From Hobbyist to Entrepreneur with Keith Perry

What began as a hobby and love for capturing vast landscapes and navigating incredible horizons soon evolved into a side hustle, capturing the attention of realtors propelling Keith to take the bold leap of starting his own drone business.With almost five years of experience in the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) industry, Keith shared his journey from successful ventures in the HVAC and insurance industries to becoming a prominent figure in the world of drones. Discover how Keith's passion for innovation led him to establish Hudson Valley Drones and gain insights into the evolving landscape of UAV technology and its applications in various industries.Join us as we soar into the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, and community service in this insightful conversation with Keith Perry.Get to know more about his work through https://www.hvdronesny.com/ and learn about his drone business based in the Hudson Valley of New York.
To learn more about myself, Michael Esposito, and find out about public speaking workshops, coaching, and keynote speaking options, and - of course - to be inspired, visit www.michaelespositoinc.com

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This show is sponsored by DN tenInsurance Services, helping businesses get the right
insurance for all their insurance needs.Visit dn ten dot io to get a
quote dn ten dot io and remember, when you buy an insurance policy from
Denten, you're giving back on aglobal scale. Hello all, my entrepreneurs

(00:22):
and business leaders, and welcome tothe Michael Esposito Show, where I interview
titans of industry in order to inform, educate and inspire you to be great.
My guest today has been involved inthe UAV industry for over half a
decade. Prior to founding his company, Hudson Valley Drones, he pursued successful

(00:43):
ventures in the eighth fac and insuranceindustries. He has always been an active
community member, empowering others through hisactions and time. He is a member
of the local volunteer fire department andthe owner, founder and lead drone of
operator of Hudson Valley Drones. He'salso a personal friend, an inspiration to

(01:06):
me, and was my very firstguest on my first show, The Shining
Light. Please welcome Keith Perry.Thanks for having me, Mike. Welcome
man. So I'll start with theShining Light video podcast show, which was
a fun experience for us. Itwas you were my very first guest,
whether you wanted to be or not. Yeah, you told me it was

(01:29):
happening, and I was all aboutit too, so yeah, he's great.
I was doing these for our audiencelistening here. I was doing these
lives from Instagram and I'd see Keithpop on every now and then, and
it was only like, I thinkI was only maybe a week or so
in and you popped on and Iwas like, hey, put your video
on, and you sure did?You put your video on? And next

(01:53):
thing I knew, I was interviewingyou and you had no idea what I
was doing and why I was doingit. Okay, but it was the
spawn of the show. It wasHey, I'm glad something good came out
of it. It's amazing. It'show it started. And the reason why
I'm starting with that is because that'show this started. So that's really cool.
So it's finally, it's exciting tofinally have you on as my guest

(02:15):
guest number like seventy something, whichis pretty awesome for this show, and
I'm very happy to have you here. So we met years back. You
were an insurance agent I was andno longer, and you started HV drones.
Before we get into your whole journeyand everything, just because this was
in your bio, you a V. What is that? Unmanned aerial vehicle?

(02:38):
All right, it's a it's acatch all. And there's some abbreviations
used in the drone industry UAV,which is on manned aerial vehicle, UAS
which is unmanned aerial systems. They'reall fairly synonymous, but not entirely.
Right, Well, i'll clarify.Well, now we know what they are,
and you know, shame on me. I didn't I didn't do enough

(03:00):
investigating. But I thought I thoughtthat was something that was you could break
down for us and make it,make it really, really simple. So
I want to get into like yourentrepreneurial journey because when I met you,
like I said, you were,you were working at Liberty Mutual. You
were an insurance agent. I wasan insurance agent. So we kind of
just hit it off. It wasinteresting because I think that people in the

(03:22):
same industry don't always hit it off, especially in such a competitive industry like
insurance. But for some reason wehit it off. We we had a
really great conversation that night. Whatwas the water Street? No, the
market, Village mart Village Market andgarden Village Market. Yeah, and actually
you had that in here too.You know, we hit it off right
away and the next thing I knew, you're like operating drones. And this

(03:45):
is why I say you're an inspirationto me, because you know, I
wanted to start my own business whileI was first getting to know you,
and the next thing I know,you started yourrone. I was like,
well, that's really cool, sowe can just do that. So it
was impressive. So share with mea little bit or us a little bit
about this journey that or this processthat you went through to get there.

(04:09):
Thanks. Yeah. So I wasworking in insurance and I was probably a
year into my job as an agentat Liberty Mutual and I bought a drone
to fly as a hobby and youknow, just started flying it and flew
it and tried it out. Waslearning everything about it. And you know

(04:33):
you'll know this, but as partof being an insurance agent, part of
what you do is you know,you network and you get to know people
and you get to meet other peoplein different industries. And one thing I
found myself or one group of peoplethat I found myself networking with quite a
bit, just naturally was realtors andreal estate agents, and I forgot how
it happened. But one day aconversation came up with with a real estate

(04:55):
agent about how I flew drones asa hobby, and all of a sudden
it clicked and they were like,wow, do you think you could take
some pictures of a listing for me? And it was something I'd always thought
about at a high level, butnever really like pushed, you know,
transition from a hobby to you know, a business venture until that happened.
So the person asked me to takephotos of a listing for them, and

(05:18):
I did it and it went reallywell and it started to move forward from
there and I realized I had somethingthat I could probably make work for me.
Yeah, I mean, and thenetworking thing, I think is key
to the whole thing, right,because it's like you got to meet these
different people going into that experience whereyou start doing the real estate shoots,

(05:40):
and you start doing that, Iguessed there was this turning point where you
were able to say it's profitable andso therefore I can leave my job.
Yeah, I told myself. Sowhen it first happened, I thought it
was going to be a side hustle. And I started getting more work,
and I started getting more work,and I started getting work in different industries

(06:01):
that wasn't just real estate, andit started getting to the point where it
was really hard to juggle those responsibilitieswith the drones with my full time job
as a real estate agent. Soit got to the point where I told
myself when I had to start turningaway jobs because I had a full you
know, drone jobs, because Ihad a full time job, I was
going to make the leap. AndI remember being offered a project on a

(06:25):
Friday that I thought I wasn't ableto take because of my full time job,
and in the following Monday putting inmy two weeks at Liberty. Two
weeks later, jumping headfirst into thedrone business and figuring it out changed everything.
Yeah. I love that you talkabout how you thought. You know,

(06:46):
there's a couple of things that yousaid there that I really like and
I want to kind of stay in. Is that The first thing is that
you made a conscious decision of I'mnot going to make this move until it
starts impeding on it until like youknow, making this move impedes on or
excuse me, my current job impedeson making this move. And so you

(07:10):
were like really smart about keeping yourday job as we talk about, and
then keeping this as a side hustleuntil like you had to start turning down
gigs because of your day job.So I liked that you were very intentional
about that. But the other thingthat you said that I'd love to kind
of really go down even further isthis mindset that you had of and you

(07:33):
may not even realize it as yousit there kind of looking at me,
going where is Michael going with this? But you just said it where you
were like, I thought I couldn'tleave my job for this big gig that
I was getting. And I'm intentionallyusing gig in that job, so we
don't confuse it to but I thoughtI couldn't leave my job for this big

(07:54):
gig. And the mindset shift foryou was that you figured out that you
could. And I'm interested in diggingthere with you of like that could that
little piece there, because that's thepiece that so many of us, so
many others out there who want tobecome entrepreneurs who want to start something or
who want to even just climb thecorporate ladder, they don't make that small

(08:18):
little assessment of what's going on.So I'm interested in that thought process if
you can kind of like recall it. Yeah, you know, I think
there's something to be said about We'llgoing back to your point, right,
it's pretty irresponsible to make the leapfrom your full time job to a side

