Drone to $1K Podcast: Season 3, Episode 3
Chris Dantonio from Chris Dantonio Drone Photography is our guest on this week's episode! He talks about how he got started with drones and how he started his own successful drone business.
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== Podcast Summary ==
Introduction:
Chris says he got in a “little late” and “by accident”, because he started about four years ago at 43 years old. His parents bought him a little toy drone that had a small camera. He flew it for a week, broke it and knew he needed something better. He then bought a $100 drone and broke that in about a month. The DJI Phantom 3 Standard was his first real drone. He started taking pictures around Philadelphia just as a hobby, and really enjoyed it because he’d grown up around photography. His father, a photograph teacher at the local high school, would set up backgrounds to do portraits in the living room.
“Photography has always been a part of my life and to be able to do it with a drone and be able to show people things in the city, especially that you didn't even know were there, is nice.”
He could show people things that are very rarely seen from the ground level, which intrigued him more. He started an Instagram account, which has been a godsend, Chris says, because it's free. It doesn't cost any money and, with good work and hard work, you get followers. Chris just hit 10,000 followers a couple of months ago.
After that, Chris knew he had to get licensed in order to sell pictures. Sure enough, he bought a study guide, studied for six months and took the test.
“It's because of the study guide, I did really well. For those of you wondering ‘Should I get a study guide?’ I’d highly recommended it...”
Then the business started, almost by accident.
I got the Phantom in 2016, started studying in 2017 and took the test in early 2018. This is a part time thing for me.
In early 2018, Chris got an email from an Instagram follower who worked for American Idol who was from Philadelphia and had seen Chris’ work. That was his first real big job. The third shot of the opening of American Idol was their shot. When subsequent clients came, it helped because they knew that we had already worked for a popular show.
David: What happened next? How did your next client find you?
The next person to call was Comcast who wanted to purchase rights to footage for unlimited use. Chris says every job they've had—big or small—has all found them through Instagram. Chris says, “it's a smart business tool that doesn't cost money...the key is getting reposted to get your name out there.” With Comcast, a higher-up had been following him for a while, seeing Chris post shots of cool and different angles of the city. He has never really done any outbound sales activities to pursue clients.
David: One of the things people love on this podcast is specifics and numbers. It inspires people to know what's possible. Can you tell us what you make?
His daily rate early on (for American Idol) was $1500 for an all-day shoot. Comcast wanted five photographs and five 15 to 30 second videos. He quoted $500 per still/$1000 per video. He said he’d give them the whole package for $6,000—they didn't bat an eyelash and wrote the check.
Later, a photography director for NFL films reached out, asking for footage of the NFL films building for the opening of a new show. He shot all kinds of things for three hours, getting paid $1500. He got to work with cameramen who’d shot some of the most important sporting events of our time. They knew exactly what they wanted, which made it so much easier on Chris to be directed in that way.
David: It sounds like you're getting pretty good pricing per gig. How many jobs are you flying per month and what are you getting paid these days?
Chris tends to average two or three jobs a month, but sometimes those jobs have multiple flights. His pricing has increased a little bit—his hourly rate is now $300/hr; his daily rate is $2000.
David: One of the biggest questions is ‘How do I find clients?’, ‘How do I find work?’
Chris’ advice is, “When posting to Instagram, hashtagging and tagging are how you get seen with little followers. If you're just starting out on Instagram, hashtag and tag large accounts in the city you live in with things like #gameofdrones, #photooftheday, #dronephotography. When people look at those hashtags, they see your photos, whether they follow you or not. That's how you build your followers.”
He got 500 followers just from a repost from a local news organization that has 213,000 followers.
Last words from Chris... “If you keep working at it, they WILL come. They will find you and they will see you.”
Resources
Website: http://www.cddpphilly.com/
Instagram: @phillydroneshots
