[smart_track_player url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/dronelaunch/D_to_1K_Ep_8-Bill_Pendley.mp3″ ]
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 something that would be an offshoot of that business. He picked up drones and started shooting as a hobby. After a small bit, the agents he worked with asked him to shoot a house. After a while, it was taking a lot of time from his other business. Once he got his license, that business has taken off with shoots for agents. People had seen his drone shoots and because of the synergy of the drone shoots with his previous line of work, it’s been easy to do.
Bill says if you’re looking for a business, don’t go too far off, or outside of, your knowledge base, from your current knowledge base or business. David agrees that drones are a tool that is only as good as the business you’re already familiar with. It’s best have a warm audience instead of starting from scratch. Bill has always been intrigued by photography and the technology of drones makes it more attractive—they sky is the limit. Other people are interested too; people area always coming up and asking how they work. It’s an easy in to offer so many ways to shoot something. And the topic of drones is always spurning new ideas from other people. He, though, has tried to keep his focus in the real estate business. To be successful you have to develop a specialty and build out your niche.
There is a nice learning curve to be leveraged when you’re out there shooting. Six to eight months ago, a developer contacted him to shoot several lots. Bill then had to create new pricing for him because he didn’t understand how drone shooting worked. Bill also had to learn how to price a new account with several lots, instead of houses. Also, if a developer isn’t aware of the issues with his property, he could end up owing the town, or being sued, so it’s worth it to them to pay for the drone shooting. It’s like an insurance policy for them. There’s evidence so there’s no argument of the value.
As a way to pan out a new niche in travel, Bill shot his nephew’s wedding, but that didn’t work out as well so he’s continued to stay with real estate. He’s also hired someone to edit. Bill says a key to success is to understand that time is money and you should find others to perform services, like editing, that are time-consuming. Editing and posting to social media is one of those things. For real estate, Bill charges $250 for video; photos are $125, shooting stills is 30-40 minutes. He may charge for a travel fee so he tries to stay within a local area. Bill is always thinking of those people who can bring clients into his other business. In terms of business, winter is always slow, but things really pick up in spring. He charged $750 for an interior/exterior shoot for a $2.5M home in Springfield.
“Build a signature; Create a Brand”
Bill values his connections. He’s formed one of his most important agent relationships through people he knew. He admired the photography work of one agent and that photographer didn’t work with a drone pilot. He offered to promote her business and now they work well together, helping each other grow their business(es). He learned you have to be able to turn around work quick and, ideally, make it work for you and another person. Bill’s advice for someone who may want to break into real estate drone business is:
“You have to like working with the drone and learning about drone technology. Don’t be afraid of giving a free shoot or two to someone who would like what you do and be able to use you. Give to get but be authentic.”
The most difficult part of starting his business is learning video and photography settings. You have to make things short and sweet. You don’t always know what will look good from out in the field. Find the settings that will work to produce the best results. If Bill were starting over, he doesn’t know what he’d do differently. He says it’s fun learning, and he’s still learning. But finding out what his biggest distraction is and staying away from that has been the thing to do. He says that distractions can keep him from his end goal. He’s gone into a few other areas and has had to learn how to stay focused. His advice is:
“Always have fun … don’t be too hard on yourself with the learning. As you’re developing your skill, share with others, because they will see your enthusiasm.”
Connect with Bill
- Website: www.billyproductions.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com
- Vimeo: www.vimeo.com
- Email: bill@billyproductions.com
Have a Drone Business? Want to be Interviewed for Season 2?
- Complete this questionnaire: Drone to 1K Business Owner Application
Training from Drone Launch Academy
- Part 107 Exam Prep Course ($50 off)
- Aerial Video A to Z Course (20% off)
Other Places to Listen
Episode Transcript
00:00 How are you doing David?
00:26 I’m good. I’m glad you’re on the podcast. You and I were actually just talking a little bit before this, um, but yeah, excited to hear about your story and, um, have you wanted to get to know you and, um, kind of hear how you got started. So, um, why don’t you give a little intro about yourself, just kind of, uh, what you do and maybe tell us a little bit how you got into drones.
