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We're excited to announce that Season 6 Episode 10 of the Drone to $1K Podcast is out!
Our guest for this episode is Juan Quinones of LuxyDrone.
https://www.instagram.com/juan.c.quinonez/
Juan Quinones, founder of FPV Creator Pro and Luxy Drone, shared his journey, highlighting his transition from videography to FPV drone flying.
🚁 Highlights from this episode:
And much more!
Everyone. Welcome back to the final episode of the drone one k podcast for season 6. Today's podcast is a little different than some of the others. Number 1, I was in person for this podcast. We filmed it at a podcast studio in town, and our guest, Juan, he drove up from Miami to Lakeland, which is, like, 3 or 4 hours just for this podcast interview, and it was great.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite ones that we've done this season. I don't wanna say that, but, truly, this one's great. All about FPV. Juan taught himself FPV, learned how to do really, really sick residential real estate for sale for premium real estate agents, And just has some awesome, awesome fly through video examples. Also just break down tons of tips.
Speaker 1:If you're trying to get started in FPV, he told me he's broken down the, the process of becoming proficient in a simulator from like, I don't know, 40 or 80 hours to down to only a, maybe a dozen or something like that. But he also talked about just how he take dessert, but I don't wanna give it away. It's really good. Really check it out, especially if you're looking into doing FPV for commercial use. A great resource there.
Speaker 1:Just super gritty entrepreneurial guide. Really fun episode. As always, if you want a really comfy I'm not looking at the camera right now. I'm gonna try to drive and be safe. If you have a really comfy, DroneWatch Academy t shirt, leave us a review.
Speaker 1:Screenshot it. Send it to me, david@drilllaunchacademy.com. I'll send you out a sweet drill launch to you for the time to leave a review. The sad farewell, this is the last one of the season 6. So I hope you've enjoyed this season and hope you found it beneficial.
Speaker 1:If you are considering starting your own entrepreneurial journey with drones, just know there's a lot of people out there who are in the same boat as you, they figured out a way to make it successful. A lot of it just comes down to perseverance and be willing to try things. With that said, enjoy this final episode of the drone one k podcast. Thank you so much for long and consuming these episodes. One of the reasons I enjoy making them is because I know, you all appreciate them just from the comments and stuff I get back on how they give you hope, encouragement, inspiration, tactics.
Speaker 1:So I really enjoyed being helpful to this community. So I really appreciate you all and hope you enjoy this final episode with 1. See you guys. Alright. Welcome back to the drone to 1 k podcast season 6.
Speaker 1:I think this is episode 10. I'm here with Juan Quinones of FPV Creator Pro. Just launched a new course not too long ago, and LuxiDrone. Thanks so much for coming on the podcast, Juan.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah. You convinced me to do the podcast on a little bit of a nicer setting. This time in an actual podcast studio with lights, cameras, all the stuff instead of just on Zoom. So I know you drove 4 hours for this. I appreciate you coming up.
Speaker 1:Well, let's just dive right in. Introduce yourself, to everyone and then maybe just go start back at the beginning of when did you first touch a drone?
Speaker 2:It all started the day I was born. I'm just kidding. So my name is Juan Quinones. I actually grew up in Miami, Florida. I was 16 years old, sitting in my US history class depressed, lost, anxious.
Speaker 2:All of my friends were going off to college. They knew what they wanted to do with their lives, and I was still very much lost. And one day while sitting in history class, I saw this, video of these guys just traveling the world creating content. I was like, I don't know what job that is, but that's what I want. They were pretty young.
Speaker 2:They were like in their twenties. Like, okay, I have to find a way to make that happen. So I basically figured that I don't need school to become a content creator. So I basically dropped out that same year, started cutting class. I would skate over to a local Starbucks and just like watch YouTube videos of entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1:In the middle of school?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. I'd I'd check into like the first period or homeroom just to collect attendance so they don't call my parents. And then I just skate over to Starbucks and get free wifi, learn about like, you know, mindset, entrepreneurship, all that stuff. Shortly after, I got a job as a limo driver at 16 years old.
Speaker 1:Oh, really? Yeah. It was pretty wild. Man. Trusting limo company.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. So my brother actually he started a luxury transportation company. He's like I need a driver. I don't trust anyone.
Speaker 2:Why not my brother?
Speaker 1:Nice. Okay. That makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So then fast forward, I'm like 16, 17 driving around millionaires in Miami Beach, and they're just giving to me their wisdom of life and entrepreneurship. Just like, do what you love. I'm like, alright. That's all I need to hear.
Speaker 2:So saved up some money, bought my videography equipment, and I was around like 18 years old filming on a yacht in Miami Beach.
Speaker 1:Well, first off, how'd you get on a yacht in Miami Beach at 18 years old?
Speaker 2:With a camera. Camera is a keys to the kingdom. You can get into any room with a camera.
Speaker 1:I mean, did you just walk up to a random yacht on the on the docks and just be like hey I got a camera let me on like what was what's the story?
Speaker 2:Hey man you want a free video with my camera? No no it was through social media I had friends that were like in the boating scene. So some guys with jet skis and flyboards, stuff like that. So I'd film them. And they're like, Hey Juan, we're gonna be doing this like, yacht party if you wanna come film it.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. Cool.
Speaker 1:Let's do it. Cool.
Speaker 2:So I'm on this yacht party, and there's an FPV drone pilot there. This guy's, like, taking off from the boat. He's wearing these goggles, acrobatics with the drones. And he was, like, the hit of the party. Everyone's like, woah, that's so cool.
Speaker 2:And I was, like, blown away. No pun intended. And I'm like, dude, that's so awesome. Can you teach me how to do this? And he's like, no.
Speaker 2:It took me 8 years to learn how to do this. You're some random guy I've never met before. Why would I teach you this skill? And I was like, Alright, fair. Can I pay you to teach me how to fly drones?
Speaker 2:Absolutely not. You think I was born yesterday? Do what? Do you think I wanna create competition for myself?
Speaker 1:I'm one of these guys.
Speaker 2:So this guy was a major gatekeeper. He wouldn't even tell me the name of the drone or the the type of flying. Like, FPV wasn't a word that I learned until a few years ago. So I was just kept in the dark for a few years. During COVID, I saw a video of these guys flying drones.
Speaker 2:They were diving buildings and going over cliffs and mountains or waterfalls. I'm like, all right, What is this? I got I have to look into it and I discovered it's FPV. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And And for those that are listening who have no idea what FPV means.
Speaker 2:Yes. Sorry. FPV stands for 1st person view.
