Drone to 1K Podcast by Drone Launch Academy

Eric Hellinger from Vivid Flight Media is our guest for this week's episode. Eric only started flying drones about a year and a half ago, and he's already running a successful drone business that specializes in providing FPV videos. If you're not familiar with FPV, it stands for first person view. Eric has created FPV videos for a variety of businesses and organizations, from schools to laboratori...

Season 5 of the Drone to $1K Podcast is here! This week, Dusty Jolley joins us as our first podcast guest of season 5. Since getting his Part 107 license back in 2020, Dusty has been able to quit his job in insurance (which he was miserable at) so he can pursue 2 of his hobbies: flying drones and welding. Over the past couple of years, Dusty's been doing a variety of drone work, including cinemato...

Danny Elassad from Mole Media and Hoverscape joins us this week to talk about his full-time drone job AND his drone side hustle!   Danny is the chief remote pilot at Hoverscape, where he uses drones to create “digital twins” (extremely accurate, high resolution 3D models) of large structures, like telecom towers and warehouses.   With Mole Media (his own drone company), Danny does drone photograph...

This week, our guest is Thom Monterville from NexGen Drones, LLC.   Currently, Thom’s business is focused on agriculture and mapping drone services.   In this episode, Thom talks about how he started his business, how he landed his first paid job (which happened to be with one of the largest cattle and agriculture companies in Oklahoma!), and his goals for the future.   If you want to learn how dr...

Patrick Whalen of Backstage Aerial joins us this week to talk about how he grew his business from $0 to 6 figures in less than a year.   When Patrick’s job was affected by the pandemic, he decided to invest in a drone and get his Part 107 license.   In no time, he was landing jobs with household name clients like Amazon, Netflix, Hyundai, and Justin Bieber!   Patrick tells us all about how he was...

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 hi...

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...

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...

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...

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+ connectio...

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, res...

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 pa...

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...

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 adv...

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...

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 som...

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.   Jonath...

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 photogra...

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...

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 Sta...

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...

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 entre...

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 m...

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 inter...

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...