00:50 Sure, no problem. Yeah, my name is Bill Penley and I am located in the Chicago land area. Um, it’s about 35 miles west of Chicago in Naperville, Illinois. So my main focused, um, you know, lot of what for the last 20 years has been mortgage financing houses in the Chicago land area. Um, within the last year, um, I worked for a bank and the banking industry, it’s really tough with compliance. So I had a kid creep something on the side that was going to be off shoot, um, to compliment the business. And one of those things I did is I just picked up a drone and started probably within the last, well 14 months of, you know, shooting yes. As a hobby. And then all of a sudden the real estate agents that I work with, yeah. I’m sorry, taking hold of it and say, Hey, can you shoot this house?
01:39 Well, I started shooting one and then turned into two. And then next thing you know, I, Aye, I had this business, yes, I knew could generate some income, um, on the, on the side here, but at the same time compliment the other business that I was doing. So, you know, I felt like, you know, it was taking a lot of time from the other business. And so I just decided to create Billy productions. Um, two allow it to allow it an option to generate income off of the drone, the drone business. And from that point forward, after I got my license, since um, my unmanned drone are on my mind man license, I, I, all of a sudden it just started taking off and I was able to create a web site, Billy productions.com. Um, and then it just started taking off with regards to shoots. So a lot of my agents, um, we’re asking for it and people that had seen the, um, the Jerome shoots have had been asking. So it’s, it’s kind of complimenting not only the drone business but my other business as well. So it’s kind of paralleling each other and really building a lot of synergy with, with both sides of the business.
02:45 That’s awesome. That’s awesome that you’re able to kind of find something that basically fits in and feeds your current business to, or at least, you know, gives you more exposure and stuff and other reasons. Right. That’s awesome. So no, no, no ahead.
03:00 Yeah, I think, I think for anyone that’s looking, um, looking into a business, sort of that business and especially if they have a full time job, is to try to NACCHO outside the box too much for them. Maybe use it as a compliment to their other business, like a real estate agent could use it for, you know, their business. Because if you, especially if you’ve been doing something for so long, the drones, it can, it can free different avenues. There’s a lot of different average that kind of osh up shoot I’ve shot with our direction went in different directions with this and, and what I feel like with, um, having a successful business, you can go outside of your, of your knowledge base too much because of the fact that yeah, it’s just going to distract you from making the money. And I think that with this it’s creating a, an avenue that’s a compliment of the other business that I use.
03:52 Yes. One. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, the more I talked to people, the more we talk about and we realized that, you know, drones, you know, as you know, they’re just a tool, right in the main, some of the main value that you can get out of a drone either comes down to what you already know about the industry you’re working in or your existing network that you might have. And so for you, you know, you already knew a bunch of agents, so it was kind of easy for you to integrate drones in there and you already know kind of a warm audience who, uh, you know, would want what you have to offer instead of starting from scratch. So that’s a perfect, perfect match. So. Well, cool. So, so you were doing, you know, or you still do, you know, mortgages and you started, um, using drones about a year ago. He said, what made you pick up a drone in the first place?
04:38 That’s a great question. I actually, um,
04:41 you know, I, I, I see a lot of people, um, you know, with a photography business and just travel and stuff and you see a lot of these cool angles that you’ve never seen before. And I’ve always been intrigued by, you know, technology and when the drones came out, especially with DGI who I, I use, I ever maverick a maverick and then I’m at a pro and then I have a mad at pro too. And it shifts, no, no pun intended, but the sky’s the limit with it. It’s, you start out with it as a hobby and all of a sudden people generally are intrigued by, they can’t believe that technology that we have today with drones. So it’s an easy sell or an easy conversation piece. Like even if I’m out at it arc or something, and if throw the drone up in the air, right. There’s like probably five or six people that come over and inquired about it and how does it work?
05:31 Yeah.
05:31 Shooting the other day. Yeah. Shooting the other day I was shooting a farm and I mean [inaudible] I cannot believe it, but the pastor of our church actually was riding his bike and I didn’t know he was aiming in an area, but he, he said, hey, why does that work? You know? So it’s just the conversation piece. Like you said, it’s a tool and it’s going to be, it’s such an easy n if you, if you have the ability to, to make money, to just say, hey, I can shoot up. Did she have a birthday party?
05:58 You know, I can, I can shoot this house if you wanted me to shoot this house in a different angle.