Speaker 1:Yep. So that's like racing drones or we see you know people doing crazy stunts and action camera type stuff as well as FPV for the most part.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And actually on the topic a quick distinguishment between FPV drones and your regular Mavic series drones is that Mavic drones basically, like, they kind of fly themselves. They have, like, GPS lock so they don't move around. Like, if you let go of the controller, it's not gonna fall out of the air. Whereas FPV, you are 100% for the drone at all times.
Speaker 2:If you even for a second let go of the joysticks, it'll fall out of the air
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Crash
Speaker 2:and hit somebody. So
Speaker 1:There's not even GPS on I'm at least the ones I know of there's not even GPS installed anywhere on it right
Speaker 2:right right? They don't come installed with GPS typically like that's something you add on to it afterwards But right Yeah. And then, like, if you were to compare it to how it feels to fly versus flying a Mavic, it's kind of like, I don't know, sitting like in a Tesla that's on autopilot.
Speaker 1:That's all I gotta say. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Versus like, a Ferrari like on the racetrack. That's the difference of how it feels to fly each one. I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I don't have much experience with FPV drones, but I flew one for the first time. I don't know a year or 2 ago and instantly just crashed it over and I've been flying drones for 6 or 7 years at that point. Even on like, you know, manual mode on the Mavics and some other stuff and just it's totally different. Because you can flip them right over just without even thinking about it.
Speaker 1:So back to your story, you finally figured out that it was FPV drones. So what year was this boat yacht thing?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah. That was back in like 20 16 and then a few years passed by and then COVID hit.
Speaker 1:So were you doing much with drones between, like, 2016, 2020?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a whole story. I kind of skipped that part. So I continued my videography business till I was about like 19, 20 years old and COVID hit. By that time I had like 5 clients and I was very, very comfortable, you know, being a teenager in Miami. Just like too much partying, too much comfort.
Speaker 2:I basically realized that I was only as a person. I was just like hanging around the same people doing the same things weekend after weekend. And I was like, alright. There has to be more to life than this. And then when COVID hit, my clients started dropping off like flies, like 1 by 1.
Speaker 2:They were calling like, oh, hey, Juan. Sorry. Unfortunately, we can't afford your videography services anymore. We're gonna have to cancel. So I saw that as like a huge blessing and an opportunity to actually like leave Miami.
Speaker 2:I was like, all right. At the time you saw that, things in Miami. Like, I wanted to see the world. I wanted to travel and explore. That's what I, you know, left high school for.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:Because I wanted to see the world. So if that hadn't happened, I really wonder if I would've stayed in Miami a few more years and just like, you know, been doing the same old, same old. So I'm actually glad of that. I get to leave and travel and get some experience outside of that. But yeah, so I moved to Vegas for a job opportunity.
Speaker 2:Job didn't pan out. A friend from high school calls me up. He's like, Juan, come to Vegas. There's people making, $80,000 a month selling solar panels. I was like, woah.
Speaker 2:This has to be a scam. Alright. I'm down. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm like, this has to be a scam. I'm in.
Speaker 2:This just sounds way too good to be true. I was like, I'm in it for the plot.
Speaker 1:Sounds like me and crypto.
Speaker 2:For the for the adventure, I'll go to Vegas and see what's up.
Speaker 1:We had to lose. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But so I go there and I find that it's true. People are making $80,000 a month selling solar. But what I didn't know and what my buddy didn't tell me was that that they were doing it in unethical ways.
Speaker 1:Like they
Speaker 2:were basically like getting old ladies to sign contracts that they didn't understand to get the whole solar panels and all that stuff. It's like an 80,000 dollars,000 loan and all that. And that was very unethical so I was like, No, that's not for me. So I basically stopped. After I found that out, I basically quit that company and now I'm in a brand new city, Las Vegas.
Speaker 2:And I was like, well, I've got 2 options. I can either go back home, go back to Miami, or I could stay here and figure it out. So, That's when I learned the value of cold calling and marketing. So I basically cold called like over 50 video businesses in Vegas. Okay.
Speaker 2:Every single one of them said no. We don't need a videographer. We don't need a photographer. We don't need an editor. I was like, damn.
Speaker 2:I need to figure out how I'm gonna pay for rent. Yeah. And then I called this one company, like literally the last one on the list. It was a wedding company. And I was like, hey man, are you guys hiring for videographers?
Speaker 2:Like dude, this is a blessing from God. Yes we were looking for somebody.
Speaker 1:This was after like 50 of them?
Speaker 2:Literally number 50. Yeah after 49. That was like number 50. It was less on the list. So met the guy.
Speaker 2:He took me under his wing, taught me how to film weddings and I started filming weddings for like a year or 2. So that kept me afloat while I like figured out what my next move was.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And then I get a call like a year and a half later from a friend from the solar industry. He's like, hey man, I quit that company because they were super unethical. I'm working for this other company now. There's this millionaire, his name's Edmond. He needs a videographer.
Speaker 2:Are you down to film this guy? I was like, boom. See you last time in. Yeah. So part of this job description was to, like, live with the guy, document his lifestyle.
Speaker 2:He's got the cars, the women, the yachts, or not the yachts in Vegas, but just the whole lifestyle. The canoes. Yeah. So I became this guy's full time videographer. And before this, I felt like pretty lost because I was once again comfortable.
Speaker 2:But being exposed to, like, all the wealth and opportunity and just abundance, I was like, wow. You know what? This guy can do it. I can do it. So that really just woke me up and gave me, like, the push that I needed to get the belief within myself that I could become, like, a 6, 7 figure business owner and, like, you know, start building something of my own.
Speaker 2:So then eventually, like a few months after working with this guy, my ambitions grew like too big and I kind of felt like I was being limited by the opportunity at the moment. So I was like, alright, thank you so much for this opportunity. On to the next thing. And around that time I was still learning FPV. I was still practicing in the simulator.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. So basically, that's like the whole period of how I went from videography in Miami to Las Vegas.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And this was during COVID that I started picking up the controller and started learning FPV.
Speaker 1:Yeah. When you get to Vegas, did you know other people in Vegas that were doing FPV or I guess you said you weren't as familiar with it as much with it and in 2020 obviously you had videography skills which can translate to your drones, but what is it that when you're in Vegas got you back into looking at the FPV stuff? Do you remember?
Speaker 2:What got me back? It was just one video that really like stood out to me. It was the famous bowling alley video. I don't know if you've seen it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So guy for those who haven't seen it, it was a guy, like, flying, inside of a bowling alley and he's just filming, like, an FPV one take where there's different actors. They're all talking to each other. There's, like, little mini stories and plots and and, story lines. And he's flying through this entire bowling alley. And at the very end of the video, he runs into the bowling balls and the little machine takes the FPV drone and just collects it.
