[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, guys, welcome back to the drone on show. I'm Mike.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: I'm Kevin.
[00:00:03] Speaker A: And we're also joined by my wife Karen. On this episode, we're going to get into being married and starting a drone business and how dedicated you have to be and just working things out. Kind of gets maybe down in the weeds about Maris counseling. But we definitely get into drones.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: Yeah. And we talk about drones. We talk about the T100, the new release announcements, our hands on experience with it.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Some of the efficiencies of what this T100 is going to do.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: And we also talk about our experience. Spring in Kentucky, airplane pilots, crop dusters.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: Yeah, crop dusters. We talk about like if you are an already established aerial application business about adopting this technology into your business, I'm telling you, it's worth it. Let's get into it.
I feel like so much has happened between the last time you and I were talking on the podcast because we literally just came back from China.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Came back from China.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: How long ago was that?
[00:00:57] Speaker B: I feel like it was four weeks, dude.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: I feel like it was longer that it was.
[00:01:01] Speaker C: May.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: May.
[00:01:02] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: That's when we kept. Maybe got back.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. We got back from our trip, it'd.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Almost be eight weeks because now it's the last of July.
[00:01:10] Speaker C: Yeah, it's almost eight.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: That's crazy. It's just we're so busy all the time running that we don't realize how.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: Fast time goes in the last two weeks. It's like a. Like a blink of an eye.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Anyhow, what do you got to talk about, Kevin?
Today is July 16th.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: July 16th. What was the.
[00:01:26] Speaker C: Happy birthday, Mike.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Today's a big week. Couple things.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Right.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: It's your birthday week. Y Also, the T100 was officially announced.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Announced.
Let's just quickly address.
DJI's email to us is basically telling us they're having a hard time getting things here. So don't. They don't give us a definite.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Yeah. And whenever DJI gives the date, you always figure on between one to six months after the date that they give you is how that typically works.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: That's so true.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: But the cool thing about the T100 is that's been released in other countries and you know, in the next couple weeks, it's been released in China. In the next couple weeks, the 1st of August, it's hitting in other countries. South America, Southeast Asia first.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: And South America.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. And our guests, my wife, Karen Yoder.
[00:02:16] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Thanks for being here.
[00:02:17] Speaker C: You're welcome.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: It was first Time.
[00:02:18] Speaker C: First time.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: First time on a podcast ever.
[00:02:20] Speaker C: Time on a podcast ever.
[00:02:21] Speaker D: It's kind of weird that we would refer to you as a guest. Like.
[00:02:25] Speaker C: Yeah, well, no, it's okay.
[00:02:29] Speaker D: Guest on the show, I'm sure. But just like she's been such a, you know, integral part of the business development.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:02:36] Speaker D: Growing that. It's like.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:37] Speaker D: Not. Yeah.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: We don't talk about it a lot about everybody's roles and positions in the company, but Karen has been. Has helping me from day one, literally. When I started Drone Deer Recovery, it was me and Karen. I would have everything in Google Notes. So I would go do anywhere from five to seven calls, even more than that in a night. And a night would start between 5pm and go till the next day at 12. And I would have all these notes in Google Notes and then she would go through there and keep track of who paid, who didn't pay, who needs to be sent a bill or an invoice and receive the checks. It was all done through Google Notes and Karen was taking care of it. She. You've done so much for Drone Day Recovery. And then before that, guys, she also helped me with the anywhere tree care business that I had. She.
You would have went to school for accounting but then dropped out at Kent State, right?
[00:03:32] Speaker C: Yeah. So I left high school and already did basically pre credits for accounting courses. And then I got a foundation scholarship to go to Kent State and had to do six months. So I did finish that, but I got offered a job that basically gave me what I would want after I graduated from college without a degree, basically. So.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Yeah. So you started working right out of college. You were doing taxes for.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: Yeah, I did taxes for a firm for three seasons. So that was a seasonal position.
Was hired in, would work from January to like the end of May into June. And then I got offered a job at a bowstring company to go into finance. So it started like kind of lower and then basically I ran all of the bookkeeping, hr, finance, all of that company.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: I bring this up because I definitely feel like everybody has a part in our team. Kevin, Jason, myself, Karen.
It took all of us, it took. It takes a team to make something grow and for sure grow this fast. And so I just really appreciate everything that you've done for us, the company.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: It's been cool from the outside to see like you have a certain amount of crazy work ethic and crazy energy and I think it takes a special kind of person to kind of roll with that. And I've seen how you And Karen work together, and it's like you're like. What you were saying with the last year season is a great example of you're just grinding all night and you don't have time for, like, the billing and the details. It's just like you have another guy waiting. And so Karen comes in clutch with kind of picking up the loose ends and stuff and making sure it all.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it all works. You bring that up. It's not just on the accounting side of it, but having a partner that supports you in a business that is.