06:02 There’s so many ways you could think of it. And the funny part is that there’s a lot of people that will give you ideas from it too. Like if you’re in a conversation like, hey, have you ever thought about this? Like, I had, you know, um, I had a person just tell me, hey, why don’t you shoot kids birthday parties? And I’m like, well yeah, that’s great, but it’s going to take me away from what I do or May. But so it’s my actually hired on a drone guy, um, another drone. Um, yeah. And I thought, I think that’d be something that he might be interested in. But for me it’s, it’s strictly, you know, just kind of trying to keep it within that box of, you know, the real estate stuff that I do.
06:37 Yeah. And I think that’s a hard struggle sometimes to have self discipline just in business in general to kind of stay focused on your area of expertise in your specialty. Because sometimes, especially at the beginning and sometimes it’s necessary, but sometimes at the beginning, you know, you might get shiny object syndrome where everything looks like a good idea and you might put yourself on all these different directions. Like, Oh, I’m going to do construction mapping and I’m going to do a real estate photos. I’m going to have to do a mining aggregate. You know, you might like to try to do everything, but you know, really you got to kind of, and if you have opportunities in the areas, you know and you need money, you know, that’s one thing. But to be really successful in the longterm, you kind of have to develop a specialty and build out that network and that area of expertise and kind of be known as the go to person for that piece. Cause all those people know each other and they, you know, talk and so, um, yeah I know that’s kind of like in any business that’s a little bit of a push and pull, like you want to do more stuff but at the same time sometimes you need to double down on what’s working for you already. So, um, no that’s good. It’s good self discipline that you either
07:38 yeah, I think, I think you nailed it. I think that, you know, there is, there is quite a bit of a learning when that’s not too much, but there’s a little bit of a learning curve. I mean you can catch, there’s some, there’s some youtube channels and obviously, um, you know, education courses like yours that you could, you could really kind of, um, leverage. But you know, when you’re, when you’re out there to shoot, there’s a little bit of a learning curve. Like I recently, probably within the last, uh, six to eight months, I had a developer, they contacted me and said, hey, listen, we need, okay, we need our car lots. We have probably like 200 lots that need to be drones, right? Like a drone shoot for. And it took, and so I had to create a different, a different kind of pricing grid for that. And so basically what I did is, okay, well let’s, let’s make it simple for them because we’re working with people that don’t quite understand the technology piece, the time and the edits and everything. So
08:34 I just kind of employee said, hey, it’s $500 for a half a day in a row in $1,000 for a full day. And it did, it created a, yeah, something that they not, yeah, otherwise. And there were, they love it.
08:46 Also develop the veil for them. Okay.
08:49 What happens is with a con with the developers is they’ll go in and they’ll, they’ll build these houses in these huge, but at the end of the day when they’re down with the developer developing the city or the county can come back and shoot them for, um, damages to roads to, you know, let’s say electrical doctors or anything like that. So it was a different element. But I learned how to do that. And then I just have, you know, recently I just, you know, had my, my drone guy, I’d had him get licensed and now I’m sending him out there and we’re splitting the costs where not, not cost, but yes, splitting the profits there. So He’s, he’s loving it because it’s pre-business for him or a good lead for him. And then, you know, I’m loving it because that’s now creating than time for me and more income.
09:33 Yeah. It’s a scalable, scalable thing for you. So for the, for the developer, are they just wanting that for documentation purposes for like,
09:41 yeah. The condition was when they were finished. Yeah. So we’ve, we’ve created a, yeah, I don’t know if you’ve heard of box.com but that’s a good, um, a good way to secure, um, and then like a cloud storage file storage. Yeah. Right, exactly. Um, so what we’ve done is we’ve created a individual account for them so they don’t have to store it. They don’t download it because it takes up quite a bit of time to download. And so they, yeah, essentially have this on the side where they’ve ever needed it. They can go to the cloud based system and then pull up there their streets or lots or developments and say, nope, you guys are suing us for this. And we have the data to support that, that it’s not, it’s not damaged. So you know, with, with debate that also last year, the developer that hired us, yes dude, bye. A township, $30,000. He had no data to back it up, so he had to pay 30,000. He goes, I know some of the damage was was legit, but you don’t have to. I probably could have saved about at least $15,000 if I would have had the data. So He’s, he’s loving our service.