(08:39):
hustle if you don't think you canpay your bills with the side hustle,
or at least you know, standa pretty good chance of getting to that
point very quickly. So that's reallyimportant. But to your point, So,
part of the reason why I askedthe question is, I'm listening right

(09:03):
now to mel Robbins, and sheis she's a speaker, an author and
has podcasts and everything. And partof what she's talking about in the series
that I'm listening to right now isexactly what you just said. So here's
the example that she laid out forus to kind of help elaborate on this

(09:26):
a little bit further. She hasa client that wants to become a travel
blogger, and this client is single, has an apartment, so no debt,
no like mortgage or anything like that. Single has an apartment, no
pets, no animals to care for, no children, no nothing, and

(09:48):
yet doesn't want, doesn't take theleap to become a travel blogger. And
so Mel's like, why are youstuck there? Why are you staying there?
She said, well, I havethis job that I can't leave because
if I leave it, then it'sirresponsible. As you just said, right,
then it's irresponsible to become a travelblogger. And what Mel is explaining

(10:11):
to her is that, but ifyour vision, if your dream of your
life is to be this travel travelblogger, then you have to make a
decision here as to what's more important. And I think that that's what I'm
asking. And sometimes the question isconfusing because of my framing of it,
and I apologize for that, butthat that's really what I'm asking us to

(10:35):
talk a little bit about together.Here is that thought process of one,
we feel this obligation to stay wherewe are, and one why is that?
Right? Is there a fear ofthe new, fear of the unknown?
Is there a responsibility pulling us thatis not a real responsibility. You

(10:58):
know, if you've got children andkit and animals and a mortgage and all
Riki's holding you. I get it, But is it just because like you
just don't want to let your bossdown. I mean, they're going to
find somebody else, right, Yeah, maybe, And you know, maybe
this is people of our generation speaking, right. We've we've kind of always
been conditioned growing up that you goto high school and then you go to

(11:20):
college and then you get a job, right, And a lot of times
starting your own business isn't really inthat thing that we're conditioned to do.
But I think if you really thinkabout it, like maybe it's a response.
You know, maybe someone could viewit as irresponsible, or maybe someone
could view it as risky or notfollowing through in your job. But I
think you're being irresponsible to yourself ifyou don't take that leap. You know,

(11:43):
our lives are relatively short in thescheme of things, and there's not
many better times than now. Plusthe downside, as long as you're you
know, keeping your financial house inorder and not making a crazy snap jump
from your job, the downside potentialisn't as much as I think we make
it to be in our heads.What's the worst thing that happens you fail,

(12:09):
you fail, maybe maybe we don'tcall it fail. Maybe the business
doesn't work and you learn and yougo back and get another job. You
know, it's not as bad andthe downside isn't as bad as what I
think we think it could be.Right, And it's so funny that you
said and maybe you get another job, because I'm kind of like thinking that
that's funny because I know that whenI've had struggles at den ten Our insurance

(12:33):
agency, I've had struggles at MichaelsPosito ANDC Financial. That is is that,
you know, I go down thatpath of like, well, maybe
I got to get a job,right, And I'll go down that like
indeed path, like check out theapp and see what's going on in there,
all right, who's who's getting who'shiring what are they hiring at?
And I start reading the description oflike what they are asking to do or

(12:54):
whatever. And it's not that Idon't want to do the things. Is
that I'm like, yeah, Idon't want to work for anybody. Yeah
I'm glad I'm not the only personthat like feels that way, Like you
know, yes, the worst thingI'm saying is going back to getting a
job but that's like one of mybiggest fears going back and like working for
someone that just sounds horrible to me. Working for yourself is the best thing

(13:16):
on the planet, and it's somethingthat I hope everyone gets to enjoy at
some point in their lives. Butyeah, I do the same thing.
When you have a rough day,or a rough week or a rough month,
sometimes you think about maybe pick upa part time job at Stewart yeah
somebody, Yeah, Or I'll driveUber, or I'll do something like that,
or you know, yeah, youthink about it. It's something that

(13:37):
goes through your head. I likeStewart's. That's a nice that seems like
a nice place to work, right, which is great? Great ice cream,
I mean, you just make yourselfa smoothie on a rough day.
Like why not? Absolutely? Whatare what are some of the things that
you really enjoy about being self employed? I like being able to set my
own schedule. I like being ableto not necessarily answer to someone. You

(14:00):
know, I have to answer tomy responsibilities and to my clients, but
I don't really have to answer toa supervisor or a boss who may or
may not always be on the samewave length as me. I think I
can summarize it by saying the freedom. The freedom is it? And I
heard a quote one time and you'veprobably heard it too, and it was

(14:20):
something along the lines of an entrepreneuris the only person crazy enough to work
sixteen hours a day to avoid workingeight hours a day for someone else?
Yes, yes, so to thepoint like we have freedom when we run
our own business, but sometimes we'reworking sixteen hours a day to get that
freedom. So you know, it'sgive and take. It's freedom of the

(14:41):
mind, is what I think.It's. It's the freedom that I think
we're you know, you know youuse the word conditioned, right, so
condition to believe in is this freedomof like I can go here and I
can go there, and I cando this, and I can do that,
or you know, I have aneight hour a day and I clock
in at this I'm like at thattime, and therefore I'm free. But
it's freedom of the mind of asan entrepreneur as and I always like to

(15:09):
bring in our business leaders as wellas the people who work for companies,
because I know that they're listening onthe other side too, So this I
think applies to them too, isthat when you have freedom of the mind,
when you start creating your own mentalschedule and your own goals and inside
of wherever you are, there's nolonger this feeling where you're beholden to a

(15:31):
manager or beholden to anything else.And therefore that's when we hit that flow
state right where it's like, ifyou're working out a corporation, they're like,
what are you doing here at sixo'clock? You were supposed to say,
Oh, I'm working on a project, and I want to be the
best at this project and I wantto do it like I mean, if
we think about our athletes, they'reworking for giant corporations, right. Lebron

(15:52):
James is working for a huge corporationcalled the NBA. He's working then for
a smaller corporation which is still huge, called the Los Angeles Right, So
he's working for these corporate he's he'san employee at these corporations, yet because
he has his own vision, becausehe has his own goals, because he
has this freedom of mind that we'retalking about, he invests in himself to

(16:15):
become healthy, he invests in himselfto work out longer. He's staying at
the gym later to shoot more shots. He's doing all these different things for
himself, which then affect the corporationsthat he works for in a positive way.
But if you ask Lebron James,do you feel free or not free?
He'd probably say I feel free.But meanwhile, you look at this

(16:37):
guy's schedule and you're like, thisguy is not free. He is always
busy, right, sure, buthe's free in the mind because he's making
those decisions, he's calling those plays. So I feel like, you know,
as entrepreneurs, we learn that thatwe call the plays, but you
can also do that, you know, even if you're working in business,
right, absolutely, absolutely, yeah, that's I totally agree. So I'm

(16:57):
interested in in if you were atwere able to call the shots when you
were in an age fact business.Some of the things that you mentioned in
the bio that you sent over werethat you had you learned a lot when
you worked in the age fact ofbusiness. I'm interested in some of those
learnings findings. Yeah. So Iworked in heating and air conditioning for probably

(17:18):
the better part of ten years.It was my first job when I was
in high school and out of highschool, and you know, in my
early twenties and even into my midtwenties, and it was a fairly decent
sized local plumbing, heating, andair conditioning company, And it taught me
a lot of the things that Ilearned that I wanted to do with my

(17:41):
business now, But it also taughtme some things that I didn't necessarily want
to do with my business as well. But it kind of gave me an
incredible business education that I don't thinkI could have ever gotten in a school
or you know, by reading abook. Yeah, what were some of
the things that you knew that youdidn't want to do or bring into your

(18:03):
business. So I think being customercentric is always like the number one most
important thing about your business. Youneed to keep your customer as your number
one priority. You need to beproviding your client and your customers with a
great product. You need to be, you know, provide great customer service.
You need to do what you sayyou're going to do and show up
when you say you're going to showup. And once you get to the

