin was using drone before starting his drone business. He noticed people weren’t using drones for inspections and his residential construction background told him there could be a big market—it just ...
Apr 14, 2020•44 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Sinuhe is Founder of DroneQuote a company that specializes in helping roofing and solar companies better understand what’s happening on a roof through drone survey imagery. Sinuhe started working installing solar panels on new roofs for residential and commercial purposes. He had to get on roofs to take measurements and conduct surveys and was afraid of heights. In thinking there had to be a better way, he bought a small drone with a camera and started seeing potential and benefits such as being...
Apr 07, 2020•40 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Introduction to Andrew: Although Andrew started flying drones 5 years ago, about a year ago, he decided to build a business to make some extra money. Andrew says, “Aerial photography isn’t so big in winter so I didn’t start to get business the summer. But this winter, I’ve lined up clients through spring of next year.” By the way, Andrew is a senior in high school. Andrew bought his first drone for $50 when he was 13. He then got a Parrot Bebop2 which he loved but wasn’t pleased with the picture...
Mar 31, 2020•40 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Martin hosts The FlyLife Podcast for FPV-based podcast for UAV drone people. It’s also a long format—bi-weekly episodes are between 1-2 hrs and he now has over 50 episodes. He’s also done very niche-specific commercial drone work. He got into drones in 2015 because, after a break up, he was habitless and wandering Best Buy and found a small $60 drone, which flew into a house and broke. He then went online and found an FPV (First Person) drone and started flying on his own. He fell in love becaus...
Aug 21, 2019•52 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Dominic is a Tacoma, WA-based real estate photographer. He was in the Air Force for years which is where he first picked up a camera. He loved it so once he got out, he got his own camera and thought he’d do journalistic photography. After recent elections, he decied he couldn’t do politics so he got a job with a car company doing their photography. He ended up bored. Then, although he’d thought doing real estate would be boring, this is now his full-time job. Dominic is happy to report that eve...
Aug 14, 2019•47 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Bill is a Certified Drone Pilot and co-owner (with his wife, Laura) of Billy Productions, capturing the beauty of a home’s property and location, providing real estate agents, clients, and developers a more robust appreciation for each home’s unique character. Bill is located in ChicagoLand area, Naperville, IL. His main focus for past 20 years has been financing mortgages. The last year has been a bit more difficult in terms of compliance for the bank he works for. He needed to pick up somethin...
Aug 06, 2019•46 min•Season 1Ep. 8