Speaker 2:So it was super dope. I've never seen anything like that before, and that's what really pushed me to get back into FPV.
Speaker 1:Cool. So did you go wait. What was your first step? Did you go out and buy an FPV drone or just get a controller? I guess, how did you get started with it?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So my first step was to like scour the internet and see like what, like how do I get into this? So I just did YouTube University to try to learn FPV. And the first step was to just buy a controller. You plug the controller into your computer and you play a game called Liftoff.
Speaker 2:Tip, don't fly your first drone in real life.
Speaker 1:Especially for FPV.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you wanna start off in a simulator. You have to learn how to fly like a real life flight school. So you start off in the simulator and then after you get good enough, then you buy your 1st drone and you crash it a bunch of times to figure out how to fix it and then fly in real life until you're not crashing.
Speaker 1:You said liftoff is that like a steam game or like where do you get that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. You can download on steam.
Speaker 1:Okay. Cool. And you plug a controller into computer and you can control it all that way?
Speaker 2:Yes. Correct.
Speaker 1:If you're gonna recommend a controller to someone who's just starting off is there a specific type that
Speaker 2:you like? Yes. I recommend the Tango 2 Pro.
Speaker 1:Tango 2 Pro. Okay.
Speaker 2:Actually get the standard because the Pro is like an extra $50, and it doesn't do much.
Speaker 1:Okay. Yeah. How much do those run you?
Speaker 2:It's about 180 for the Tango 2 standard and about like 2.50 or
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:40 around there for the Pro.
Speaker 1:Okay. Cool. And then you can use that when you get like our FPV drone I see.
Speaker 2:Yes. Exactly. Cool.
Speaker 1:Alright. Sweet. So back to your story. You're in the simulator doing that while you were filming wedding videos at this time?
Speaker 2:It started off with the wedding videos and then, 2 working with this millionaire.
Speaker 1:Oh, sorry. Sorry. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, like, no, throughout the whole process. Yeah. Yeah. I was, practicing the simulator. Just being consistent.
Speaker 2:The only obstacle at that time with the just figure it out. You know try to beat all the maps.
Speaker 1:There was an actual like teaching of the skill.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Trial and error.
Speaker 2:I love this analogy. Have you ever seen Avatar?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean a while ago,
Speaker 2:yeah. So there's a scene where, Jake Sully's on this cliff and there's a bunch of, dragons and his mission is to connect his hair ponytail thing to the to the dragon, right? And as soon as he, you know, starts approaching this dragon to try to, like, connect with it, all the dragons are snarling at him and growling like they're trying to bite him. And then he just jumps on this one dragon, connects his ponytail penis. Jumps off of the cliff.
Speaker 2:And then the dragon just like tries to kill him. So he's basically like falling to his death and the dragon's like So then finally he gets control of the dragon and he's able to fly.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's what your first time flying FV is like. Might as the penis part. Might as the penis part.
Speaker 1:Might as the best analogy that we've ever had on the podcast.
Speaker 2:So, so, like, we figured
Speaker 1:out to tame this tame this, mythical avatar dragon Yeah. With your ponytail while you were working for this millionaire guy. Yeah. You're doing all that in the simulator?
Speaker 2:In the simulator. Right. But so the first time, like, you try to control the drone, it's gonna try to kill you. It doesn't do whatever you tell it to do, and it's just like got a mind of its own.
Speaker 1:So I figured that I was trying to fly mine around with bunch of kids around. I almost ran into them like a thousand almost a tiny I mean, it was like a really small one.
Speaker 2:Okay. Fair. Fair.
Speaker 1:It was like a beta FPV or something. I don't remember what company. But anyway Nice.
Speaker 2:Nice. Yeah. For the first 30 hours, I couldn't figure out how to walk. Like, you have to basically learn how to walk in the simulator, right, before you can run it. And then first 30 hours go by, I'm still lost.
Speaker 2:This is, like, the first hour that I started. Developed all of the wrong habits. And about 50, 60 hours in, I started getting discouraged. Cause I still like couldn't complete a single flight map I couldn't complete a single race and like
Speaker 1:in this in this thing you have to like complete like missions or like yeah races exactly okay
Speaker 2:so basically somehow by magic you have to learn how to fly and then you complete all the races and then it becomes fun. Gotcha. But it wasn't fun for the first 60 hours. Yeah. Where else trying to figure it out.
Speaker 2:Finally, a friend of mine started, flying the simulator and he was about 30 hours in and he was completing all the missions and all the maps. I'm like
Speaker 1:Rubbing it in.
Speaker 2:Alright, dude. Maybe this just isn't for me. Maybe, like, my brain is not wired that way. Maybe, FPV is just not for me. And I was so close to quitting so many different times just throughout the simulator period.
Speaker 1:I'm not
Speaker 2:even flying in real life yet I wanna quit. And then by hour like 60, 70, I basically put all my gear in a box and, said, you know what? Forget this. I quit. 2 months later, I watched the same bowling alley video.
Speaker 2:I'm like, we're gonna figure this out. Get back into it. And I was about 70 hours and I said, alright. I'm gonna make it to at least 100 hours and then I'll quit. If I don't make it if I make it to a 100 hours and I still don't get it, alright.
Speaker 2:I'm done with this. By hour 70 or 80, something clicked in my mind that it all made sense. And then by hour 90, finally, I was able to beat all of the challenges instead of, both games, Liftoff and Liftoff Microdrones.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So
Speaker 2:that's important, the little time factor there, because we're gonna tie back into that with, how I'm able to teach my members how to beat the simulator in as little as 8 hours.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So you go from 90 hours to 8 hours. Yeah. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So now that you had the simulator time down and get that figured out, like, where did you go from there?
Speaker 2:After I learned how to complete all the maps inside of the simulator and I learned how to fly, I basically took the next step which is to buy my first drone, buy the goggles and start learning how to fly. I almost burned down my house because I didn't know how to charge up the batteries properly. Apparently, LiPo batteries are different from like your regular DJI batteries that you plug into a wall.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh. That was
Speaker 2:like the first mistake I made there. Had to learn about lipo safety real quick.
Speaker 1:So what real quick just for people who are you know, let's say their only experience is plugging DJI batteries into the wall. Cough cough me. What would what's different and what do you like, how do you almost bring your house down?
Speaker 2:DJI batteries they have like built in, regulators where if you just leave them at full charge and you put them in, like, a storage closet, if you come back, like, 2 months later, you'll see that it went from a 100% to maybe, like, 50% or 75%. That's good for the battery's health. So that's just one difference between LiPos and, FPV batteries. Another difference is, like, you can't fly your LiPos all the way down to 0. It's really, really bad for the battery.