It's not a set schedule. Like, yeah, you know, we're getting better now that the company is growing. We're trying to have set schedules, but when it started with drone day recovery, she wouldn't know when I'm going to leave. And she also didn't know when I was coming home. I tried doing my best as. As I could, you know, sending her text. But just having a partner that supports you in whatever business that people choose to do, I think is the. It has to be the most important thing to keep a relationship together. Because I was watching other successful entrepreneurs and their wives work in their company as well, and just to see their relationship, I was like, doggone. Like I feel to me and her, I think she can speak for herself, but it's probably the most important thing is to just be supportive. I know it can be hard. It can be so hard. There's been countless times that she would be crying because I had to leave or this is hard. And how long is it going to go on?
But we hope that we can get it established to where we don't have to work those long hours.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Yeah. In the beginning, it's like a business.
Like, I don't know that we would have survived or at least, you know, made it to this level without some of those sacrifices.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Well, you wouldn't have.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: You wouldn't have.
[00:06:43] Speaker C: No, I don't think so.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: If. If people wouldn't be supportive, how would you keep moving the company forward?
[00:06:49] Speaker C: Yeah, because there's no drive. They're like. I mean, you turn around and the person that's supposed to support you is against you.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: Like. Yeah, I would say, Karen, if you have some.
If. If you were talking to.
Let's say there's a spouse listening, like, what are some of the things that you would want to encourage them with to, you know, go through a time like this where their husband is approaching them with. He wants to start this new business where it's, you know, might be Thermal drones, it might be spray drones, it might be a pressure washering business, whatever it might be, to maybe help them understand some of the things that they might go through and to be, to be their supporter. I, I just, I keep bringing that up is. That's the most important thing I would say.
[00:07:35] Speaker C: Well, one thing that really helped us is we did a lot of business before and we did that without having kids. And so it kind of, it kind of molded us to be resilient in, in the business world, in, in that aspect. But like, for somebody coming into, leaving your job basically and going into a business, like, just, you have to believe 100 in what you're doing. Because if there's, if there's doubt, I feel like it just like, can just, I don't know, cloud your judgment, cloud what you look at your partner, like all the things. But my biggest piece of advice is it's the long haul. It's not the, like, short, like in the moment, it's hard. Yes. But also having a support system, like, I have family and friends that I bounce off of and just being able to have people that have walked this journey before and, and shared that. And so like them speaking into our lives and having that, you know, it's, it's gonna change. It's gonna, it's gonna be better.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: I'm gonna talk into that. It's.
I think what you're referring to is being around like minded individuals. So when, when you hang around with your friends and they're asking you say, let's just say Karen is with her friends and she's like, man, Mike's gone a lot. Like, how's that affect you? Like, do you like that? You know, those types of negative things can start breaking down. A person rather choose to be around people that are like, man, it's amazing that you can support Mike in these, these things when he's gone a lot. I can imagine that it's hard. But, you know, if there's anything we could do to help you make things easier, maybe come over and help with children, whatever it might be, those are the people that you're going to want to hang around with.
[00:09:26] Speaker C: It definitely makes a difference because, like, just in our journey, like our friend group, I would say has changed.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Down goes Rachel.
[00:09:38] Speaker C: Took it all with him.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: Definitely. You'll make the blooper real.
Oh, it's wrapped around there.
[00:09:46] Speaker D: Nice. We got to keep that in the.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: Show just because this is the way.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: It goes in my nose when we were doing.
[00:09:52] Speaker C: Oh, no, that's bad.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: So it's what's interesting, Karen. That's good. What's interesting is that in both of the kind of the drone industries that we're in with thermal deer and agriculture, there's like these really intense seasons.
[00:10:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: And I wonder if you could speak into just the seasonality where like I'm thinking of somebody, you know, buying a spray rig and starting their first season. It's almost like 30 to 60 to 90 days of just hammering. Just hammering.
[00:10:19] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: And almost everything like hobbies, family to some, some extent, just stuff gets put on hold.
[00:10:26] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: How in your experience, like what would you say, how does a couple see like whether those seasons to where it makes them stronger and it doesn't kind of break them.
[00:10:34] Speaker C: Yeah. One thing that Mike and I really have gotten more intentional about is time spent intentionally like with each other. If it's just us going on a walk, taking a trip, like we're huge travelers, we love to go see new places and spend time together doing that. In those moments you have conversations about what's coming or maybe what you went through. So that is a huge thing for us. I feel like that's super important to go spend time. And we have two kids, so we have a five year old and we have a one year old and we love spending time with them. But there is something that is just so pivotal to spend time like just with each other.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:15] Speaker C: So that and, and just talking about it, like conversation.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: I assume. I had to walk away. I literally had chalk in my nose when we were over here doing a few.
[00:11:25] Speaker D: Probably just needed to explain what happened to those that are listening.
[00:11:28] Speaker C: Yeah. You might want to explain why they're.
[00:11:30] Speaker D: Basically maybe Want to go YouTube and watch it because Mike was tripping over chords and everything.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Microphone.
[00:11:38] Speaker D: There goes the microphone.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: Anyhow, we were getting ready to start the podcast and I got a new pull up bar over here and I. We all got on it. Right.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Did a couple.
[00:11:47] Speaker C: Kevin and Austin did a hang and I. Yeah, I did my first pull up this morning. I was pretty proud of myself.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: But yeah, something that like I know we've talked about before and that actually is really helpful for my wife as well is having a set trip or vacation or something. Even if it's a weekend or a night away or something like at the end of a busy season.
