S3/EP 6 Jonathan Stettler from Steady Focus Media
Listen now
Description
Jonathan Stettler is the owner of Steady Focus Media, a business that specializes in providing photography and videography services for businesses and real estate.   Introduction   Jonathan has always been into drones. The first time he saw a drone, his friend was flying one of the original DJI Mavic Pros. Jonathan thought it was cool, but he didn’t actually buy a drone until years later.   Jonathan’s background is in photography. He had tried wedding photography, but he didn’t love it. He wanted to be a photographer, but he just wasn’t sure what industry he should try to get into.   Last year, Jonathan bought a DJI Ronin gimbal so that he could put together a video for his taekwondo school. He had never tried videography, but he decided to give it a go. Once he sat down to edit the video, he was surprised at how much he enjoyed the editing process. When he showed the video to the taekwondo school, they were really impressed.   Jonathan started Steady Focus Media to create promotional videos for small businesses. Once he actually started his business, he felt like he was officially a photographer and it really helped him to take it seriously.   He ended up buying a drone, and then a few months later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. All of the small businesses (his normal clients) shut down. He wasn’t sure what to do. He had the idea that maybe he could make money with his drone. So, he looked into it and figured out that there were Part 107 regulations he’d need to learn so he could pass the exam to be able to fly his drone commercially.   He went online and found Drone Launch Academy. He enrolled in our FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Exam Prep Course and it helped him study for and pass the exam on the first try.   Then, he enrolled in our Drone to $1K program, which helped him to grow his business.   David: How’d you get your first client?   He found his first client through a local Facebook Classifieds group. He put up a post that said he was looking for a realtor that wants a free home tour. He got responses back from people asking what the catch was. He said that there were no strings attached, he was just trying to build his portfolio. He ended up getting a response from a realty team. He went out to the house that they told him about and it was a super nice, $800,000 house that had an indoor pool and a tennis court!   Although the realtor loved the video, Jonathan didn’t really hear anything back from them. He tried to use Facebook to promote his business, but he wasn’t getting any leads. After about a month, he heard back from the realtor he had worked with and they asked if he could also do another video, as well as photos for another house.   As he landed more jobs, he had more and more material that he could use for demo reels and for promotional materials for his own business.   Jonathan stresses the importance of having a portfolio of your work. He says that doing free work when you’re first starting out will help you get the content and footage you need to build your portfolio.   “It’s the thing you need to start building the ladder to get to where you need to go.”   Since Jonathan started using drones when the pandemic hit, he hasn’t shot photos and videos for a single home without wearing a mask. He realized that photography and videography is a job that you can do even during the pandemic.   “It’s still a viable business, even when everything’s going wrong.”   Jonathan’s business slowly grew from $200 the first month, to $500 the second month, and then 3-4 jobs a week. Jonathan is now working with several local realtors.   David: How did you go from having one client to then getting booked 3 times in the same week?   Jonathan says that it all happened very organically. A realtor that he had been communicating with a month bef
More Episodes
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...
Published 03/12/24
We're excited to announce that Season 6 Episode 9 of the Drone to $1K Podcast is out! Our guest for this episode is Guillermo Wenzel of Drone Sky Visuals. Guillermo, founder of Drone Sky Visuals, came back to the podcast to talk about how he's been doing since his last appearance on the podcast...
Published 03/05/24