(18:27):
point where your client or your customerisn't the central focus, I think you
start to deviate from your mission andyou know, start to fail as a
business person. So one of thethings that I found was most important is
just making sure that you keep theclient as the shining light in the middle

(18:49):
of you know, everything you're doingwith business and every decision of all the
processes. Yes, sir, whenyou say customer centric, it's so funny
because I just had a meeting yesterdaywhere one of our carriers, our insurance
carriers, and being an independent agency, we have a lot of them,
and every one of them will say, you know, how's your experience And

(19:11):
they'll ask that question and they'll say, because we pride ourselves on service,
and we have and we pride ourselvesin being the best who provides service.
And we're not just saying that.And I'm like, you're right, you're
not just saying that. You areone of twenty who just said it to
me, and in our in theinsurance industry, and you know this,
I say our industry because it waspassed for you. That's one of the

(19:33):
things that insurance agents. Same thingsay. The same thing is that we
pride ourselves on our service. Wehave the best service, but you find
that more often than not at fallsshort. And I'm interested in what you
define as customer centric. I thinkbeing customer centric is making sure that you

(19:53):
both understand your client's expectations and meetthose expectations, because it's impossible. I
don't want to say it's impossible,but it's challenging to meet a client's expectations.
If you don't have that conversation upfrontand don't know what their expectations are,
you know, you might have adifferent you know, you might go
to get your car repaired or goto a restaurant, and you might have
a different thing that makes you happyand makes you feel like you had a

(20:15):
great experience than me. And it'simportant to as part of the sales process,
explore that with the customer and kindof understand what their end objective is
and then making sure that everything you'redoing is bringing them closer to their goal.
So to me, it's understanding theclient's expectations and doing everything you can
to try to meet those expectations.Yeah. I like that how you said

(20:37):
that too, because you know,while one company might say, you know,
we offer the best service and weservice all of our clients within twenty
four hours, another company might say, we offer the best service and we
service all of our clients within tenhours. But you, as a customer
might say I want to call intwo hours, and if neither one of

(20:59):
those companies meet that expectation, thento you, they're bad service. Right
to them, they believe they're providinggreat service, but they never asked you
what does good service look like foryou? And so I love that that's
part of one of the ways thatyou identify it. The other one is
moving them closer to their goals.I'm assuming that that has a lot to
do with what you do in thedrone business today is understanding the goal of

(21:22):
your client, right, yeah,drones, And you know, the drone
industry and debt in general is veryyoung, and it's very new, and
a lot of people have a visionin their mind of what a drone can
do and aren't always sure how toget there. So it's important to have

(21:45):
a conversation with someone you know beforewe start working and understand that you know
what a drone can do and whata drone can't do, and how a
drone can be part of a processto make your lives easier or your business
better and exploring at Yeah, Ithink I think that that's important for them
to understand because for me, whenI think about a drone, I think

(22:06):
about like just a flying over thingsand like getting like the layout of the
land. I don't think about itas real estate, right, Like that's
a whole different thing, right,And understanding that do you fly the drone
inside, you fly it outside?Like how does it work? How do
you know what kind of space doyou need? And then like what happens

(22:29):
if it crashes into a wall?Yeah, those are all things that you
have to think about. And onething that I talk to clients about a
lot of times, like as partof this process, is that a drone.
All a drone is is a tool. It's a camera on a tripod
that floats in three D space.That's all it is, you know,
And the quality of the output thatyou get from it is based on the
quality of the person operating the droneand they're understanding of what you want to

(22:53):
accomplish with the drone. So tosay I just want some drone shots of
a house. You could want onshots of a house for a roof inspection.
You could want it for an insuranceinspection. You could want it for
a real estate listing. You couldwant it for some degree of like a
film shoot or something like that.And all of those different things. You
would use the same drone or maybea different drone, but you would use

(23:14):
a drone in a different way ora different angle or different settings or you
know, a different sensor to accomplishthat. Right, what about racing them?
Do you race them? Ever?I don't. I do have an
FPV drone that I do some workwith, But that's pretty wild. Do
they do that? It's really cool, and it's it's cool that it's on

(23:37):
ESPN, which is something that's funnyto me. Yeah, I don't know
if I would consider it a sport, but that's how I learned about it
the first time. It was Yeah, where there's just put on the goggles
and they're just like flying these thingsand like how did that happen? Like
that's as wild. I guess twopeople got together and were like, let's
race. Yeah. I mean Imean take anything fast, right and cars
or motorcycles or drone or just startdoing it all. Yeah. I kind

(24:03):
of worked worked a little bit backwardshere in my normal format of the podcast
and going into your industry. ButI'm also interested into your background because you
obviously are hungry individual in terms ofaccomplishing goals and ambition and drive to success,

(24:29):
And I'm interested in where that allcame from for you. What stimulated
that early on for you to whereyou're like, you know what, I'm
going to be the best HVAC helperhere, I'm going to be the best
insurance agent here, be the bestdrone operator here. What was the catalyst
to all of that through your development? Oh, that's a great question.

(24:55):
I'm not exactly sure. I can'tpin it down to like an exact specific
thing. I mean, I knowit's something that my parents always instilled on
me, right, trying to dothe best at what you're doing. I
remember like being I want to sayseven or eight, like being in karate,
right and having my parents make me, not make me, but encourage
me to practice my forms for fifteenminutes before I got on the bus every

(25:19):
day, and telling me the importanceof practicing and how practicing makes you better
and makes you perform better at likea tournament or I mean, I don't
even remember what it's called now,but I think I owe a lot of
that to my parents for instilling thosebeliefs in me. I mean, who
wants to be mediocre? You wantto be the best at what you do,

(25:41):
no matter what it is. Sotaking you off the or putting you
on the bus, making sure thatyou got that like five or fifteen minutes
of has helped. I'm glad tohear that because I do that to my
daughters. My daughters are in severaldifferent sports, but also they're in ballet
and dan and I'll go, Ionce did ballet. Little little fact for

(26:06):
you. I once did ballet whenI was when I was a kid.
But I think it's also just thismindset of intentionality that I have. And
so anyway, but on the balletside here before they go to class or
like at home, I'll see themdo certain moves and I'm like, no,
no, we got to go backand we got to make sure that
you know you're in first position properlyand that we're pointing your toes and straight

(26:30):
leg and doing all this stuff.And I'm glad to see that that might
pay off to their ambitions later onin life. Yeah, no doubt.
And I'm more amazed to hear thatyou did ballet significant amount of time.
That's that's awesome. That's something newI had no idea about. Yes,
you could find pictures of an eightyear old Michael and a leotard. I
don't know if they're on the internet, but they're certainly in my mother's books

(26:52):
at home. I love it.So so yeah, so tell us more
about this, this upbringing. Soyou have this your parents, What were
they like, what did they do? Were they entrepreneurs? Were they in
business at all? Yeah? Soboth my parents worked at IBM for a
very long time. They were backin you know, the time when you

(27:14):
would get a job at a bigcompany and work there until you retired.
And that's where they both met.Actually, they you know, met at
IBM. My dad, when hewasn't working his full time job at IPM,
started a business, a pool repairand leaked detection business. So what
he does, actually he still doesit to this day. But what he
used to do and still does,is scuba dive in swimming pools that have

(27:37):
leaks in them and repair the linerwithout the person having to drain all the
water out of it, which islike a huge cost savings and a huge
time savings and you know, ultimatelysaves the client money and gets them back
to using their pool more quickly.So he did that, and I feel
like, you know, looking backon it. I took a lot from

(28:00):
from him building that business. Onthe side, what were some of the
lessons that you might have learned fromhim when he was in that business or
that he currently does today. Ithink one of the things that he does
that is most important is like,you know, making sure that he does
it right or he doesn't you know, charge the customer. Wow, which