10:50 Yeah, no, that’s a, that’s a nice aspect. Well, at least for him, that’s a pretty clear return on investment. If, you know, he lost the lawsuit and where he would’ve saved 15 grand, but he could have hired you for
11:01 no whole lot less and oh yeah. It reminds me of there. Oh, go ahead. Oh, and they’re willing to pay it. That’s the thing. It’s like, it depends. There’s different, what we’re learning is there’s different price grids for each, each product. Like if I go shoot a real estate listing, that’s going to be a, Oh, it’s gonna be a tighter, a smaller margin, because that’s not going to be standing out there longer. But if you have somebody that’s, it’s an insurance policy for developer to save $15,000 he has no problems paying $1,000 for a drone. True.
11:35 Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, I was going to say, it reminds me of, you know, I remember it a long time ago when we lived in DC, we rented this townhouse and they took a bunch of pictures when they first walked through. And then, uh, you know, when we left, they tried to hold a lot of our security deposit with some damage, uh, that was there from the beginning.
11:54 There was a couple of holes in the wall from the previous tenants. And I said, no, these are, these are there, can you pull up the photos? Uh, yeah, you guys took so you can so we can kind of compare. And uh, he waited and never got back. Was it? I forgot. I don’t know what happened to those photos. Just don’t worry about it. So, but, um, like, but I mean, luckily, you know, it was, if we did have the pictures, it would have been nice. Uh, so I could have showed him that for sure. But yeah, it’s the same thing. It’s like when you have evidence, you know, there’s, you don’t have to argue about it, so. Right, right. Well, cool. So, so now are you still focused on real estate or you have, you’ve mentioned now that you’ve hired a kind of somebody else, have you kind of ventured into other markets or applications or are you still kind of staying strictly with the real estate?
12:38 Okay. Yeah, so the developer was a different, no animal entirely. And I, I spent a lot of time kind of understanding how to shoot that. Um, and then once I understood that, I just trained my guy to go out and do that. So that’s, that’s been a pretty good money, um, a profit for us. Um, but the, but yeah, I have not, I shadowed my nephew’s wedding in Mexico only because I, I thought it would’ve been a good, um, wait, did maybe segue into travel, like a travel type of thing, but it didn’t, they didn’t really pan out for us. We were trying to connect with a destination weddings and it just didn’t pan out for us. So I shot it. It was great. But you know, I went back and I, and I, and I basically just said, you know what, let’s stick with real estate.
13:26 I think if I can create this video production, um, on the side for the real estate agents there, they’re all over it. They love it. Yeah. And it’s easy to shoot the photos. I think the videos takes a little bit longer just because you have to edit. Um, and so what I had to do is I had to hire, hire editor to do that. And that’s, that’s the key. If you’re doing stuff like that, this time is money. So to find somebody that going to be able to, to help you, you know, create a turnaround time. Um, especially if you’re going to be doing more video, um, that’s going to be the key to success there, I think. Yeah. No, that’s great. So do you have a, do you have a video editor that does all your, your real estate video stuff? Yeah. [inaudible] that’s good.
14:10 And it’s mixed. I have a scalable for you. Yeah. So I, you know, basically he doesn’t charge a lot. So what I do okay for the real estate videos is out. Um, and I teamed up with a photographer. And that’s another thing too is networking with people that are that yeah, maybe we can’t offer that service. So I found, you know what I feel like is the best for tag for in the real estate business in our area. Portraits and home. She does amazing work and that’s selling houses right now. Um, her name is Rachel or mom, but um, she does amazing work. So what I’ve done is I’ve actually created a, you know, I said I’ll do the exterior, no, the exterior video of it. And then what I’ll do is I’ll push into the door, we’ll make it look like the drones going into the door and then yeah, all of a sudden blows up.
15:02 Yeah. Her photography until I turned that into a segue of maybe two minute videos. Um, cause you don’t want to have anything too long out there for real estate cause people lose a text in there. So I’ll, I’ll do that. And then I’ll put a one minute video. So I give him a two, two minute videos, one’s branded for them and one unbranded. Um, and then I do a one minute video so that they can, um, put on Instagram cause I, the Instagrams are really, really good tool for real estate agents as well as anybody else’s. It’s want to show a tangible product. Yeah. Cause it’s a great way to network. He goes off and Facebook and Twitter. Um, but yeah, there’s, there’s definitely some learning curve there too because you have to compressed the data into more of a seven 20 because is her Instagram does not hmm. Does that, um, well not allow the, the big four k stuff. So you got to kind of work your and goes there to try to create a good video on that too.