[00:12:04] Speaker C: To look forward to.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: To look forward to. Yep.
[00:12:06] Speaker C: That was a big thing. Yeah.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: It is crazy how like the last time I was gone, the last two weeks we had a child that was teething and another one that was sick.
[00:12:15] Speaker C: Yeah. Liz told Me.
Oh my God.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: What would not be that bad is just so brutal when you're single parenting and you have a couple kids.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: Yeah. I could not imagine being a long term single parent.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: That would be really hard.
[00:12:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Really, really hard.
[00:12:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: Karen had brought up about communication. Yeah, that, that, that, that's like number one.
[00:12:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:36] Speaker A: If you're not going to communicate with how you're feeling with your partner.
[00:12:39] Speaker C: And I'll just like, I feel like I should speak into this because I did not communicate well like when we got married.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Let's just be upfront. We haven't done it perfectly. We're learning.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Do we need to hear some stories?
[00:12:52] Speaker C: This would be interesting. Yeah. So I, Yeah, I don't know. I, I remember one pivotal moment that changed my just view of how you communicate. When I get upset, I'll just like, I don't want to talk about it. Like, I'll just be quiet. And then I did list, like, silent treatment where I just like, would not say anything. Well, Mike is like, no, we're going to talk about it now. We're going to talk about it now. We're going to work through it now. We're going to do the things and.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: We'Re going to talk about it very clearly and very bluntly and openly. Not beating around the bush.
[00:13:19] Speaker C: No, no. There is no like, oh, yada, yada.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: I mean, do you.
[00:13:25] Speaker B: It's, it's actually, for me, it's been good for me to be around you because I grew up in a warm culture where you commute. Like, if you just say what you think, you're going to offend someone.
So you have to kind of like work. You got to, you got to say what you mean without saying it.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: And that is totally not, not him. How you roll.
[00:13:42] Speaker C: No. And it's good.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: It's good. I think it's good.
[00:13:44] Speaker C: I feel like, I feel like it's, it's really good. I mean, for me, I remember like just meeting you, it was very different because I didn't have, I didn't have a specific person in my life that was very much like that. And so it was very different. And I grew up like, yeah, we talked about our feelings and we talked about like, if something was hard. But I feel like I got away with too much of me not talking about how I felt. And so then we got married and I remember we were driving and I don't know what, I don't remember the conversation. I just remember I got upset and I just stopped talking. And Mike's like, you cannot do that. Like, you cannot just stop talking. And he at one point did it back to me, like, and just stop talking right when I wanted to, like, talk about something. And I just remember, like, oh, my gosh, this is how he felt when I did that to him. And it was just like, right there I was like, I'm done. Like, we, we. I will not do that to you again. And it's just, it's not in the long run. This is your person. This is the person that you're going to spend the rest of your life with. And if you can't talk to each other about everything, at some point, you're going to hit a bump.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: I. I think that relationship should be looked at as always being worked on. Yeah, if you're not working to make it better, then you're being stagnant. And if you're stagnant, you're actually going backwards. That's Marriage Counseling 101 on the drone show.
[00:15:06] Speaker D: Yeah, this is going into marriage.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: Marriage show here.
[00:15:10] Speaker D: But no, it's. I mean, it's good because a lot of people have these situations, like when we're talking about starting a drone business, like, particularly in the ag space, like, yeah, you have to, you have to be together with your partner on what this is going to look like and setting those real expectations. Because I know it was still hard for my wife for me to be gone through some of the busy seasons this year, but I think it was less hard than last year because I said already in January, February, I said, July is going to be crazy. And so just setting those expectations.
And so I think people that going into this with the, with what is it going to be like to start up a business, what it's going to do to your relationship and your marriage is something that you have to factor in as well.
[00:15:55] Speaker C: And you have to, like, think about. Yeah. So a lot of people's kids are in public school systems. So that's summer and a lot of spray season is over summer break. So, like, be real about that. Talk about that. Like, we decided we're going to homeschool from the get go, and I'm really glad that we did because I feel like in, in the long run, it just makes sense for our lifestyle and what we do. But you have to talk about it. It's going to be hard. Like, I will not ever tell a person that is married to somebody who wants to go into ag, especially in like spray season, you feel like a storm chaser. Honestly, it, like, it is a quick, really Fast paced. Go, go, go. There is not a lot of time. I mean, there's days that, like, he's gone.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: You're referring to the. The fungicide season coming in the spring. It's not that.
[00:16:40] Speaker C: No, it's. It's. You have jobs, and you know that those are coming and you go and you finish them and then you come home that night. But, like, fungicide season and fungicide season. I never say that.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Right.
[00:16:50] Speaker C: But anyways, it's a go, go, go moment. So you have to just, like, know it's going to be hard. And, like, there are days that I don't even talk to. So, like, yeah, that is.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: That is wild. But it's when we were in Kentucky, but we know we did 24 hour shifts. I mean.