(28:22):
is huge. And like going tomy business. I mean there's certainly times
where I've done the job for aclient that wasn't up to par and I
may not have charged him the fullmatter or anything, but like being customer
centric and making sure that the jobis done right and the customer is happy
with it at the end of theday, and that that's like the number
one priority. It's funny we havesimilar backgrounds in terms of that. Like

(28:44):
my father is a physician's assistant aPA and has always been and always employed
by different hospitals and doctors clinics asa PA. He's now in his seventies,
but growing up he started a skincarebusiness, a hair product and skincare
line or business that is not line, and would outside of work, outside

(29:07):
of his normal day job, wouldcreate product in our basement which was also
our playroom, so it smelt likegarlic and all sorts of different types of
new things that he was coming upwith formulas, but garlic was the one
that stuck around a lot. Hehad this like famous garlic shampoo that was
really great for the hair and hesold it. He wholesaled it to a

(29:30):
distributor, and this was all donein Queens, a distributor in Queens who
he's still actually that gentleman since passed. He still works with his wife and
she's got her own line and doessomething different with her. But I just
remember that growing up, and wewould have these big drums in the basement
and you know, my Gi Joe'swould be scattered around them, and he

(29:52):
would be like there with the bigthing and mixing and stirring, and then
he would involve me in the process, necessarily to teach me, but because
he needed an extra set if itworks. But I remember and his desk
had all sorts of different things onit for the business, for the skincare
bit, the skincare and hair productbusiness. But I feel like that that

(30:15):
left a mark on us, youknow, as like we can have these
jobs, but we also have thislike we could also have these side hustles
and they could turn into something.And I actually recently learned that he did
actually because I was saying to himone day something more with that, and
I was like, well, youdid, you did great? You know,

(30:36):
I mean, like, you know, it's my dad, right,
Like I got to make him feelgood. Now. You know, when
I was in my teenage years,if you would have said that to me,
I would have, you know,hit him at the gut, right.
It would have been a little bitof a jerk. But you know,
now looking back, I'm like,no, you did great, like
you know, you were you supportedour family, got us, we went
on ski trips, we did wonderfulthings like and it was because of your
job, right. And then Ifound out that he did actually when I

(30:59):
was younger, when I was maybea baby or something. I don't because
I don't remember this at all,he did actually quit being a PA for
a little while, a short periodof time to do this business. But
it wasn't bringing in enough and andso you had to go back. But
I mean, you know, it'sI feel like that that like leaves a
mark on us, like it's justoh, all right, we can do

(31:21):
something here, right, Yeah,Yeah, that's that's incredible and to the
point, like, that's incredible thathe took that leap, regardless of what
happened afterwards, and it shows that, you know, if you make the
leap and something doesn't work out,the worst key scenaries just get a job,
right, So it's not all thatbad and it's not all that risky.
Yeah, but that's amazing. Yeah, there's always there's always some a

(31:42):
safety net there. As much aslike Tony Robbins talks about burned bridges,
it's like, you could burn thebridges, unless you're a dark or whatever,
but you could burn the bridges,but there's always going to be a
way to you know, swim backthe shore. Sure you are right,
and you can. You can tactfullyburn a bridge. I don't want to.
That wouldn't be burning a bridge,you know. That would be crossing
a bridge and maybe disassembling it andleaving the option to reassemble that bridge in

(32:04):
the future. And that's probably howI would prefer to end, you know,
business relationships. But but yeah,well, well when Tony's Robbins just
so for our listeners here is talkingabout burning bridge, the burning the bridges,
and he says, the bridges notburning bridges, are you know where
He's not talking about relationships. He'stalking about like, you know, get

(32:25):
rid of the safety net, youknow, like just quit the job and
start a drown business. Right.I also know that your mother was a
huge influential part of your your successand left a lot of I think lessons
for you to be learned to continuedoing as you do today. Share with

(32:52):
us a little bit about that relationship. Yeah, sure, so a little
bit of background, I guess.So my mom passed away about six months
ago, unfortunately due to pancreatic cancer. She fought a hard battle for eighteen
months and you know, ultimately passedaway. But she instilled a lot of
things in me. For that Istill think impact me and influence who I

(33:16):
am today. I remember, sogoing back, I mentioned before about turning
down a job a gig on aFriday and putting in my two weeks on
a Monday, and I was actuallyin Myrtle Beach where my parents live,
that weekend and talk to my momabout it. She encouraged me to do
it, and she encouraged me todo a lot of things and kind of

(33:43):
you know, I would get myselfto the edge of that proverbial cliff and
she would help me jump, nota bad way, in a good way,
of course, but you know,the the quitting my job to pursue
the career and in drones and youknow, some other adventures and some real
estate that I've purchased and that sortof thing, and she really, you
know, helped me get right overthat last bit of reservation. And I'm

(34:07):
incredibly grateful for that. What wasone of her techniques that she would use
to help encourage you. She wouldjust say, just do it. Just
be very curt and you know,she was a very matter of fact,
no no fluff kind of person,So, yeah, just just do it.
What's the worst that's going to happen. What was something about her that

(34:30):
made it different coming from her,obviously she's your mother, but coming from
her versus somebody else maybe that mightsay, just do it, just take
the leap. I don't know,just you know the fact that my mom
knew me probably for longer, yeah, actually for longer than anyone else.
You know, it's an inner belief, a belief in you, is what

(34:52):
helped in that. Yeah, forsure, she wouldn't trust that you you
trusted that she wouldn't tell you totake the leap if she didn't think it
was some than you were capable ofhandling. Yeah, she wouldn't steer me
wrong. So I got nothing toworry about if she tells me it's the
right thing to do. Yeah.And on a topic of your mom and
her passing, you also got marriedand she was able to witness that as

(35:16):
well. Yeah, my wife,I got my wife, and I got
married in September of twenty twenty onein Myrtle Beach and it was shortly after
my mom got diagnosed and she wasable to be there, and you know,
I'm incredibly grateful for that. Itwas a great you know, it

(35:37):
was perfect. Yeah, tell usabout that day. Yeah, we got
married on the beach at a statepark in Myrtle Beach. And you know,
I don't know if that's like whatwe had pictured as like the fairy
tale perfect wedding, but it wasperfect because my mom got to be there
and and Dina, my wife,was I mean, obviously she was there,

(35:57):
but it was perfect for her too, and we had our friends and
our family there and it was small, and it was it was great.
It was it was perfect. It'sone I want to just of course,
you know, acknowledge your mom andand uh and you being so open to
talk about it, especially so soon, So I want to acknowledge that.
And I also want to kind ofrelate it back to the conversation that we're

(36:21):
having in life, or that we'rehaving, is that in life, things
aren't perfect. And you know,while we might have this one vision for
a business, we might have thisone vision for a venture, it can
change. And there's a lot ofreasons why it can change. It could
be a business partner who's diagnosed,it could be any other thing, any

(36:43):
other variable, but that while thatvision changes, it doesn't end there,
and you can kind of change course. And like you said, you know,
it wasn't the wedding that you hadenvisioned, but it was still perfect.
And I feel like that's kind oflike the same thing in our lives,
right in the life of business.As this is a business podcast,

(37:07):
at least that's how ihearten iTunes categorizeit. I think it's a little bit
more than that. But in termsof the relation of business, is that
you know that's life, right,Is that like things aren't always the path,
and I think it's such a greatmessage and story to share in that
with our community here in that youmight have had this vision graduating high school

(37:32):
in college of like, I'm goingto be this big corporate lawyer and I'm
going to make all this money.It's going to be wonderful, or this
vision of quitting your job and startingthis amazing business that's going to just set
the world on fire and create newthings. But it changed. Something happened,
and it changed, and that's allright, because you're going to be