15:56 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome. So, um, as far as what you’re doing, yeah, four, you know, the video now I’m guessing you’re taking stills some photos, right? Yeah. Seriously. Yeah. For like a package in your area. Like what are like a typical price of a job for, um, a real estate shoot or how do you price it? I guess what I’m charging for video is a two 50, so that’s a, that’s a charge. And then, um, that also kind of goes along with the tag per package. So I have her do the edits for the stills. So on that, um, that’s so hurt. She gets her. Sure. There’s a couple of people that can pay. There’s the, there’s the editor and then there’s also the, the aquifer editor. So that’s going to be the video package. Um, four for her. And then also her clients is real estate agents. Um, but the photos are about one or actually one 25. What I make off photos, I make $85. And that’s really, I mean, you’re probably looking at a time, well we got to shoot it two stills, this probably maybe 30 minutes. Yeah, maybe 30 minutes, 40 minutes tops. Right. You know, so, um, you just want a cake, you know, make sure that you’re like, if we just kind of request to go out to a, like a 45 minute drive. And I said that there’s gotta be like a travel fee associated with that. So the realtor wasn’t on board with that. But you know, if you can stay with that, that’s centrally located area, people are all over it.
17:25 Yeah. Now, so is it two 50 just for the video or is that too 50? Include the video and the stills that includes the video and the spills. So I snapped probably about 10 stills and send that to, um, Rachel and her team to edit and then, um, and then she gives us stills as well as the, um, as well as the video.
17:47 Gotcha. So you’re kind of going, so these are mainly like when it’s her clients and you’re kind of just tagging onto her offering for that. Yeah.
17:56 Yup. Exactly.
18:00 I’ll just say finding clients is always one of the hardest parts, so it’s nice if you can have people bring them to you.
18:05 Yeah, I mean it’s just, it’s kind of thinking outside the box. Like, okay, how can I get, and too, um, somebody that’s going to be able to get me into somebody that’s going to help the other businesses as well too. So, um, it’s really got me more, I basically looked at it this way as I get paid to go on sales calls because every time I’m talking to somebody about the drone stuff, you know, I get paid to get it do that as well as, you know, talk to them about maybe marketing for their open houses or anything like that on the other side.
18:37 Yeah. Yeah. That’s smart. That’s cool. Um, well, awesome. So how many, I mean if you don’t mind me asking me about how, like lately how many homes and stuff are you guys shooting? Like, are you guys really busy? You know, I’d love to get a feel for how much business you guys are doing.
18:53 So just, I mean we’re, we’re kinda hitting the spring market. Winter was, I thought it was going to be really slow. It wasn’t, um, I mean it was consistent. It wasn’t, it wasn’t crazy busy, but, um, it’s just a little harder to shoot when you have snow on the ground. But I haven’t really, we’re really going to, we’re really going to see it. Okay. Flow of business here, but just within the last week. Um, I just shot it two and a half million dollar house and Wheaton, I kind of combined it with a video inside the house. [inaudible] but um, no, that one was a big one. Um, charge 700 bucks for it and they didn’t, they didn’t bat an eye at it. Know that was an interior and exterior too. Um, we had probably three, three developments on the commercial side and just in the last two weeks and that generated probably about $3,000 worth of income. So, and then on the, on the real estate shoots, I have one, uh, I’ve had probably like four or five in the last.
19:53 I dunno wheat, so I am kind of giving that up between myself. [inaudible] yeah. And the other drone guy. And obviously the goal is once you get a business, try to create little minions. They can, you can, you can build off of, you know what I’m, I’m being, you know, I’m just joking about creating that, but it’s, it’s okay. It’s a business, you know, so if you have, yeah. Is, it allows you to scale, you know, other people don’t have to hunt for, for gigs, right. You’re bringing them to gigs and then you’re using your network and existing customer base to kind of help expand opportunities for them and you know, grow your business. So usually it means working out for everybody.