Yeah, I don't. I. I want to talk, but I don't have time. Yeah, it's, you know, hammering it hard.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: With the other thing with fungicide that if you're like a very. Like, my wife is much more planned than I am, like, organized. She has her life together. I'm just kind of like, you know, take life as it comes. Then just the. You can't plan fungicide season.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, there's these seasons where they ask you what day.
[00:17:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: Yeah. It's brutal because. Because. And then I'm on the phone, you know, and it's like, we're here to. We have a short season. We got to make money. Right. We're out here to grind. And then acres roll in. And then I've learned that it is brutal to set the expectation that you're coming back on a, you know, Wednesday. And then to later say, it's not Friday.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: Better just say it'll probably be like, Monday, Tuesday.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And just to give yourself a cushion.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then also, like, there's things I think, like, thinking of just the last two weeks that we went through. You came back, we stopped the operation partially for your son's birthday. And it seems so appropriate that even in the middle of inconvenient timing, like, he would have a baby in July.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Yeah, well, that was.
That was not on our plan. I mean, we thought, we're gonna have a baby before then.
That didn't work.
[00:18:21] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: But it seems like there are those things that you need to prioritize some things above the fungicide season, you know, and it's like, it's. It's working out the tension, you know, with you and your partner with, like, how do we make this work? How do we, you know, give and take together? Yeah, it's really good.
[00:18:38] Speaker C: And that's like a really good example. Like, our son was born in July and we found that out and we were just like, oh, my gosh, this is going to be a nightmare. This is going to be an absolute nightmare. And it wasn't. Honestly, the Lord is good. He knows. He knows all the things. But like, we talked him talked about having his birthday party on his birthday because if we don't do that from the get go, will always just wait till the season's done. And that's not fair.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Like every. Every year he'll have a birthday in July.
[00:19:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: Yeah. That's so true.
[00:19:06] Speaker C: Yep.
So, yeah, just. Yeah, just communicating. Being. Being open. Being open about how you feel.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: And do some entrepreneurs, like married entrepreneurs, start a business without their partner being involved, do you think?
[00:19:17] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Haven't you heard Russ's story?
[00:19:20] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Like, he said he's not done much business with his wife, but that they talked about it prior to, like, doing it.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: She.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: She was still. She supported him, I think, in what he did, but she wasn't wanting to be so.
[00:19:35] Speaker B: And maybe not every business, but it seems like a lot of businesses, especially like the drone business that we help people start. Like, you start with one employee yourself. Right. And in the beginning you're just, how do I make money pay off? You know, just see how it works. You don't have money to go hire somebody in the beginning. A lot of guys don't.
[00:19:50] Speaker C: No.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: So to have a partner that can help, you know, like, it's very difficult to find somebody that's good about everything.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: And to have somebody that can help you for free. Right. Like, just to get it off the ground and get you some space to.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: Take off some of the workload.
[00:20:05] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And just keep it organized. I think that was the biggest thing in the beginning. It was just like, well, I knew how to do bookkeeping and spreadsheets and it's not hard to learn. Like, I feel like that is something that's so huge and so important if you can do it together. It also taught me a lot about what he was doing. Doing, like, taught me a lot about the industry. Taught me a lot about, like, just where, like, what customers are looking for and stuff like that. And then, you know, what they're doing. I don't know. For me, I just could never see myself not. But I also understand there are some spouses that that's not their thing and that's okay. And like. But you have to just, yeah, like.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: Be open about Austin. You had brought up, about your family. You had. You had prepped them for the season for you guys that are listening or watching. Literally, last Friday, we wrapped up. We. We picked up about 9,000 acres in total in Kentucky that we went down there and hammered out in two. Two weeks. Not with one trailer. We had three trailers there. But we knocked it out in eight working days is what we were there. But you told your family that you just don't know where you're going, nor that we. We. We thought maybe we're going, you know, Indiana, maybe western Ohio, trying to sell acres. What. What did your family say when you told her that, you know, July is going to be. Who knows what.
[00:21:22] Speaker D: I mean, my wife knows very well now that, like, to expect the unexpected. And, you know, it's part of, like, she already knew, like, eight years ago when she got married to me that it was like, okay, hey, let's go to Thailand. Let's, you know, let's move here. Let's do, you know, do that. You know, there's part of signing up for the whole whole deal.
But, like, yeah, I mean, it really goes back to that communication. Like, even if you don't know what's going to happen, communicate that.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:51] Speaker D: You know, set the expectations that you don't know. Don't ever pretend that you know what's going on and what's happening, because. And then when things change or deviate from that, then there can be a lot of hurt from that, a lot of issues that can arise from that. So I think just kind of keeping it open to where. Yeah, it was hard when I was gone, particularly. I had done a trip to Idaho right before that. Bad, you know, bad timing. So I was like, back to back.
[00:22:17] Speaker B: That was that bad timing.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: I gave Kevin so much crap. I don't know if you probably haven't seen any of the footage, but I'm just like, doggone it, whoever's idea that was yours or his, not a good idea. We had talked about all the stuff that's going to happen in July, and.
[00:22:33] Speaker C: Originally it was planned for July.
[00:22:35] Speaker D: I mean, it was originally planned for middle July, which right now would have actually been better.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: Well, could have been, but then we'd probably be busy.