Speaker 2:And then the third thing is you have to program like how fast you want to charge your batteries. So I was inputting in all the wrong settings for charging my batteries.
Speaker 1:Oh, you have to, like, program the charger? Yes. So you
Speaker 2:have to program the chargers to charge the batteries. Oh. So I put in all the wrong settings, and that's how I almost burned
Speaker 1:my house down. Are you supposed to charge it like slowly or what?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Every light bulb has like a different there's like a math to it. Okay. Yeah. Where you have to charge it like at 1 c or something like that.
Speaker 2:But Okay. Yeah. So made some mistakes there. Luckily, I had a fireproof bag. So
Speaker 1:Was it in a fireproof bag when you it caught on fire?
Speaker 2:No. That that came after. The fireproof bag came out there.
Speaker 1:Did it light on fire? Or is it just like it looks like it might?
Speaker 2:It was a it was like a little burnt corner.
Speaker 1:Just like
Speaker 2:a burnt corner in your house.
Speaker 1:Oh, no.
Speaker 2:But it was like really tiny tiny battery, so it was fine. Okay. But, it had this terrible smell. It's, like, really toxic for humans, so I had to open up windows. You know, this whole thing, but, yeah, everything was fine.
Speaker 2:Alright.
Speaker 1:So figured out the battery thing.
Speaker 2:Figured that out real quick, and then I started flying in real life. And I had my first, like, 20 crashes, 30 crashes, by the 50th crash. It was like a really durable drone. Something broke inside of the drone finally and I didn't know what to do. I looked it up on YouTube how to fix broken FPV drone and that's like the worst thing you could ever type in because there's like a 1000000000.
Speaker 2:A 1000000000 different results. Yeah, yeah. There's like 50 different things that could go wrong as far as like programming and coding and then another 50 things as far as like the physical.
Speaker 1:So I
Speaker 2:had no idea what to look at. So I go to an FPV, group on Facebook and I'm asking for advice and people are giving me really complex, complicated, like, advice. I'm like, is this even English? Because it sounds like 2 doctors talking to each other in the sciences. I had no idea what they were saying and then there's the other band of people, which were like, oh, if you're asking these questions, then you shooting me flying drones.
Speaker 1:I hate that. You're like how else am I supposed to learn? Like that's the worst thing when people are like they get snobby and they're like oh, if you ask you don't even know it's like exactly this is why I'm here you know.
Speaker 2:The group chat is called the beginner to fpv.
Speaker 1:Was it really?
Speaker 2:Yes, like beginner fpv FPV or something like that.
Speaker 1:That's so discouraging.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I was giving some snobby answers. I was like, well, Facebook isn't too helpful. There were some people trying to help me genuinely, but again, their answers were so technical that I just couldn't understand. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was like, well, thank you guys for all your advice. And I went back to YouTube just trying to go between Facebook and YouTube and Facebook and YouTube. Never found the answer. And I went on months just doing this. And then finally, alright, I need mentorship.
Speaker 2:I'm the kind of person who does best when I have somebody tell me exactly what to do.
Speaker 1:Right. Most people do. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Exactly. I realized I needed mentorship and I go on the same Facebook group and I'm like, hey, can anybody mentor me? I will, pay you guys money to mentor me and teach me how to fly drone. The people are like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Sure. Pay me 200 an hour, 1.50 an hour. I was like, 1.25 an hour. Okay. That's fair.
Speaker 2:You know, you guys are gonna help me save years. That's fine. At that time, money was kinda tight. I was like, in a new city, new job, you know, things weren't super great for me. And then I found somebody who was actually willing to teach me at no charge.
Speaker 2:His name is Ray. He actually one of the instructors for this program right now. This guy is a technical wizard. So I came to him with like a pile of broken drone parts. He's like I'm like dude I don't think this is gonna ever fly again.
Speaker 2:He's like let me look at that. Oh this wire came through, fixes it within 10 minutes, it's back up in the air flying.
Speaker 1:And you're like thank you.
Speaker 2:I'm like dude thank you so much. So at that moment I realized, like, alright, there's a very clear problem here. This whole process, by the way, was about a year to beat the simulator for me because it was, like, 90 hours spread out between a year. And another 3 months of trial and error flying, almost spreading down the house. And then another 3 months of, working with Ray and having him basically, teach me how to repair the drones.
Speaker 2:So just throughout this whole process, like, about like a year and 6 months. So after I finally got up in the in the air in real life and I started practicing in real life, 6 months after that, I was good enough to where I could start charging for my FPV drone work. And at very end of this journey, I'm like, damn. There has to be a much better way. There has to be a more efficient way to learn this skill and start making money, like immediately.
Speaker 2:At the point where I started working with this guy who was teaching me how to fix the drone that's when I stopped working with this millionaire guy.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I was just, going back to filming weddings at that point.
Speaker 1:Okay. So you quit the millionaire guy. Mhmm. Go back to filming weddings. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Figure out how to fix the drone and then obviously at some point in there you started getting good enough with FPV drones to I guess when did you see, oh, I can people want FPV drones, like, to hire me for FPV work. When did that happen?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. I have a lot of friends that throw cool, like, events and modeling events fashion Show events luxuries type stuff, and I basically went to one of my friends who's an event host I'm like hey, dude Can I fly my drone at your event? I won't charge you a thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he's like, is it safe? I'm like, yeah. Yeah. I've done this before.
Speaker 1:Before. It's like only a couple fires. It's no big deal. I have
Speaker 2:a few house fires. No big deal. So I he's like, yeah. Sure. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:So I filmed my first event. The host loved it. Everyone loved it. I was like, Oh, this actually has some pretty nice views. Okay.
Speaker 2:I think I had like maybe 600 views and I was only getting like 100 views on my reels back then. Okay. This is good. This is more than my average. So then I started doing that more and more of going to nice events with models and, you know, shocker on Instagram.
Speaker 2:People wanna see half naked women. So I guess helped the algorithm a little bit. Yeah. Started getting more views, started getting invited to more gigs, and then eventually, I started filming some real estate properties. I I reached out to my first real estate agent.
Speaker 2:I'm like, hey. I've got a crazy idea for a service I wanna put provide here in Vegas. Nobody else is doing it. Is it okay if I beta test this with you? He's like, how much are you gonna charge me?
Speaker 2:I'm like, well, I'm planning on selling the service for, 2.5 ks when I launch the final version, but for you, no charge.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:He's like alright cool. Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Did you know that real estate agent in advance before or would do a set
Speaker 2:of cold call? No. This was, yeah. I was just going down the list calling people off of like Zillow.
Speaker 1:Okay. So cold call?
