Drone to $1K Podcast: Season 3, Episode 1
Liam Abrigg from Bentley Studios joins us to tell his story of how he started a video production and drone company and built it into a thriving business that also works in the roofing and real estate industries.
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== Podcast Summary ==
Introduction:
Liam specializes in photography and video, mostly in the wedding industry. He averages about 40 weddings a year, incorporating the drone into wedding videos He also takes photos of the transitions of projects for roofing companies.
David: Let's go back to when you first started getting into photo and video...let us know how your business started from the beginning?
Liam has been an entrepreneur since he was 15. He started in the iPhone repair business, doing that for three years and repairing over 300 iPhones. He also saved $10,000 to fund his photography business. He got his first camera was when he was 13. He loved to take pictures of anything and then, in high school, he was the school photographer. A teacher asked if he would have any interest in filming a wedding. When she got married the next summer, at 16, Liam sweated through five shirts filming his first wedding. He also realized he loved being a part of someone’s special day and then giving them their video or photos and seeing them tear up.
After that, he started doing social media videos. He would call local businesses and say, “I'm starting a business and want to try to get into social media. I see you guys are lacking in that area and I would love to help.” So, I got a lot of practice doing video production.
David: What kind of reception did you get when you'd reach out?
Some turned Liam down, saying they had their own thing, or they didn’t want to dabble in that. Some said they valued that he wanted to do it for free and were going to give him the opportunity to do so. Liam valued that as a networking opportunity. From his experience with repairing iPhones, he got turned down a lot and knew he’d gotten a better attitude and could find a way to not offend anyone and help people out.
David: When did you start getting paying clients? How did that transition happen from dabbling with free stuff and reaching out to businesses? How did that progress into your first paying client?
Toward the end of high school, Liam started doing a lot of senior photos which led to more paying opportunities. Then, every once in a while, he’d try to reach out and get opportunities to film a wedding. As he started to have more to show people, he started to get booked more, which led to more opportunities. Liam owes a lot of his success to word of mouth. He loves to go out and talk to people and create those friendships.
David: When you started with that one roofing company, did you see what they wanted and you reached out to other roofing companies, or how did that work?
All from the one roofing company. These companies don't like anyone to share their drone stuff. So they share it with other roofing companies or partners and then Liam has gotten contacted from their partners or other connections within the contracting industry.
David: Let’s look at a snapshot of Liam’s week. How many drone or video productions jobs, including weddings, would you say you're going out to each week?
As an example, the week prior, Liam had three drone shoots for the roofing company and then two promotional videos for local businesses, which are “about me” stories that they can put on their social media or their website. With Covid preventing people from going to their businesses now, a lot of them want to provide opportunities for people to sit down and watch what they offer online. He had a wedding on Saturday. His average week is about 5-6 jobs.
David: Can you let us know your average revenue in a great month and a slow month?
In summer, Liam averages between four and five weddings a month, then usually three projects during the week. In a good month, he averages $10-12,000. In a slow month in the winter, he can make $3000-$5000.
David: When someone then says, “I’m ready to get my first client. How do I do that?” What would you say to them on getting their first kind of paying client?
Liam says social media is a great platform to use, since everyone's on it. Jump in with the realtors. “They don't, they don't pay very well, but starting out, you're not going to make very much anywhere.” Liam says think that the more jobs you get under your belt, the better you look. Then start to DM a bunch of real estate agents. They love their social media stuff. Have a good grid that showcases what you do. When the agents click on your profile, you want them to see you have cool stuff and it's organized.
Resources
Website: www.bentleystudiosusa.com
Instagram: @bentley.studios or @liambentley_15