[00:22:44] Speaker D: I don't know. It's. Yeah, it's just one of those things. You have to kind of roll with the punches. And that trip ended up being, you know, a fantastic trip. We're going to actually be releasing a podcast or about that this week, actually. It will already have been out by the time this. This one's out.
[00:22:59] Speaker A: Just Idaho Search and Rescue.
[00:23:01] Speaker D: Idaho Search and Rescue. And just the.
The cool things that are happening with that organization that has gone out and done a lot of search and rescue from kind of just a different perspective. You know, with a Christian background, the way that they're able to help people. It's. It's pretty cool.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: So.
[00:23:17] Speaker D: But yeah, anyway, I would love to hear a little bit from you guys like Mike and Karen, just as. As this business is getting more established, besides the goal of having a business that, you know is. Is financially stable and it's giving you an income, like what other hopes and dreams guys have as a couple as an outcome of having, like, an established business.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Like the. The ultimate.
[00:23:41] Speaker D: Yeah, just kind of the ultimate.
[00:23:42] Speaker B: What are your dreams?
[00:23:43] Speaker D: What are your dreams?
[00:23:44] Speaker A: Yeah. So I'm glad you asked that, because not many people ask that.
So my actual dream is to have something that supports us financially. So I can fly either mission, flights, like pastures, foster parents, Connecting. Connecting people. So that's what I want to do. I want to be able to. If somebody needs to get from point A to point B, instead of taking two days to get there, I would love to have the funds and the aircraft to go get them, take them there free of charge. That's what I like to do. I don't know. Is in the United States, is it elsewhere? But ultimately, I think that's what I want to do. And I've felt that for probably seven years now that I would do that. I didn't think that this company would start in the meantime. I was actually getting ready to step away from anywhere tree care and pursue that. She was freaking out because she's like, well, what money will we have? I was like, I don't know. We'll just figure it out. And we were just gonna go with it.
But now I see this company, what it's doing.
Maybe this is part of the plan.
That's what I'm. I'm thinking of. Or.
Or a dream that I have. I don't know. Will it actually come come to pass that that's one of them? There's a few other things that I don't know. Do you have one?
[00:25:11] Speaker C: Well, I guess one thing that, like, we talked about in the next, like, couple of years is we want to own a farm. Like, they're. I don't know. It's just a little farm. Yeah.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Just not like.
[00:25:22] Speaker C: Not like thousands of acres or anything like that. But it's always been something that we, we really, I don't know, it just draws us for grow our own food.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: I boss in the garden. I don't really like it. I like eating it, but not taking care of it.
[00:25:38] Speaker C: Yeah, I love to garden.
[00:25:39] Speaker D: At least you can find somebody to spray your own stuff.
[00:25:43] Speaker C: No, I don't let him do that.
That is one thing that was very hard. Was like, oh, you're spraying what on what?
[00:25:50] Speaker A: I know, we should talk about this.
[00:25:53] Speaker C: Yeah. So we have a really cool dynamic. For me, I, I do not touch plants with anything. Like if I put something on it is diatomaceous earth or it is some kind of very, very organic, natural organic. My kids can touch it and it will be fine. Like, that is where I have always been from the get go. And I don't know, when he first told me like, what they're doing in ag, I was just like, mike, this is awful. This is like so awful. And then I started like actually talking to farmers, like researching it, understanding what it is and like how different farmers are doing it differently. Like you do, you do fungicide. But we have this like really bad rap of putting it all into one box and it's all awful and it's not. And I've grown to understand that. And I really encourage people to, like, don't just hate on it.
Because if you don't know a lot about it, I feel like you should research it and understand the industry.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: I'm gonna tell you. So there's a multiple farmers that we were spraying for in Kentucky that I asked them about insecticide because the years past we were spraying a lot of insecticide, and that's going to kill any type of insect that is sitting on their plant. But this farmer said, I am staying away from all insecticide. What I want to try to do is I want to make my plants so strong, so healthy, that if a insect gets on it, it will not destroy the plant. So yes, I think there's a lot of chemical being used in America. But there's also farmers like thinking about just making their plants healthier so they don't need to use those types of chemicals. And when he told me that, I was like, doggone. This is kind of cool because the first year I was doing, you know, drone spraying, a lot of it had insecticide in it and we had to be super careful. I actually got sick because of it. This year there's literally like a hundred acres that I know that we sprayed insecticide on out of 9,000 some acres. So that's. It's really actually getting good. The one farm, Ruby was it Ruby brand.
[00:28:00] Speaker C: Ruby brands.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: Check them out on YouTube. They do content as well. They, they were spraying mostly organic micronutrition on, on their corn. That's what they were having.
[00:28:13] Speaker C: And they. Yeah, so that's a whole. I feel like that's a whole conversation. But it has taught me to grow. I love to garden, like to learn about soil, soil health and then you know, like the plants and the plant health and just growing food honestly is so much fun. I. We live on a sloped land where we live and so it kind of folds back from what all you can do because it takes a lot of money to terrace and to terrace gardens and stuff like that. So we've always had this thing where I want like, I just, I want like slightly rolling flat land and I just want to like be able to grow as much stuff as humanly possible just to, just to experience it, just to see what it's like and, and then yeah, there's, there's a bunch of other little, little things that come off of that that I would love to do. But one thing that I, I think in my heart is I want to teach people how to grow food and do it well and not be scared of it. I feel like there's such a, there's such a heavy on gardening that it's so much work and it's so much of this and, and all this other stuff that people are just terrified to start. And what I've noticed is just sharing what I do and like saving seeds and, and just doing it little step by step.