Speaker 2:Yeah, just cold called him. So yeah, sure go ahead do it. Okay. So I did that for him. He loved the video.
Speaker 1:Was it just like a what what was describe the video for us?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So this is my first one. It wasn't it wasn't that great, but my intention for this video was a FPV one take where from start to finish like there's no cuts. So you fly in through the gate of the property, into the front door, through the living room, out through the balcony, show off the entire Las Vegas Strip, and then back into the house, into the kitchen, master bedroom, and then outside into like over the pool and just reveal the whole property. So that was the whole flight plan for that property.
Speaker 2:He loved that video and he's just kept on inviting me to more properties. Do you have any other friends who might benefit from this? And like, Yeah, I know some people. So just through him and through networking with other real estate agents on my own, I was able to just start getting a few gigs. In the beginning, everything was no charge.
Speaker 2:So it was unpaid work. But in my opinion, I was
Speaker 1:Portfolio building anyway. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Exactly. Portfolio building. And I wasn't good enough to start charging yet. So I was like, you know, gotta start somewhere.
Speaker 2:And then eventually, I got my 1st paid gig. It started off high because my company's name is Luxidrone and I only wanted to work with Luxury Properties. I'm like, these guys have the money. So I was like, yeah. My fee is $1500.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So they're like, okay. Cool. So didn't flinch. Shot one for 1500 and then And they
Speaker 1:were fine with that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you figure these properties are, like, 10 mil plus. Like Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. So they got marketing budget for it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Started getting referred to different brokerages in Vegas different properties and started getting like like 5 to 6 different listings per month. Started pretty well, and then I had one video Were
Speaker 1:you charging them all the 1500?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I was charging them all 1500 and then
Speaker 1:So you're doing what like $75100 a month or more? Yeah, around there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It'll vary. Not every month is like,
Speaker 1:but let's say he was 5. That's like so that would come out like what 7500 is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Exactly. Exactly. Then I had one video pop off. It was, a video collaboration between me and another agent in Vegas. His name is Stan.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And that video starts to be off with him in his car. He's like, hey, I wonder what this guy is doing. He puts the camera at me and I'm in this really beautiful house. He walks up to me. He's like, hey, man, how much do you pay for rent here?
Speaker 2:And like oh, I don't live here. I'm just working.
Speaker 1:Dude, this is that's how I found you. Yeah. That video came up in my explore page and I was like what is this? It was really cool and that's when I started following you and I think at some point we started DM ing. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then now we're here. So you're this is the power of that video led to this podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's actually the other instructor Stefan was through that video as well.
Speaker 1:Dude, no way.
Speaker 2:Yeah. He, do you know Andrew Tate? Yeah. So he grew up with the guy who films Andrew Tate and they both, did FPV together. Gotcha.
Speaker 2:So, he learned how to chase all the, like, the luxury cars and do all the crazy events with FPV, which is how him and I basically started working together. Wow.
Speaker 1:Awesome, man.
Speaker 2:So I'm doing all the luxury homes. He's doing the luxury lifestyle cars. It's the perfect collaboration. Cool.
Speaker 1:Alright. So you did that with that realtor that thing popped off, and then you know Yeah.
Speaker 2:That thing popped off. It got 1,500,000 views within like 2, 3 weeks. It was crazy. Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I went from having 2,300, followers on Instagram to 20 ks like real quick off from it was that video plus another one where I was flying over the Marquee Day Club in Vegas. It's like this pool party. And I was filming this DJ. So those 2 videos back to back that one got like 600,000 views and boom.
Speaker 1:I was
Speaker 2:like alright. Wow. I'm famous now. Yeah. And then I realized like I had a link in my bio for some other I was hoping my brother get sales people for his solar company.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Was that your link for in your bio for your FED stuff?
Speaker 2:Back then when when this video went viral.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. That's I had that link in my bio, but had nothing to do with that. Right. And I looked at the statistics and it was like over, I don't know, 10,000 website clicks.
Speaker 2:I'm like, damn it. If only I had a course or a way of like, you
Speaker 1:know You're supposed to get a lot of solar reps.
Speaker 2:Funny enough, we actually had like 5 people sign up. Oh, really? To his whole solar funnel thinking it was FPV. So I was like
Speaker 1:So did you end up your bio? I assume at some point now you had a ton of visitors coming to your Instagram page.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So first I had to refund those people their money because they bought the wrong thing. They thought I had a course and they were buying a course that wasn't ready yet. So I was like, alright, I need to create a course. Like this is first and foremost.
Speaker 2:So basically, started that that seed was planted. I started picking up with the real estate business, started getting more clients, started going on more paid gigs.
Speaker 1:Were you getting a lot of questions on your Instagram? Like, dude, how do you do this or can you teach? Like, because, you know, when you were young, you said, like, you would ask people, hey. How do you do this? And all this stuff.
Speaker 1:Were you getting a lot of questions from other people who wanted to do that kind of work?
Speaker 2:Yeah. For sure. Like, during those 2 viral videos, I got over 200 people asking the same three questions.
Speaker 1:Oh, really? What are they? Yeah. What were the 3 questions?
Speaker 2:What drone do you buy? Mhmm. How do I get started?
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And how much money can you make?
Speaker 1:Gotcha. Those are
Speaker 2:like the most three common questions. Basically, I was like, alright. Well, it's a good idea for me to have some kind of course to help train the people who wanna learn so they have a much smoother transitioning process than I did. Basically, that was in the back of my mind. Just kept on filming real estate, kept on doing gigs here and there.
Speaker 1:Because like I'm assuming when you got a lot more views, like your your actual like business picked up, you know, if you got more visibility, you get did you get more real estate agents reaching out? Like, I wanna do that. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I got I got more real estate agents reaching out, restaurant owners, night
Speaker 1:You know, these people will go through the group coaching with you and, you know, you did your trip to Bali. You got back. Did you do another round of it after that? Like, after you revised it? Did you take another batch of students through it?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. So I did 3 beta tests because I was always just looking to make it better, make it faster. Right now, we're on the final beta test version. We have beta test version 3.
Speaker 2:Okay. We're currently, like, at 40 students total. Yep. And, yeah, after this, like, we're gonna have the final course put out there. We are we've already started filming, like, the final version of the course, like, professional podcast studio.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. So you're gonna, like, record it, like, on video, nice on that kinda like a self paced Yes.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Exactly. So we're gonna have 2 versions. 1's gonna be the live mentorship. The other one's just gonna be, like, the pre recorded stuff.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. Okay. So that's what we're filming in in January.
Speaker 1:Nice. Cool, man. We'll we'll, have to do some follow-up whenever you actually release it because I'm sure people would be interested in checking it out. I know you're focused a lot, sounded like, on creating that program right now. Once that's done, are you gonna, like, try to ramp back up your business side again?