(37:53):
able to find a new path anda new different right. And I think
that that's really cool. I thinkit's also important to stay here for a
moment if you're comfortable with that,sure, because you also wrote about grief
and overcoming grief, and I thinkthat we can experience grief and sadness in

(38:15):
so many different areas in our lives, and of course losing a loved one
like your mom who was such aninspiration and a mentor to you, and
somebody who really helped you make thedecisions that got you to where you are
today. And you know, obviouslywe could talk about that there, but
there's also grief in leaving a job. You know, you could be at

(38:35):
a job for a really long timeand you know, just realize it's not
right for you and have to leaveor get fired or whatever the case is.
So there's all sorts of different typesof grieving. Maybe the loss of
a business of like we talked aboutearlier failure and business and that happens,
right, So there's grief. AndI thought you brought up some really really
great ways of dealing with grief,and I want to say dealing, not

(39:01):
overcoming, because it's also important tostay there sometimes. And you kind of
talked about that. So if you'dlike, I can repeat them back to
you and we can talk about them, because I know you might not remember
them off top. But I thoughtit was so nice how you laid this
out, and you said, youknow, I'm going to actually just read
exactly what you said and we'll kindof just talk a little bit about it,
because I think you said it sowell. And you said, I'm

(39:22):
still learning how to deal with thesadness and frustration and grief, but it's
really taught me the importance of healthand family and what really matters in life.
Sometimes you have to practice self care. Sometimes you just have to grate
your teeth and move forward. Sometimesyou have to get up and show up

(39:44):
even when you don't think you can, and sometimes you can't, and sometimes
that gets me. But you haveto do your best every day, and
even on days when you're not onehundred percent, you can try to give
something. I was like, Imean, I just got choked up reading

(40:05):
it, man. I mean,I know that that relates a lot to
your mom, but like we're talkingabout in a business sense, like that's
that's dealing with grief, right,I would I would like to go into
practicing self care. What does selfcare look like for you? Self care
for me is, you know,trying to take care of myself, you

(40:28):
know, physically care for myself,care for myself right, take taking care
of myself physically, going to thegym, trying to eat right, trying
to get enough rest. But Ithink it's also like being kind to yourself
and being kind to you know,the way that you talk to yourself,
and being maybe empathetic to yourself,I don't know, empathetic to your own

(40:49):
situation, and not be so hardon yourself. So I think, you
know, being easy on yourself isa really good form of self care.
Yeah. I like that. Yousaid that, like be easy and yourself
empathetic with yourself. So we talka lot about like give yourself grace,
especially in the personal development spaces.Give yourself grace. I think that's a
really great way to put it.It's like, be easy on yourself.

(41:10):
Yeah, And sometimes it's not easyto be easy on yourself, you know,
but we should be treating ourselves theway that we treat other people.
So and I think a lot oftimes we don't do that. We're nicer
to other people than we are toourselves, and it's important that we take
a few moments and sometimes think aboutthat, think about our self talk,
and that's incredibly important to the waythat we can move on through our day.

(41:34):
What does self talk sound like toyou? Oh, I mean,
I'm like anyone else. So somedays it's like, oh, man,
I can't do this, this ishard, And other days it's like,
no, you can do this.You've made it through every day so far.
Just keep going. In a fewhours, this day is going to
be over and you're going to moveon to tomorrow and it might be better
or you know, so it's acombination of each. But sometimes you got

(41:55):
to pull yourself back and says,just keep going, let's do this.
You know it done. Do yousay it out loud or do you say
it to yourself? I surely sayto myself in my head, but never
out loud. I'm sure I havesometimes I don't know. I think I
do it in my head. Ithink I literally speak. I know,
I don't think. I know thatI actually address myself and a third person.

(42:15):
And I'm like Michael, like youknow that that's what I'm mad at
myself. I'm like Michael, I'llyell at myself. It's probably my dad
because that's the way he used tosay my name when he was not happy
with me. But I think there'salso some importance to saying it out loud,
of just getting it out right,just getting it out. But then

(42:37):
also, like you said, I'mreeling it back in and be easy on
yourself and let yourself know that it'sall good. So I love that you
talk about self talk. And thenthe other things that you mentioned were going
to the gym and eating right andthings like that. What does that look
like for you? Is there isthere a schedule in that or how do
you how do you manage that,Like when we think about our community that's

(42:58):
listening here, how do you managedoing all of those different things in terms
of self care and also operate abusiness. It's a balancing act. A
lot of times people start businesses andneglect their health and a lot of times,
you know, that's an easy trapto fall into, and I think
that's something that I definitely fell intowhen I started my business, and focusing

(43:21):
more on the business sometimes than focusingon cooking yourself good food or getting out
and going for a walk or evengoing to the gym. I'm not embarrassed
to say I hired a fitness coachprobably six or seven months ago now,
just to give me something to motivateme. And it was the best thing
I've ever done, you know,encourage me to track my calories, exercise,

(43:43):
you know, little goals and littlemanageable steps, and I feel like
it really, you know, helpedme keep myself on track. And then
you can perform better in business whenyou feel better and you're in better health,
so it's good all around. Ilove that kind of like come full
circle. And you said you hireda fitness coach to kind of help you

(44:04):
stay on track and more than justlaying out a plan, but also kind
of have that accountability, right.I think the accountability is like the best
part, because you know, wewould do like weekly email check ins and
and I would find myself thinking likeI'm gonna eat this for dinner, and
I was like, no, Igot to check in. I don't want
to explain that I eat this fordinner. And you know, that's it
was. It was good. Itwas really good from an accountability standpoint.

(44:27):
But it was also good because hefocused on making things manageable and like,
you know, building a diet that'sgood for the long term, so not
not eating cake and not not eatingice cream, and not not having a
hamburger every once in a while,but just doing everything in moderation and you
know, keeping track and making upfor it. So so far, I
think you named three of my favoritecheap foods are like a hamburger, cake,

(44:49):
and ice cream. There's a reasonwhy I said those. There's a
reason I love cake with ice cream. I actually with my you know,
I was telling you earlier about myinterne minute fasting, and so I currently
do interminute fasting on a regular basis, and right now I'm in a twenty
four hour fast, and so youmight hear my belly grumbling here on the
other side of the audio and ofthe table. But that is my reward

(45:12):
is a giant on Sundays, whichis not you know, which is done
intentionally. On Sundays, I makemyself this giant ice cream Sunday where it's
like everybody in the house look atit and go like, seriously, Michael,
seriously. It contradicts everything I'm learningabout fasting, contradicts everything I'm learning
about, you know, sugar intakeand becoming insolent, insulin resistant and all

(45:37):
that other stuff. Contradicts all ofit. But it's literally I put like
little chunks of whatever cake I couldfind around the house, or cookies,
and just different flavors of ice creamand peanut butter and chocolate and chocolate chips
and any junk that I haven't hadis going in there. I love it.
What's your go to ice cream flavor? It's short of a hair are

(46:00):
going in there my go to icecream flavor? Would you know? I'm
I'm in a bit of a battleright now, A quandary here and it's
and it's because of all the garbageI'm throwing into this thing. So it
would be chocolate, So I wouldI would get chocolate ice cream. That
would be like if I was justgetting a simple ice cream, it would
be like a chocolate ice cream softserve in a cone with chocolate sprinkles.

(46:22):
Right. But because I have turnedinto this monster on Sunday evenings of like,
I haven't had any chogg and I'mgonna make my head explode. I
actually like vanilla because it mixes wellwith all the other chocolate that I add.
Okay, all right, how aboutyou? What's your ice cream of
choice? Oh I'm I'm like abutter pecan kind of guy. Like that's

(46:45):
like a real old man ice creamflavor. I feel, but uh well,
I like that you kind of likecame out of the like the different
part of the freezer asle of likechocolate, chocolate, chocolate, vanilla,
vanilla, vanilla to butter pecan,going back to Stewart's Man great ice cream
selection, butter pecan, peanut butterpandemonium, whatever you need, peanut butter,

(47:07):
yeat peanut butter and ice cream.And I'm sorry everyone, We're just
gonna stay here for a minute.But peanut butter and ice cream is this
new found thing for me that I'mlike, why wasn't I doing this before?
This is amazing. It's a gamechanger. That's salty and sweet,
kind of savory and sweet combination.It's it's a problem. It's a problem.