20:33 Yeah, yeah, yeah. You build a signature out there that people, you know, you’re creating a demand that way. And I think the, you know, for me it’s kind of a blessing where I was able to, uh, you know, connect, um, Rachel who I like. I, like I said, I think she does amazing work and I think her photos are selling houses right now and you know, to be, uh, to be in the same kind of room with her and actually having them edit the photos and, uh, it’s been a good resource. Yeah. Been a good source of source of business for us. And it know, I can’t, it’s been great.
21:12 Yeah. Now I’ve questioned, so how, you know, I think if people are listening, they’re gonna Think, oh, well that’s great. You know, connect with other professionals who are kind of getting the same clients and work together. Do Walk us through a little bit how you ended up forming that partnership with her. Like where, how did you initially reach out to her or did you already know her and just kind of tell us maybe how that relationship evolved?
21:34 Yeah, it started out with the people that I already knew. So, um, the, the real estate agents that I had, I already had been working with in the mortgage field. I, um, I saw there the marketing and like, man, you guys have a really good photographer and like, Oh yeah, Rachel is the best. And I go, okay, great. So I just started shooting and then I didn’t have any idea that she didn’t, she didn’t have a drone person that she used. And so this is a funny story. So the, my fiance was actually selling her home through one of the agents that we work with. [inaudible] Rachel happened to be there shooting the photo and I go, Oh, you’re from portraits homo. Great. Well Aye. Okay. Okay. You have a drone. You want me to shoot the she this house too. And so I, I just shot it and I did, I put the video together and I said, do you mind if I use your photos to help you promote your business as well?
22:27 And so it’s Kinda like paying it forward, you know, you want to do, you want to give a little bit, okay, get a feel good a little bit in return. If they can, good working relationship, it’s to take off. And that’s exactly what happened. So I, I actually, but hey, I’ll do this for you. I’ll promote your business online. And I think social media is that huge, huge. Um, um, it’s a huge source of just promoting people and you can tag people to kind of promote their business as well too. So that’s what I did and she liked what I did. And so we’ve been connected in that way and, and she passed me out on a couple of more than than she’s like, you need to get your license and because this is going to be a good, a good source of business for you. And sure enough I did and you, no, a year later we’re where, you know, going back and forth and trying to help each other with growing their business, our business.
23:15 Yeah. Wow, that’s awesome. Great Story. So on that note, I guess, um, what are some, if you know, if, if we’re, if you were talking to someone who’s kind of at the beginning of their business just starting out and they’re like, listen, I don’t really, you know, you have the benefit of being in that industry so to speak and you know, you’re kind of around the home buying process. Um, you know, if you’re someone talking to someone who maybe isn’t in that industry of what advice would you have for them if they are wanting to kind of break into a lot of the same stuff, what would be a good way to network and get to know people and just some thoughts there on getting business initially building those relationships. Yeah. [inaudible] this kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier, personally, you have to like it, you have to actually love no [inaudible] putting a drone in the air. And, you know, working with the technology a little bit, I understand it a little bit of a learning curve and there’s resources that you can find, um, can I help you out on the learning curve? But you have to actually like it. If you’d like it, then it’s easier to, so, you know, so going out there, and I think I wouldn’t be afraid of giving maybe a five free shoot or two to somebody that you played, you know? And, and especially in the real estate world, they need you try it out and say, hey, listen, if you like my stuff, then you’ll want to use me.
24:35 And then at that point we can, we can start talking about price, but try me out first and see if you like. And if you like it, oh, you know, let’s, let’s do business. But, um, I think, and I, I kind of learn from, there’s a, a guy that I’ve then listening to Parker walback, he’s a, yeah, he’s a youtube, no guy for a long time and still is, but he’s, it’s great. It’s, he does say a filmmaker. What does it, filmmakers or filmmaker, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I, I haven’t been watching it recently, but I learned from him. Yeah. You want to, you want to kind of give a little bit [inaudible] to get a little bit, you know, and I, and I think that if you go out there with that authenticity of saying everything, I’m just trying to help you sell your house and you know, here’s something I can offer, then it’s going to be an easy end.