Speaker 1:Or what's gonna be your focus there?
Speaker 2:Yeah. For sure. So my main focus has been on the program right now for the coaching, but after this is, like, done and what what I mean by done is, like, I don't have to spend all day scripting and all night filming. And
Speaker 1:then Yeah.
Speaker 2:After that, I'm going to start picking back up with the LuxiDrone business, and I wanna start filming more luxury properties in Vegas, Miami, LA, Arizona. I'm also gonna start doing some restaurants, some, luxury gyms, golf courses.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Anything that has to do with luxury, I wanna be there with my gym, basically. Golf is a cool I've seen a
Speaker 1:lot of really interesting, FPV shots on golf courses. Have you seen any of these ones where they're like Chase is a ball. Down right as they're hitting it. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I love those. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Those are cool.
Speaker 2:Golf courses make money. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Good clients.
Speaker 1:So are you I mean you've been getting it clients just in in Vegas. Mhmm. Do people hit you up from other areas of the country want you to do stuff?
Speaker 2:I've had some clients in LA and I've had some in Miami as well. Okay. More recently, I've had some wanna take trips with me to, like Cabo or to the Bahamas. There's a lot of sales companies, entrepreneurs that have, like, team travel incentives with their companies. Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Travel with them and create, like, content for them. Yeah. Recruiting content.
Speaker 1:Are they gonna pay you to go on the trip? Oh, yeah. All of it. Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Dude, that's cool. So how do you plan to expand the business? I mean, you're gonna do these different types of jobs, but like do you have any plan, like, which region you're gonna focus on first or which thing you're gonna focus on first?
Speaker 2:For sure. Have you seen the movie King Richard?
Speaker 1:With I don't know. Maybe, but,
Speaker 2:With Will Smith and,
Speaker 1:No. Okay. No. No. I have no.
Speaker 2:There's a scene in the movie where, Will Smith, he's the father of Serena and Vinnis Williams. Okay. And he's trying to basically, convince a bunch of investors to invest into their daughters, into his daughters and say like, hey, my 2 daughters are going to be the world's best tennis players. And he's carrying around this, like, thick pamphlet. He's like, I've got a 10th step plan.
Speaker 2:It's all written out right in here. So he's got this pamphlet. He's just trying to get people to read it. I've got a 3 step plan for how I plan to basically expand Okay. For what I wanna call LuxiDrone Worldwide.
Speaker 2:Okay. So the first phase is train a bunch of pilots to fly like me.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. And
Speaker 2:then second phase is to really, like, focus on ramping up my business in Vegas, LA, and Miami. Okay. So, basically, start marketing in those different markets. And 3rd step would basically be to go ahead and get my pilot's lab trained to the program to start working gigs in Miami, Vegas, LA, and eventually all over the USA and all over the world. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Anywhere there's, like, a Airbnb or exotic property, I want my team to be there filming that. Okay. Because, yeah. There's a lot of beautiful stuff to film all over the world. I feel like Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's smart. So, basically, you know, people who have been trained up or learn to fly like you, they can do their own stuff, but then you can also partner with them to sort of do luxury drone jobs that you get in these other places through your own contacts.
Speaker 2:Yeah. For sure. Exactly. So basically, there's people that love to fly just because they love to fly. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:That's
Speaker 2:where most people are. And then there's a few people who wanna kind of just, like, fly and learn their business and kind of do things on their own. So we help both of those people. But for the people that, like, wanna learn and grow and start a business and just basically get leads from Luxidrone, you know, we're basically looking to expand all over the US and help those pilots too.
Speaker 1:That's cool. Yeah. That's smart. I was gonna say because to expand that it's either you're gonna have to go fly all over the place all the time and just run yourself ragged or train somebody up or something. So Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's a smart way to kind of almost build your own network of good pilots. Are you gonna try to I mean, the only thing I can think of where that might be tough is like how do you just because someone goes through a class? I don't I'm assuming not all of them are gonna be all star FP.
Speaker 2:No. No. Definitely not.
Speaker 1:So are you gonna have a test or something to get them, or I don't know if you Yeah.
Speaker 2:No. So through the program, I tell them exactly how to, like, train from the simulator to flying in real life to actually filming luxury real estate. So I take them through the entire journey to basically apply to join the team. They're gonna have to show me, like, get
Speaker 1:some work through. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like a luxury real estate property or a regular property. I'm just looking for specific, KPIs, key performance indicators to see, like, if they're good or not. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. I'm just imagining me trying to take that test and and failing this. Can you just like you know fly through this, you know house and just like break and everything crashing.
Speaker 2:Bring from the
Speaker 1:house. Yeah. It's awesome. Well, man, that's really exciting. All all all that business stuff.
Speaker 1:I wanna I wanna go back to a few things and get some tips. So some flying tips and then maybe a few business tips before we wrap up because I know a lot of people are interested, you know, in FPV drones or, you know, a lot of people are interested in drones are cool. I've heard you can make money with drones. How do I do that? And there's not really any easy way to do it.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people are misled thinking, oh, if I just get a drone and a part 107 license like people are just gonna come out of the woodwork. We talked about this a lot like you have to develop some type of skill whether you go really get really good at mapping and learn the construction industry or you learn FPV stuff really well. I think FPV is one of the areas where actual skill flying the drone matters. For most of the other things, it matters less. Most of I think what is important is the stuff that happens after you have the footage, you know, like doing mapping with a drone.
Speaker 1:Most of it's automated. If you know how to set it up on the computer, hit a button, it captures it, and then most of the skills and, like, the processing and reporting. With FPV, I feel like it's the one one of the one things where it's like the drone is the important part. You know? So let's talk about skills for a minute.
Speaker 1:So when you're training people, and let's say they've not really messed around with FPV before, what's like the first exercise you take them through? Do you have, like, you know, hey, fly in a circle or do that? Like, what's the first thing you have them do to start getting comfortable with it?
Speaker 2:Great question. So I kind of, like, just walk you through my process. So week 1, we have you train the simulator. And, basically, the first exercise I have people do is throttle up, so they're flying all the way up into the air. And then they're going to cut the throttle, which means, like, now they're falling out of the sky.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And then they're going to just use both joysticks to freak the drone out and go in
Speaker 1:all different directions. Go nuts?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Just go nuts.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And as you're about to hit the ground at the very last minute, you just kinda wanna figure out how you're going to level up as your own, prevent it crashing on the ground, and be able to find the horizon line. That drill trains your eyes to basically be able to always locate the horizon line and land on your feet like a cat Mhmm. As opposed to like Okay. Just falling while looking up at the sky.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you do that.