(47:28):
And because I'm an extremist, I'mlike, well, why not add
something else to this? So Ihave put jelly in there. Okay,
yes, I'll have to try that. I've never even thought of that.
I told you this concoction is justterrorists. Wow. So I've I've actually
added jelly to the whole. Andit's not like a lot of jelly.
And it's because it's like this,it's actually in one of the jars.
This this bone bun, Mama.They make this like wild berry jam.

(47:52):
And again it's because I'm not eatingthis stuff during the week. So I'm
like, all right, so I'mgonna put a scoop of that in.
And so because it's delicious, Iput a scoop that in. And what
I've learned, and this is whythe vanilla ice cream is coming to play
here, is that like I haveto kind of like section these things off,
because if I just mix them allin, like the chocolate becomes overwhelming
and you don't taste it. Soit's like I've sectioned them off in these

(48:13):
like little groupings on my little icecream bowl of like the vanilla with the
peanut butter and the and the jam, and then the chocolate with more peanut
butter and some chunk of chips.And then because my daughters have to get
the Napoleon Napoleon I think it is, which is the vanilla, chocolate and
strawberry, uh, so that wecan kind of get the mix for them
when they get it. Now,I have the strawberry in there, and

(48:35):
that's nice with just the jam,and you put it INOD. You know,
we're gonna get back to business.I've got things to work on this
weekend. Clearly, I've got somehomework, man. So so, uh,
I don't know how we got here, but I think you said something
about ice cream and I'm hungry rightnow. So it's all right, it's
all right, it's good. Wewent off the rails. But that's okay.
We got a little bit off therails here, all right. So

(48:58):
we're gonna We're gonna bring us backinto our work life balance. And I'm
going to go into harmony in lifebecause i feel like it's a good segue
from what we just talked about inthat you know, you're talking about fitness
coaching, you're talking about eating healthy, and I'm talking about eating bowls of
you know, ice cream Sundays.But there's this balance that has to happen,
and you mentioned that earlier, andI think that when we go back

(49:21):
to having a drone business, havingany type of business, and then also
this life. You also mentioned thatyou invest in real estate, it's kind
of like having it all harmonized together. And I'm interested in part of how
you create that harmony and all ofit of balancing. You know, you
have pets, the wife, youknow, shout out to Dina, of

(49:43):
course, pets the wife, thereal estate business, the drone business,
trying to stay healthy, dealing withof course everything that's happening in your family.
Where do you find this harmony andwhat are some of the other things
that you do in order to findthat or create that. So it's always
a challenge. I think it's achallenge for anyone with it. With a
bunch of different things that they're doingin life. But I think it gets

(50:04):
a little bit harder when you're runningyour own business. And I mean I
work out of a home office,so sometimes it's really hard for me to
really delineate the different things and withoutthem all merging together but at the same
time kind of merging together. SoI try to set a concrete schedule of
when I work on certain things.I've been recently practicing time blocking, so

(50:27):
trying to do that, and sometimesit works, and I mean sometimes it
doesn't. So it's always a consciousthing that you always have to consciously be
focusing on something and trying to stayin that lane and hopefully not worry about
it too much when you're not inthat lane. You know, family time
is family time. You know,drone time is drone time. Real estate

(50:47):
time is real estate time. Andtry your best. I like that you
said try your best. I alsolove that you brought up time blocking because
it's something I talk about a lotand I'm interested in how you time block.
I write it out on paper thenight before and pen and paper,
pen and paper, pen and paper, because I find it next to your

(51:08):
butter peek can yes, yes,I do it at my desk the night
before before I'm wrapping up, youknow, when I'm wrapping up the prior
day, and I, you know, just draw out little time blocks on
loose leaf paper and do my bestto time block my day because I find
if I me as a person,if I'm doing it electronically, I find

(51:30):
my style self, you know,starting to do something else, if I'm
holding my phone and going back tochecking my phone to check my calendar,
and then I find myself getting lostin something else very easily. So I
put it on paper and I tryto stick to it. And as ideas
pop in my head throughout the daythat I might have to focus on tomorrow,
I jot them down, get themout of my brain, and then

(51:51):
hopefully when I time block for thenext day, I can put some of
those new tasks in for the nextday if appropriate. Where'd you learn the
idea of jotting those notes down whenthey're popping in your head? Oh,
I think it's just pure a Nate. I needed to. I needed to
because if I don't, I loseit. You know, you get all

(52:13):
these great ideas that pop in yourhead, and you know, the brain's
a great place for coming up withideas, but it's not a great place
for tracking ideas and keeping keeping keepingtrack of them long term. So yeah,
that was just pure necessity. Iguess, well, I asked,
because you know, you must havelearned it somewhere. Somebody had that habit
and you mimicked it, mirrored it, maybe didn't realize it, but you

(52:37):
learned it somewhere, because I knowfor me, it was something I had
to learn. It was a itwas a habit or a behavior that actually
was taught to me that I hadto learn to start doing. And that
I always give a shout out toMatt Alfonso for that. That was in
his Mindful Living coaching program that hehad and that I that I went through,
and I was explaining to him,I said, Matt, it's hard

(52:58):
for me to focus because I haveall these great ideas that pop in my
head, and so I go downthe rabbit hole with those, you know,
and you know, long story short, that's how what I would explain
is essentially, he said, well, why don't you just get like a
post it and just write them downand then that's it, and then they're
there, and then you know,if they're important, you'll go back to
them if they're not, and youdownloaded them. And ever since I did
that, it was like a hugegame changer for me. It was just

(53:22):
huge. And what you realize isyou throw out a lot of those post
its and you keep some, andthe ones that you keep, you actually
are good ideas and you can expandon them. The other thing I like
that you do is you do itthrough paper and not electronic. And I'd
love for you to kind of sharea little bit more about that strategy.
I know you just said, becauseyou get distracted if you are on the

(53:43):
computer, and that happens to somany of us, right like, and
there's so many great apps, likeso many like I have a diary app,
I have a vision board app.I have all these great apps,
and then you go to turn themon and next thing you know, you
notice a notification, you know,and then you're an hour in You're like,
wait, why was I on myphone again? Yeah? I've been
trying to focus on like finding thetime finding that those time sucks and those

(54:07):
time wastes of things that are justyou know, taking time out of my
day and getting lost in my phoneor the computer is one of those things.
So if I can just keep myselfaway from it, you know,
and doing my my task, cheatmy time blocking on paper. That's what

(54:30):
works for me. There's also somethingsatisfying, at least for me, about
like that that tactile and is thatthat that feeling of writing something down and
actually solidifying it as opposed to actuallytyping it. You know, it's it's
kind of like reading a book versusreading something on your iPad. There's something
a little bit I guess satisfying aboutit for me. And yeah, I

(54:51):
mean it works for me. Yeah, I like using all of them.
So I also write obviously, Ihave a pen in my hand here and
I like to write as well.And it's weird because I didn't think that
that would be something for me,right, Like, I thought like i'd
be typing everything. I thought i'dbe on it because I'm like all about
the tech and all that, Andthen I realized that, yeah, writing

(55:12):
it in a journal, writing itin a book is just so different.
It's just such a different experience.And then when you look back, actually
it's actually easier to look back atlike you would think that because like you
know, I use Google Docs andall of that's there that it'd be easy
to just go back and look atit, but you don't really thumb through
your Google docs, like you scrolland you're like, oh, yeah,
I remember that, dad, andthat's it. But like when you open

(55:34):
up your journal and you're like oh, and then you start reading it,
you're like, whoa, I wrotethat. It is a different feeling,
right, Yeah, it's it's prettyimpressive. I think another thing that you
brought up in terms of this movingmoving on with grief and dealing with it
is is gritting your teeth and movingforward. And you know that could be

(55:59):
hard to just like, you know, kind of like bite down and just
go. I'm interested in that strategyand how that could apply in our lives
even outside of grief. Yeah,there's times in life, and it happens
to everyone every day. There's timesin life where we've committed to things,
or we've made commitments to our clients, or we've made commitments to our friends

(56:21):
or our family or ourselves, andyou know, we make that commitment with
the best intentions of wanting to doit, and then the morning comes or
the evening comes when that engagement comesup, and all of a sudden,
we're like, I don't want todo that, you know, I don't
want to get up and go tothe gym. I do not want to
go out to dinner tonight. Andsometimes you just have to do it.