Has encouraged people to start their own gardens. Even if it's like container gardening, like wherever the space is. And my heart is just really for that to, to teach people how to grow food and to learn about the soil like soil health.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: Is that something you talk about on your channel?
[00:29:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I, Mike has encouraged me to do YouTube channel and then I had friends too that were just like, can you just please share what you do? Garden plug it.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: Yeah. What's the channel called and what, what, what do people see on it?
[00:29:51] Speaker C: It's the Yoder homestead and it's kind of a mix. Like I just talk about basically where I started. I had four like four by six raised beds that we made from leftover wood that was from a hard hardwoods like mill. It was free. We built them, Mike and I built them on our first property and it was on a slope so we had to figure that out. Did not know anything about soil and tried to grow Food and like, some of it did well. And then as it started, I grow. Like I grow from seed. I grow. Starts teaching people how to do that, that you can do it. You don't have to have grow lights and all this other stuff that, like, people put around it. So I just try to, like, show people you can do it and you can do it very inexpensively. And as you grow and as you learn more and more, you actually don't need that much to grow a lot of food if you take care of.
Take care of the soil, basically. So I just teach. I just try to teach people about that. And it's something.
[00:30:50] Speaker A: She's trying to be more consistent now.
[00:30:51] Speaker C: I'm trying to.
[00:30:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it's hard.
[00:30:53] Speaker C: YouTube is hard. It's really hard.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: Anybody that's looks at the. The channels that we've built, including this podcast channel, it is hard just to stay dedicated, to shoot the content, to get it edited and to put it out. And then also it takes money. If you're not doing it yourself and you're, you know, trying to have an editor do it. It takes money. And the payout, it really. It really doesn't pay out anymore.
[00:31:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:19] Speaker C: Like back in the day, over, you know, like, I feel like you have to have a pretty big following to.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: You need to be pulling anywhere from 100 to 250,000 views to actually make it worth it. But you can still share, you know, the, The Yoda homestead stuff and people appreciate it. There's. Your channel isn't that big, but the 300 people that watch it, think about. That's 300 people that watch a video. Like, sometimes we look at it like, oh, I only got 3,000 views. 3,000, like, that's crazy. You know, if you're doing 300, it's still 300 people that watch something about guarding.
[00:31:57] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: So if you're going to do content, you gotta be consistent. Don't expect big returns on your content. Maybe it'll blow up, but chances are it's going to take some work.
[00:32:10] Speaker C: I feel like the biggest thing is you just have to find something that you're passionate about. Because when the, like, I don't know, you just get. If you think about just money and you're doing content for money, it's just you won't stick it out. Because if you're not passionate about what you're sharing, for me, it's just like, I don't. I mean, hopefully someday it actually, you know, pays something and I can buy seeds for free. That would be great. But if not, it's fine. I'm still teaching people how to do skills that I feel like have been lost through generations.
[00:32:41] Speaker A: So I'm sorry, this dog on chalk is stuck in my nose. I'm not kidding.
[00:32:47] Speaker C: You guys got too excited about pull ups.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:49] Speaker D: Kevin, Kevin, how would you answer that, that question? Like, what if having an established business, what. What kind of dreams and goals would come out of that for you?
[00:33:00] Speaker B: It changes probably every six months. Oh, yeah, I think so. Yeah.
[00:33:05] Speaker A: That's cool.
[00:33:06] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: No tell. So did it change just recently?
[00:33:10] Speaker B: It gets foggy and then it gets clear and it gets foggy.
So, like, I'm kind of like, you have. You've had something over seven years.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: That hasn't really changed. It's always been in the back.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just kind of there.
[00:33:21] Speaker C: It's been there.
[00:33:22] Speaker B: I would love to live in a different country. I'd love to do business in a foreign country. And since I speak Spanish, I'd love to live.
[00:33:29] Speaker A: Oh, can I help you? That'd be fun. I know nothing about Spanish, but, like, just going there, that would be cool.
[00:33:36] Speaker B: We had fun in China. Like, we haven't. I don't know if we talked about this, but I was impressed. You ate, you know, pig.
[00:33:42] Speaker A: Pig foot.
[00:33:43] Speaker B: Foot. You ate. I mean, you just ate everything.
[00:33:45] Speaker C: He has come a long way. When I met him, he ate chicken and burger.
[00:33:49] Speaker B: See, I'm down to travel with someone like that. That just put it in front of me. I'll at least taste it. Yeah, there's people that if it doesn't have ketchup and it doesn't look like an American restaurant, I'm not eating it.
[00:33:59] Speaker A: Yeah, but, like, then are you even living?