Speaker 1:How how long does it take people to kind of get that down?
Speaker 2:Well, that takes maybe like 15 minutes in the simulator.
Speaker 1:Okay. So,
Speaker 2:15, 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:He's doing it over and over and over again?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Just repetition, like, name of the game is repetition. Yeah.
Speaker 1:If you, like, wipe out in a simulator and basically the drone's, like, broken, does it does it just reset automatically or what is that? What happens?
Speaker 2:That's a huge benefit from finding the simulator. Like, if you crash in the game, you just hit reset and you're Is it a button? Okay. Yeah. Brand new.
Speaker 2:But if you crash in your life, life, there's other free percussion.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Funny. Okay. So then once they learn how to flip it over, what's maybe the next thing you'd have in there? Or maybe the first kind of flight exercise or maneuver?
Speaker 2:So after they learn how to locate the horizon line, I just have people learn how to hover, which that alone is a huge challenge. It's not like hovering in Mavic. So, that teaches a lot of throttle control. Like, if you do too much and you fly too high, if you do too little, you crash. So it's just finding that sweet spot.
Speaker 2:How to pitch forward, which means, like, you're, like, hovering and you're moving in the forward direction. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Nothing
Speaker 2:about FPV is, like, you can't look down and you can't look behind you, so you can kind of only look to see what's in front of you.
Speaker 1:It's like a fixed yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a fixed exactly. So I just train people how to basically, do what I call a boxing drill. There's a farmhouse inside of the simulator where I'll have people fly close to the farmhouse. They'll stop at each corner. They'll fly forward, stop, turn left, fly forward, stop, turn left.
Speaker 2:And I'll have them do this, on both sides, so left and right.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. And that
Speaker 2:drill alone is gonna teach you a lot of control for
Speaker 1:how to
Speaker 2:basically fly and have control over the drill. Yeah. Yeah. And then after they do that, I basically have them do all of the drills that I teach them in the simulator. There's about like 20 of them.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And
Speaker 2:I have them do that in real life.
Speaker 1:Okay. So
Speaker 2:once you do the drills in the simulator and you do them
Speaker 1:in real
Speaker 2:life Mhmm. Now you're basically ready to fly for luxury real estate.
Speaker 1:Okay. Because now you can fly close to objects without, you know, crashing. All these one take shots, they're always like so smooth. Does it normally just take you one time? Or do you have to do the same thing like 10 times in order to get like the good take?
Speaker 2:So in the very beginning, I used to ask the agents to give me like 5 hours to properties because, the first hour was just nervous. I was, like, very nervous to fly this drone through this property. And then the second and third hour was just, like, trying to find the best flight plan. And then finally, like, I had to get, like, 20 different takes. Oh.
Speaker 2:And I finally get that one shot. But now I can show up, I tell the agents to block out like 2 hours with me. Okay. I kind of like already instinctively know what the flight plan's gonna be. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just walk into the property once. So Mhmm. About 30
Speaker 1:experience you can see it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Exactly. Like, oh, and I'm gonna start through there and through there. So I've spent about, like, maybe 30 minutes just walking through, do my first test flight setting up. Another 30 minutes will be actually, like, I start off with a small drone, and I fly the small drone to the property just so that, I get the best flight plan, the best flow.
Speaker 2:And then it'll take me maybe, like, another 30 minutes to actually get the shot. Okay.
Speaker 1:So so it's a it's a process.
Speaker 2:Yeah. All in all, an hour and a half and then another 30 minutes just to hang out with the client, you know. Yeah. Just have a free time. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Whatever it is. Yeah. Yeah. After we're done flying, just networking.
Speaker 1:Cool. Cool. Sometimes it might be it's easy for people to simplify things and be like, oh, you just show up. You throw the drone out. You do one shot around and then you pay, you know, take home 2 grand or whatever, $1500.
Speaker 1:But it's it's a more it's a process. It takes a lot of work to get a really good shot in in practice. So let's shift quickly over to the business side of things. It sounds like the solar experience helped you not be afraid to talk to door to door, cold calling, whatever, or maybe you already had that anyways. I know a lot of people are terrified of cold calling or don't like talking to strangers.
Speaker 1:Let's say somebody's good with a drone. They have a small portfolio. They've thrown it on social media. Like, what would you recommend them to do if they wanted to go get clients?
Speaker 2:Great question. So there's a lot of different industries for where you can use FPV drones to make money. I just chose the real estate industry. I'll I'll talk about mine a little bit, but I'll show you I'll share with you guys a few others. For example, my business partner, one of the other instructors, Stefan, he chases luxury cars.
Speaker 2:What he did was he went up to, some luxury car meets in Canada. I think it was in Toronto, and he basically joined some clubs. And he started offering all of the people there in those clubs, like, hey. Whenever you guys are doing your car meets and you're driving through these scenic highways and, you know, country roads, I'll I'll just chase you guys with my drones. It's like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:We love that idea.
Speaker 1:That's cool.
Speaker 2:Free content. Awesome. So he's chasing these half $1,000,000 cars and afterwards when the owners of the car see these videos, like wow, that's amazing, I love these videos. It's like, alright. At that point, you have 2 options.
Speaker 2:You can try to network with the entrepreneur who owns that car.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Or you could just charge him, like, alright. Cool. If you want me to make you a really sick edit, pay me $500, and I'll just send this your way.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So if there's, like, 50 people at a car meet and you do this for, like, let's say, 10 of these cars, you know, you just made 10 times 500. Yep. So that's all done with, you know, that one day, that one car meet. That's just one avenue for how you can make money with FPV and luxury cars. The other one is, let's say that entrepreneur instead of charging him $500, you wanna network with him, you wanna build a relationship, Find out what that entrepreneur's business is and find out how you can add value to his business.
Speaker 2:So I've met a lot of guys who are in sales and they have sales companies. What I do is I find out who do they want more of? Do they want more sales? Do they want more people to join their company? Usually, they want to focus on the recruiting side of things.
Speaker 2:That's where all of their money's going is recruiting. So I help them come up with really bad ass promo videos to recruit more people to join their sales organization. That's another way to make money. So it really comes down to figuring out one question is, how can my skill of flying drones help a business owner make money? If you can figure that out, then you can charge a pretty penny.
Speaker 2:So I'm doing that with real estate where it's like, okay, normal walk through videos are boring. My drone fly throughs are fast paced. They you know, hold people's attention. They can show you an entire property without you feeling like you're getting lost. And they get a lot of views, so it's gonna help you sell your home faster.
Speaker 2:You know, Stefan helps people, entrepreneurs highlight their lifestyles, their nice cars. And then the salesman side of things is like, I help you recruit more people with my drone. Right. So it's all about the service that you're providing.