25:23 You know, cause a lot of people, there’s no a lot of people that yeah. Um, that do it and do it well. I think the key for real estate especially is the turnaround and the followup. And I think that’s the difference between a lot of people that are probably more geared towards the art world. Like trainee creates something so perfect that it’s, it’s causing a delay and real estate agents just don’t have that time. You know, cause there’ll be a house out there where they put it on the market, they want to put it on the market. And if they don’t have the photos to go along with it, then it’s, it’s time is money for them. Yeah. So, and they could actually sell the house before even hit the market, the end, depending on what the demand is. So that’s the key is if you can turn it around quick and guarantee that and really, really, you know, yeah.
26:09 I hate those dates and those turn times, that’s going to be key for you. Yeah, no, that’s so true. And a funny story for you real quick. So several years ago, um, for a realtor friend of mine, I said, hey, you know, if you’re selling a house, I’ll, you know, I’ll do a, I’ll a video for you just to kind of to shoot the house, you know, just doing it for as a favor. And she said, yeah, that’d be great. You know, that’d be great. This house is on a lake and it was like a, a house. I think there’s probably like a $400,000 house. It’s pretty nice house, especially in our area. I’m in central Florida, so, uh, so I go out there, we shoot the house, we do all this stuff, you know, I fly it and got some good video and uh, and I went back and I didn’t take that long on it. Maybe maybe a week, maybe a little bit less. By the time I got the video back to her, she’s like, Oh hey, I really appreciate it, but you don’t have to worry about it. Like we already got it under contract and it’s, it’s already done. And so like the house, the house sold before you ever ever got the video tour. I was like, oh, well, you know, use it for marketing materials, future stuff. But, but yeah, you’re right. You know, the speed is of,
27:05 yeah, that’s that great. It’s something in, you can sell it that way too, is like, listen, I know the house sold, but this is something that can, that you can use to get your next, your next listing, you know? Yeah. And because that’s what I, that’s what I’d done. Or does it say, Hey, listen, you, there’s your portfolio, you know, put this online. Because what happens is if they did it, if they understand that you’ve just given them something and then it says, I mean, which has worked a lot for you and for them to be put on line, it doesn’t, yeah. Like it’s still generating a lead for everybody, you know, so it could generate people just say, oh my gosh, he does a great job lifting houses and he does a great job doing the video. So you know, that then all of a sudden you can, you can, they could possibly take off and then in that direction.
27:54 Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s great. Great Point. Um, alright, I have a few questions for you before we finish up. A few more. Um, if you can think back, and I guess you’re going to do this for or you know intensely for about a year, but, um, if you would say, if you could think about the most difficult part of starting your business, the drone business, what would be the biggest challenge that you’ve faced so far?
28:19 Okay. Um, I think the biggest challenge is just learning the settings that you have. And so for, for me, I, um, I had a really bad in those settings. Um, you know, as far as the, um, the video and also the photo, um, the photographer that we, she just wants to rock, she wants her off so she can edit it and then you send her, he send her raw and then he sent her jpegs and then she’s got a hundred photos, you know, combined and you’re uploading it to Dropbox, it confuses them. So that confused them. It just overwhelmed into like, hey, listen, this is now taking into my time. So like make it, you make it short and sweet. Yeah. You know, and, but I think that settings are the most have been the most difficult for me because if I’m staying there and I’m working off a iPhone too with regards to the screen, um, so it can be, it can be hard at times.
29:14 Figure out what’s, you know, what’s, what’s going to look good and what’s not going to look good. So [inaudible] then probably the most difficult. Um, and then what I’ve been doing is I’ve been my, the, the drone that I use to shoot the real estate as a maverick pro two, which has an amazing camera on it. Um, so if I send my guy out there, we gotta kind of exchange, you know, I got to give him the maverick pro to you and then he goes out there cause he doesn’t have that. Yeah, he’s got my magic one to shoot the stuff.
29:42 Um, but that’s been, you know, and now I probably will have to invest in automatic pro too, so that I don’t have to go out and, you know, gave him this, this drone all the time. But when I did note that he uses different settings. So the last, when I was gone, I went for a training down in Dallas, five days. I gave him the maverick pro too. And they came back and all of a sudden the, uh, the settings were, we just were what he liked in the beat. And I was kind of relearning everything all over again. So, um, because I, it’s kind of like the only driving, somebody the guard, you know, somebody let me borrow your car and all of a sudden they, they put the sheet back in the windows or you know, the mirrors are a little bit off. You’re like, come on. You know, it’s just the way it is. But now that I have it back and kind of leery about it and then, you know, giving back my magic pro to, to go shoot some, some houses. But, but that’s the key. I mean, I think really finding that the settings that work for you, they’re going to produce the best results.