[00:34:01] Speaker B: Are you even living? You're not living. Yeah, so, no, for me, it's like, live in a foreign country. And honestly, this whole roller coaster of this whole drone thing, it kind of came out of left field and slapped me up the face. And I'm loving it. But I like building things and, like, I like being a part of things that are being built. And so.
[00:34:21] Speaker A: So could you see yourself, like, if this company, you know, continues just getting itself established, you would see yourself moving to another country and establishing another business. Or is it more of an outreach, outreach thing?
[00:34:33] Speaker B: No, I'd like to do business. Like, business is the best channel to change people's lives, period. And the biggest impact you can have is, like, on your employees.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: Yo.
[00:34:42] Speaker B: And when I used to live in Central America, like, through people that I hired, their kids didn't go to the gang infested public school. They went to private school.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: They bought their first family vehicle.
[00:34:53] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:34:54] Speaker B: Through a job that I gave them for a profitable business. Not charity.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: That is.
[00:34:58] Speaker B: That gets me fired up.
[00:34:59] Speaker A: Yeah. That is cool.
[00:35:00] Speaker B: And it's like, if there's hard working good people that need opportunity and we have opportunity in America in droves, let's be honest.
[00:35:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: Like, we don't. If you've only ever lived in America, you don't understand what opportunity you have versus yeah.
[00:35:16] Speaker A: Yeah. You're saying this. And only have lived here for seven, five years.
[00:35:20] Speaker B: I think I've lived here for eight years.
[00:35:23] Speaker A: Eight years. That's crazy. Every time I think about that, it's like.
Yeah. And you started. How many, how many businesses did you. Would you have started that didn't work out? Like, because some, some people look at us, me and Karen, like, oh, you just made it. It was a banger to start with. No. If you guys would know how many businesses that I've tried, it would be laughable.
[00:35:47] Speaker C: It is.
[00:35:48] Speaker A: It would absolutely be laughable because I was trying everything I wanted, dude. I tried pressure washing. I tried a towing service, me driving a tow truck. I tried that. That didn't work. I tried being a marketing, like, guru person. That didn't work. Like, there's.
There's so many things that I tried that clearly didn't work. But it gave me experience. Gave me experience for the next business that I went in.
[00:36:12] Speaker B: But sorry, I've probably tried, like the first business I started, I was actually able to sell somewhat, you know, also.
[00:36:19] Speaker A: It was successful right off the road. Wow. Good for you. You must have done better planning than I did.
[00:36:24] Speaker B: The second and third one, like video production definitely did not work. So I've definitely had a couple failed businesses or like learning experiences.
[00:36:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:33] Speaker B: And I'm 100% with you that there's so many good takeaways that you can take from those experiences that make the next thing that you do better.
[00:36:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:41] Speaker B: But you just got to keep trying. You just got to keep trying.
[00:36:43] Speaker A: Yep. I agree with that.
Something else from Karen.
I'm going to start talking about the T100.
[00:36:52] Speaker C: Yeah. No, I just, I guess, like my biggest encouragement if you're going to go into a business like this is communication. Like we said, communication and just talking it out and being on the same page, supporting each other because it's a team. It's a team effort.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:06] Speaker D: And I'm just going to say too, that, like, this is so important. Like, I think this is stuff that we need to talk in our next vision breakfast to the rest of the team. Like we need to keep talking about what's the overall big picture because anybody that's going into business or part of business or whether you're an employee or whatever, it's like it's so important we talk about this a lot that it's more than just the going after money. Like that's eventually not going to be enough to motivate you. Eventually that's going to, you're going to hit a wall. And so like even if you're looking at starting a drone business or a thermal drone business or you know, ag whatever you're doing, like it's so important to like actually see what's the big picture. Like what do I want to accomplish? What are the big dreams and visions that could happen if I would step into this business? Like those are the things that are going to like end up motivating you.
[00:37:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:57] Speaker D: So I, I love hearing from you guys and what, what you shared. That's awesome.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: I'm sorry, my nose is still itchy.
[00:38:07] Speaker C: So we won't, we won't do pull ups before a podcast.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: No, we won't do that again.
T100 T100 dog gone. Is that thing a machine? I've released the video of me in China at this point getting my hands on it.
I just think that if we are not constricted to get supply in, it's going to change how literally how spraying is done. We say that all the time. I know, I know. But this drone is so big, it is so fast, it is so intelligent that it literally will be to the point where it's going to cover so many acres that it's going to blow people's minds flying that fast and you know, carrying that much fluid.
[00:38:52] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:38:52] Speaker A: The efficiencies and all.
[00:38:54] Speaker B: I mean already this season with the T60 like clearly shows like we can.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: Tell them how many acres we covered. You guys will be able to watch a video as one at some point. But literally in a 24 hour shift in real life spraying, this is not setting up in one field and spraying the same field over and over.
We moved, we mixed chemical, we talked to farmers, we build boundaries, we did the whole thing in a 24 hour shift with two drones on one new way. Ag trailer we covered right at 1500 acres. That's insane.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: That is insane.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: That's crazy. An airplane on a really good day, right? It depends on his running will do 2,000 to 2,500 acres. That cost 2 million bucks.
[00:39:38] Speaker B: Yeah, it is.
[00:39:40] Speaker C: And the cost breakdown is just like, you just. I don't.