(56:42):
And once you start doing it andyou start that inertia and you start moving,
you're okay, it's not that bad. You start doing it for five
minutes or you start doing anything forfive minutes, and it's you know,
yeah, it's creating momentum. Yes, yeah, And I think that that
momentum is so important, and there'sgood and bad momentum, and I think
that that is something that you know, we're kind of also talking about here,

(57:06):
is that you know, there's thatbad momentum of I could sit in
this place wherever I am, whateverwhatever's happening, and create bad habits around
it of maybe watching too much Netflixor scrolling too much, or doing whatever
is unhealthy for me, or notmoving me forward. Those become habits and
those create momentum to just keep scrollingright, like, just to keep it

(57:30):
simple here. So there is momentumin both phases. And what you're talking
about is creating positive momentum towards yourgoals, towards the things that get you
to the next phase. And Ithink you know, and I like that
you brought up just going out todinner because that could be hard sometimes,
especially when I'm going through grief,that could be hard. That could be

(57:51):
hard. If you just got fired, that could be hard. If your
job is failing or your company isfailing, it could be hard to go
to I don't have to look peoplein the eye and have a normal conversation
with them. But by gritting yourteeth and we're not saying like to make
believe it's that, you know,it's all daisies. We understand that there's

(58:13):
some times that you got to beauthentic about everything that's happening. But also
sometimes where you it doesn't not anybodyelse's business either. But by doing that,
you're creating positive momentum. You don'tknow who you're going to go to
dinner with, or who you're goingto run into, or who might run
into you, and that could bea new opportunity or a new person in
your life that can inspire you oror bring you great joy, right right,

(58:37):
so you know, create some positivemomentum. I think is a really
great lesson in that moving forward,And I like that you really talk about
that, and then the other onethat you talk about is to show up
even when you don't think you can. What's that look like when you like
don't think you can. Yeah,least at least for me, it's for

(58:57):
you know, the days where youwake up and you know, like you
just don't feel like doing something thatday. You don't feel like getting up,
you don't have the energy to getup. You know, you just
don't have that drive, and sometimesyou don't have a choice. You just
got to get up and do it. And once you start moving, going
back to that momentum thing, youknow, you start going in the right

(59:20):
direction and eventually you forget that youdidn't feel like you could do it in
the first thing in the morning,and you just keep pushing through it.
What are some of the thoughts thatgo through your mind when you're feeling that
way of I can't get up,or I can't do this, or you
know, any of those limiting beliefs. What are some of the ones that
you would kind of be able tosay, you know what, that's a

(59:42):
limiting belief. I have too muchto do today. I have a lot
going on, Like, yeah,you have a lot going on. Everyone
is a lot going on. Butif you don't start working on that stuff,
that list of things is going toget bigger, and those deadlines are
going to get closer. And evenif you get and start working towards one
of those goals, you're going toput yourself in a better situation for tomorrow.

(01:00:06):
I like that because that's the overwhelm, right, and so many of
us feel overwhelmed, and that overwhelmis literally overwhelming to the point where it
could keep you in bed, keepyou on the couch wherever you are,
keep you stationary. And that overwhelmwhat I've learned through my coach is to

(01:00:30):
break it down into smaller, bitesized chunks into all right, so I'm
overwhelmed, I'm feeling this like whatever, anxiety, stress, pressure, What
are the things? And I lovethat we talked about writing right, because
write them down right, make alist, what are the things? Next?

(01:00:52):
Thing? You know, as soonas you start writing that list down
you mentioned it before of like thatfeeling, there's nothing better than this feeling.
But once you write down, there'snothing better than a feeling of looking
at this overwhelmed list and being likethat's it. A lot of times you
realize that what you're worrying about andwhat you feel like you're overwhelmed about really
isn't that big of a deal,right, And you could have it done

(01:01:13):
in half an hour, forty fiveminutes an hour. That hour was going
to pass anyway, right, Soyou know, use that hour wisely and
do the best you can. Yeah, And you know, Merritt and so
marriage is my coach. Yeah,and so Merrit, you know, I'll
go into a session with her everyonce in a while and I'll be like,
Merit, I'm overwhelmed, I'm stressed, I got, I got one

(01:01:36):
hundred things about and she goes,Okay, well, why don't we talk
about the things that are going on? Like why don't you tell me?
And I'll go, well, Igot and then like I'll literally list like
three things, like just three,and she's like and anything else, and
I'm like, no, No,that's that's really it. I'm like,
I you know, it was threethings and they were overwhelming me. And

(01:01:58):
the other part to that is thatin one of those three things, because
one of them is always there forme, nobody's got a deadline for it,
nobody has an expectation of me.To do it. It's me.
I'm putting this deadline, this pressure, this idea on myself, And I
wonder does that happen for you?Yeah? All the time, I do

(01:02:19):
the same thing. You know,you set these deadlines in your head and
you hold yourself to these expectations andwe all do it. And it's healthy
to some degree until it gets tothe point where it's not. But yeah,
absolutely absolutely, and it can beoverwhelming. So what do you do
with the ones that are deadlines thatyou've created or expectation that you created for
yourself? What do you do withthose ones? I try to break them

(01:02:39):
down. I try to think asreasonably as I can about it, and
think about this deadline and think about, Okay, like I've made this deadline
in my head. It's not real. You know. I can change it.
I can adjust it. I cando what I have to do.
I love that you just said it'snot real. It's true, right,

(01:03:00):
It's like, it's not real.It's true. Well it is. It's
both. It's both it's not realand that it's not tangible. And that
happens a lot with what we thinkand what we feel. It's not real
in that we can't hold it.But it's real, and that it's in
our heads and it's in our mindsand we feel it, and that makes
it real. So we shouldn't discountit, but we should acknowledge it for

(01:03:20):
what it is, right and useit and try to manipulate it to our
advantage. So that's all we cando to have it serve us to some
extent. I love that I alwaystalk about my book here, and I'm
like, I'm going to write abook. I'm writing And it's not like
I'm going to write a book.It's not a pipe dream, right,
it's not a It's going to happen. I haven't made it a priority,

(01:03:43):
that's truth. But to your pointof like it's not real, it's like
I don't have a publisher breathing downmy next saying you got to write the
book. It's me. I'm theone saying it, and I'm like,
I'm going to do it. I'mgoing to do it, and I just
haven't made it. To be honest, I just haven't made it a priority
yet. But it's going to happen. I believe it must happen. I
believe I must make it happens.As we kind of just go back to

(01:04:06):
the drone business you were just talkingabout, or you've mentioned it in your
bio here, is that the dronebusiness has changed tremendously and it's it's still
in its infancy, but you're youtalk about it as being a really great
tool for companies to save money on. And I'm just interested on that what
you see for the future of thedrone business or of drones. Is there

(01:04:29):
something new technologies coming out? Iknow that you also sell drones on your
is it on your website that yousell them? Yeah, and you know
directly through So is there anything coolthat that you can kind of drop on
us right now that we don't knowyet about drones, Like, is there
some like really cool feature coming out? Yeah? So there's this this concept
called remote ID. It's not aconcept anymore. It was a concept.