30:36 Yeah, no, that’s great. Um, okay, that’s a question related to that but, but a different is if you were starting over with your business today, what would you do differently, if anything?
30:50 Okay, uh, that’s a good question. Um, I don’t know.
30:59 I mean the answer can be nothing if you want, but I just like to ask people, cause sometimes people, well I learned this lesson so I would have, you know, done x, Y and z earlier on.
31:09 Yeah. Um, I probably would say it’s been fun learning. Um, yeah know I’m still, I would, I would probably classify myself as still learning. I think what I think the biggest thing is trying, like in editing, we discussed this earlier, is trying to distinguish what your, um, what your biggest like, I mean I think the biggest, the biggest thing is time. So, well, your biggest distraction is you need to eliminate that. So it’s the same, no to certain jobs that, no. Yeah, it could be a paycheck. But if it’s taking away from the actual real source of business, that’s going to distract, distract you, and it’s going to take you away from the, the end goal, which is really kind of [inaudible] some, your, your, your path of success, which is really keeping it in a tight niche and making sure that you kind of exploit that.
32:05 Yeah. And I think what I’ve done is I’ve kind of gone off on, in certain areas just because I was trying to learn what this new like new avenue had to had in store it, there’s misses distractions. They’re like, the wedding wasn’t that bad, but there’s other ones like I’ve shot. MMM. MMM. I shot some other sporting events and I’m like, that really didn’t do anything. You know, I learned from it, but it was, it was, it took me out of the realm of what I do. That actually makes, makes sense better for me as far as a successful business on both ends.
32:37 Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that’s as smart. It’s hard to do, you know, like [inaudible] you think, oh, what’s over here? I, this could be cool, maybe we could do this. And you start thinking about getting into that side of things and oh, there’s more opportunity here. But, um, sometimes yeah, it pulls you away from what year you’re already good at and there’s, there’s often more opportunity where you’re already at. Um, you know, if you just keep digging for it. So,
32:58 Oh, right. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that. Um, cool. Yeah.
33:02 Well, um, before we go, I guess just one last question would be if, you know, you were giving someone who’s just starting a drone business, the, your most important piece of advice, what would it, what would it be?
33:15 Okay. Uh, I would say have fun and, and don’t be too hard on yourself with regards to the learning curve. I think the, the part of the fun is learning. And you know, when you, when you share that with others, all of a sudden they builds a, it builds a sort of excitement with others. And so, and people can see you developing your skill and it just, it’s something different. So it’s a great a into conversation, you know? But I would just have fun with it and, and that’s not be too hard on yourself and just, just enjoy the process. I think that’s the biggest thing. The biggest part of the equation is enjoying the process and learning to have fun with it.
33:58 Yeah. Nope. Great Advice. And like you said, you know, when you bring energy to what you’re doing in, that catches onto people and people want to work with other people who are excited about what they’re doing, you know, so. Right.
34:08 Yeah.
34:09 Awesome. Well, Bill, thanks so much. Uh, where can people find out more about you? I know earlier in the podcast you mentioned Billy productions.com was your website and you mentioned Instagram, so I’m guessing you guys are on Instagram too.
34:22 Yeah, so I have, well actually I have two Instagram accounts, Bill, the mortgage guy. Um, and then I also have, uh, Billy productions LLC and that sunlight, Instagram. And then also I have a Vimeo channel, which has most of my videos on there. Okay. Um, and then a youtube channel. So Billy productions on the Vimeo and Billy production on the, um, the youtube channel as well too.
34:47 Okay, cool. Well, we’ll link to all that stuff in the notes, uh, to this episode so people can find you. Um, again, thank you so much for talking to us. I always learn so much, you know, talking to everyone who comes on the show and I know everybody who’s listening, uh, learned a lot from you as well, so I really appreciate it, Bill. Uh, and, uh, take care.
35:09 Great. Thank you so much.
35:11 All right, thanks.
Article By:
Share this post