Speaker 1:Like how
Speaker 2:you're helping them solve a problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's smart. I think, again, a lot of people focus on, oh, well, I know how to fly a drone. So don't you wanna pay me to do that? They don't take it, like, put themselves in that person.
Speaker 1:She's like, why in the world would that person care about a drone to begin with? They don't really care about the drone. They care about that house selling. Right? Or they care about or probably maybe in real estate.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's another luxury property owner seeing that and going, oh, why don't you list my house? That video is cool. Like you said, they care about more salespeople in their organization. This is just something that's gonna help them achieve whatever that is. So
Speaker 2:Yeah. Absolutely. You gotta basically reverse the roles. Yeah. Now let's pretend that instead of being the FPE pilot, you're the business owner and you have this guy with the drone.
Speaker 2:It's like, okay, what can you do for me? Like, how is your drone gonna help me make more money?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:If you can't figure that out, then, you know
Speaker 1:What's the point?
Speaker 2:Why would I pay you money?
Speaker 1:Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Cool. Well before we go do you have any kind of I guess parting thoughts, words of wisdom for people that you wanna that you wanna leave them with?
Speaker 2:Words of wisdom. You can do it.
Speaker 1:No. That's awesome, man. Well, I've I think your story is super inspiring. Basically, dipping out of high school to go to Starbucks to learn about how to be an entrepreneur to getting blocked from learning, to figuring it out, to making ends meet however you needed to, having a successful business now, you know, you're moving on to try to expand, maybe teach other people. So really really cool journey.
Speaker 1:Do you
Speaker 2:want to leave with a funny story?
Speaker 1:Yes, please.
Speaker 2:Alright. So the whole high school thing, I ended up dropping out of high school and my parents had no idea.
Speaker 1:They didn't tell you. Your parents didn't know you.
Speaker 2:They didn't know. I told them I was doing it online because I have Colombian parents. They came to this country so I could get a college education, become a doctor. So the whole dropping out of school was not even an option. It wasn't in the cards for me.
Speaker 2:But basically, I told them I was doing school online and I ordered a fake high school diploma until the happened. Do
Speaker 1:they know now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they know now.
Speaker 1:Do they listen to podcasts? Yeah.
Speaker 2:We were just laughing about this like a few nights ago. Okay. But, yeah. I ordered a fake high school diploma.
Speaker 1:And then from where? Like, what is this what did it say?
Speaker 2:It was like it was like, you get to customize what school you graduated from, and it looks all official. It was like $30. Don't don't do this at home kids. Like don't do what I did.
Speaker 1:When did you drop out of high school?
Speaker 2:2016.
Speaker 1:Like what grade were you in?
Speaker 2:11.
Speaker 1:So you were at mid 11th grade?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Like I was basically done with 11th grade.
Speaker 1:Okay. So you only had 1 year left. Yeah. I did it to
Speaker 2:to make a statement. Like you don't need school to Okay.
Speaker 1:So you dropped out, so you went a year. Yeah. And your parents thought you're doing online. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's when I was
Speaker 1:Were they
Speaker 2:like Did
Speaker 1:they see you like they saw you not doing school online at your house. Like, what did they think
Speaker 2:they're doing? No. They're busy, like, working. So I think
Speaker 1:you're okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah. They wasn't really see it. Okay. But, yeah. So I mean, like,
Speaker 1:we Would they ask you like, how's school going? And you're like
Speaker 2:All the time. Good. Oh, it's going great. Yeah. Oh my god.
Speaker 2:It's boring.
Speaker 1:Did they ever ask to see your grades?
Speaker 2:No. Okay. No. No.
Speaker 1:So, but Hold on. So you so you got this fake diploma sent to the house. Uh-huh. And they're like, congratulations. And
Speaker 2:then Yeah. So this this is the part that I feel guilty about, But, you know, they wanted me to go to school, become a doctor in my defense. I knew that there was like a shelf life on this planet of mine. It was like, what's the matter? Like turnkey.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. I I had to figure something out. So basically, during that time, I was doing the driving. So I was making money
Speaker 1:when I
Speaker 2:got a driver. This is terrible. My dad was so proud that he put the diploma out like on this like nice little glass case put on the walls like my son graduated high school.
Speaker 1:Dude, it probably made you feel so terrible.
Speaker 2:Terrible. But then when basically my mom called the school and she's like hey did my son attend your school? They're like, who?
Speaker 1:What tipped her off? Was she suspicious the whole time? No.
Speaker 2:She was just suspicious. Yeah. So one day, she let the intrusive
Speaker 1:thoughts I wonder why.
Speaker 2:She let the intrusive thoughts win and she called the school. He let the intrusive thoughts. Yeah. She could've just looked happily, not knowing, but it's fine. And then when they my parents sat me down and was like, hey.
Speaker 2:You lied to us. You you didn't, finish high school.
Speaker 1:I'm like, what? I
Speaker 2:was like, give me one second, parents. I go to my room. I I bring out a stack of cash. It's like, I made this money driving. Here's my plan.
Speaker 2:I wanna become a full time videographer. I wanna travel the world. School's not for me. And if you guys don't accept my dream of what I want to do, then I totally understand. I'm sorry I lied to you, but just let me know and I'll move out.
Speaker 2:It's fine. So they're like, alright, our boys are men now. It's fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, hey at least you I think they probably appreciated you coming clean and kind of owning up now. I'm trying a huge weight
Speaker 2:on my chest. Yeah. That was,
Speaker 1:Not trying to double down. Yeah. Well, man. That's a
Speaker 2:Lori says to leave this off. Yeah. That's a funny story.
Speaker 1:Well, hey. You know what? I'm sure they're proud of the stuff you're doing now and, you know, you've obviously been able to be successful with it and kinda shows you like, hey. If you've got determination, drive, and you apply that to any type of good idea over a long enough period of time, you know, it it works out. I think a lot of a lot more people's successes I've interviewed.
Speaker 1:You're the 60th person I've interviewed for this podcast. So you kind of see over time common traits, you know. And it seems like the skills are important, but it's more of, like, who people are is their personality and how much they're willing to just like try something and continue to learn something that dictates whether or not they end up being very successful with it or not. Yeah. Some people even if they could do a lot of it.
Speaker 1:They just I don't know. They don't have the tenacity or they are afraid of something or don't like don't I don't know. Have some type of weird mental block about like getting out there and just doing stuff for a long enough period of time. So I just see that, yeah, commentrate and you know I'm not really surprised that you've been able to be successful given what I've heard about your story.
Speaker 2:So Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Thanks for coming on,