(01:04:53):
Drones are a buzzword a lot oftimes that kind of freak people out and
and people associate drones with surveillance andwith like invasions of privacy. And one
thing that has you know, ultimatelybeen like an answer to that is this
thing called remote ID. So newdrones that have been built and released in

(01:05:15):
like the last last year or so, and some older models and some can
be retrofitted. Have in September,are going to have to abide by this
thing called remote ID where a personcan ultimately see where the drone operator is
and where the drone is flying froman app or some other electronic interface.

(01:05:39):
And there's some there's a lot ofgood that comes of this in the industry.
There's also a lot of potential backlashand a lot of people in the
drone industry aren't necessarily super happy aboutmore regulation. But that's an interesting thing
that we're going to have to navigatesoon. So I don't know if that's
that's it is new technology that's goingto be be happening, and it's going

(01:05:59):
to be something big for peace thatfly drones. Other than that, automation
AI not having an actual person pilotinga drone, having programs piloting a drone
and having drones give input to theprogram that is operating them. AI and

(01:06:19):
automated flight I think is going tobe the way of the future. Hmm,
So what can how can AI beused? I guess an automated flight,
Like what is that? So whenyou think about I guess it wouldn't
be in the small operations like doinga real estate shoot, right, it
would be more on these bigger,larger scale type of things. Right.

(01:06:39):
So I guess there's like there's there'skind of two ways you can stratify the
drone industry. There's really the creativeside of things, and then there's more
like the industrial data acquisition side ofthings. So you really can't I mean
doing creative taking beautiful photos of alandscape, taking photos of a real estate
listing, doing drone videos for reduction, right, those are very creative,

(01:07:02):
and those are things that I don'tnecessarily see being replaced by automation at least
anytime soon. But there are otherthings like inspections of wind turbines or solar
panel farms or roofs or other thingsrelated to that power lines in which automated

(01:07:26):
flight software and AI is contributing tothe way that drones are operating, in
the way that drones fly because it'svery concrete when needs to be done,
it's not so creative, and it'sinteresting to see that progression. Yeah,
and you know, I just wantto go to the wind turbines because I
think those are pretty cool. Soyou've had some really great experiences and opportunities

(01:07:49):
to be able to fly or droneon some of these awesome farms, these
wind turbine and solars. While we'rekind of like concluding here to any cool
stories on some of your field expeditions, Yeah, I mean a lot of
them are are really cool. Justjust being able to go into go out

(01:08:09):
into the field and fly drone andget paid for it. It's like a
really cool thing, right, andit's things that a lot of people you
know would love, so so it'simportant to keep that in perspective. It's
it's really cool. It's really cool, right. You know, a lot
of times wind turbine farms are locatedon the side of mountains or very picturesque

(01:08:30):
areas, but picturesque areas because they'revery windy. So a lot of times,
you know, you get to travelto places that are really picturesque and
work there while enjoying the view andseeing the country. So that's incredible and
meeting meeting great people in the process. So the traveling is a great part

(01:08:51):
of it. Yeah, it iscool when you get brought on site on
some kind of cool project and youget to experience something that you never got
to that you wouldn't normally or it'snot open to the public get to experience,
which is really really cool. Youalso take amazing footage of some really
great aerials and beautiful shots of theHudson Valley region and I'm sure other parts,

(01:09:15):
but the ones I'm more familiar withare the Hudson Valley region. What's
your what's your favorite time of dayor shoot that you've you've done in terms
of that the creative side of things. Thanks. I like Golden hour in
the morning, sunrise, dawn,you know, and sunset, And that's
cool because that time, the actualtime changes throughout the day, and where

(01:09:35):
the sun is located change throughout changesthroughout the day, so you can take
a photograph the exact same photograph atdifferent times of day or you know,
at dusk one in the winter andone in the summer, and the sun's
in a completely different location and youcan get like a completely different shot shot.
Yeah, so it yeah, it'syeah, you've you've done some really

(01:09:58):
cool stuff with that. I mean, I've actually even had the opportunity to
use some of your footage of Ithink it was the Hudson Bridge, the
mid Hudson Bridge in one of myI think it was a YouTube video that
we used it that's like two yearsago. It's incredible. But yeah,
you just just great footage, reallygreat pictures that you put out on your
Instagram, which is at h VDrones. Yep, just simple like that,
just at h V Drones on Instagram. And I'm sure on other social

(01:10:21):
media platforms too, right, yep, on Facebook, Instagram, those two
mostly, Yeah, and that'll ofcourse be in the show notes. We're
not done yet though with Keith.My last question for you is has to
do with your inspirational quote that youlive by. And it doesn't say who

(01:10:42):
it's from, but I have afeeling I know who it is, and
it says, hang in there andbelieve in yourself. Yeah, there was
a when I was younger. Iwas probably probably about twenty, and I
was going through a pretty hard timein my life for multiple reasons, and
and my mom sent me a cardand that's all the card said. You
know, it's like Keith, hangingthere and believe in yourself, Love Mom.

(01:11:06):
And I still that card, andI still be sitting on my desk,
and you know, sometimes I'll likerearrange my office and like put it
somewhere and not find it. Andit always seems that I find it when
I need to find it. SoI find myself going back to that quite
often. And you know, it'sbeen sitting there for the better part of

(01:11:28):
fourteen fifteen years now, but stillhelps me out and helps me through the
tough times. You got to framethat one, man. I know,
I know that's a good idea.I can't lose it then, that's right.
But I do love that you saidyou find it when you need it
most. It's funny how that happens, and there's no rhyme or reason to
it. It just just seems tohappen. Yeah, I love that,

(01:11:48):
and it's like so funny, youknow, reading your bio learning about you
and I'm not seeing a name attachedto that. I was like, yep,
that's mom. That's Mom, Soshout out to her. I want
to thank you so much for comingon today, and of course this would
all be in the show notes.But how can people reach you? How
can people find you? Yeah?Thanks for having me, Mike. You

(01:12:10):
can check out our website HV dronesNY dot com, h V d r
O n E s n Y dotcom, Instagram, or Facebook, or
you can give us ring eight fourfive four five zero zero zero zero two
cool. Awesome. Well, thanksso much for coming on today. It's
been awesome having you on. Wemet years ago being part of the Chamber

(01:12:31):
we well first we met, youknow, we weren't part of the Chamber
of whatever. We know, everybodykind of just heard that history. But
we got to know each other alot better by when we were part of
the Chamber of the the Hudson ValleyYoung Professionals. And I would just want
to impress on our audience on howthe importance of those networking functions are,
because like, look at this relationshipthat we formed back in I think twenty

(01:12:55):
eighteen, seven, seventeen eighteen,and we kept in contact, we kept
in touch, and we just keptsupporting each other. And you've always been
a great supporter of the work thatI do. You've always been somebody that
I know I can call on andask for help at our assistance or referrals
or whatever it is, and havealways been there for me. And so
I want to impress that on ouraudience, is that like those relationships that

(01:13:17):
you form right now, you justdon't know where they can go. And
so I'm just really appreciative of therelationship that we've formed. So thanks for
coming on today. Likewise, Ifeel the same way, and thank you
for having me. Thank you forlistening to The Michael Esposito Show. For
show notes, video clips, andmore episodes, go to Michael Esposito Inc.
Dot com backslash podcast. Thank youagain to our sponsor dn ten Insurance

(01:13:41):
Services, helping businesses get the rightinsurance for all their insurance needs. Visit
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global scale. This episode was producedby Uncle Mike at the iHeart Studios in

(01:14:01):
Poughkeepsie. Special thanks to Lara Rodrianfor the opportunity and my team at Mike
Lesposito Ink.