[00:39:43] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, you.
[00:39:43] Speaker C: You did the cost breakdown. So we're working on finishing the cost breakdown, but, like, your expenses, on even paying pilots, like, it is wild how much you have left over in revenue, like, in profit, like, in real profit. And that is just what is so impressive. And, like, for somebody wanting to go into it, I'm just like, there's no. There's no reason not to.
[00:40:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:06] Speaker C: Like, there's just.
[00:40:07] Speaker A: Jason was talking to that company.
I don't know that they want us to say where they're from, but they're huge cotton growers and they're using 50s. And Jason asked them if they regret getting into it, and they said, not at all. As soon as the 100 gets here, we want like 30 of them. That's what they said. But they see, right. They see what they can do with the 50s and they know what the hundred can do.
They look at the numbers, at the efficiency, and know that they're going to cover and.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: Right. With cotton, they're doing it multiple times a year.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
I think cotton at one point in a stage is getting sprayed every six or seven days.
[00:40:46] Speaker B: So with the T100, I didn't know. I don't know that we tested this in the field in China. But with the T100, when it senses an obstacle, it actually updates the field.
[00:40:54] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:40:54] Speaker B: That is amazing.
[00:40:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: Did you. You see that?
[00:40:56] Speaker B: I saw that. Holy cow. Right? That's so good.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: That's insane.
[00:41:00] Speaker B: So what that means is you're flying the same field like it is more and more autonomous.
[00:41:05] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. And it's getting smarter and smarter. Like, did you see that?
80% improvement on detecting power lines. 80% improvement.
[00:41:16] Speaker D: Yeah, I could use that.
[00:41:18] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:41:19] Speaker B: Gotta watch the videos, guys. You could see where Austin would have enjoyed having 80.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: That was an early 2:30am Morning call. But you know what? Once you do it, you learn how to get these drones back on.
[00:41:33] Speaker C: And you fixed it and we're ready to go.
[00:41:35] Speaker A: But, yeah, I was gonna tell them. We. We literally had three o' clock in the morning. I got the drone out for him using another drone. Super easy, right to the trailer. Had it back at the shop, got all the parts that we needed, and that night it was flying again. Not that difficult.
[00:41:49] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:41:49] Speaker B: Less than $1,000 repair.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: That's insane.
[00:41:52] Speaker B: That is insane.
[00:41:53] Speaker A: That. That is what's crazy. Imagine, like hitting a power line with an airplane. I don't think it's going to be $1,000.
[00:42:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Probably not.
[00:42:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:02] Speaker B: So T100. So much to like, we keep harping on this. We say the same thing over and over again. You and I saw some airplane pilots down in Kentucky.
[00:42:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:09] Speaker B: And I wish, like, okay, you know, the sunk cost fallacy. It's like you've invested so much in something.
[00:42:17] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:42:18] Speaker B: It's hard to, like, make a decision going forward because you're thinking of all the investment you've made.
[00:42:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:22] Speaker B: And I feel like that's a big part where like, like, you. I think you said it so well. We have nothing against airplane pilots. Like, we want them to win. They're so skilled. They're so good at what they do. It's so difficult and challenging. Yeah.
[00:42:33] Speaker A: But I just, I just feel. Kevin, they need to start adopting the.
[00:42:37] Speaker B: Yeah, they need to.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Keep flying your airplane, but start adopting it. Don't be like, oh, I'm. I'm doing all the acres next year with my drone. No, just start bringing it in. Right. Anyhow, go.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: What other option is there other than that? What else is there? There is no, like, in five years, in three years, it's like, unless there's something super specialty where. But I don't see it.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: No, don't see it.
[00:43:00] Speaker D: This is just in line with, like going from flip phone to smartphone. Like, everybody had a flip phone and it was like, only the smart, you know, really geeky people had the smartphones. And then all of a sudden everybody had them. So it's just.
[00:43:14] Speaker A: Oh, that's a good point.
[00:43:15] Speaker B: Maybe you can speak to this, Karen. But like, for a crop dusting pilot to go to a part 137, is it just as rigorous as it is.
[00:43:23] Speaker C: Oh, no, they already have everything.
[00:43:24] Speaker A: They have everything.
[00:43:25] Speaker C: So all they would need is a registered drone.
[00:43:27] Speaker B: So.
Really? So.
[00:43:29] Speaker A: Well, they need that 44807 and that.
[00:43:32] Speaker B: That'S the thing that takes upwards if you're a pilot.
[00:43:35] Speaker C: Like, I guess when you look at it, if you would apply for your 44807 and you're. You're already set. You're spraying acres with your plane, but you apply for it, by the next season you'll have that. And if you buy one drone, you have a registered aircraft. So, like, you already have everything to list on your 137. And they already have the 137 certificate. So the only thing it would be to. Yeah. Apply for these.
[00:43:55] Speaker A: The biggest thing is that we talk about airplanes and drones is people want to compare one drone trailer or one drone to one airplane. You cannot do that.
[00:44:06] Speaker B: But, Mike, with the T100, maybe I think you can all. You can start comparing now. Now we're in the realm of comparing.
[00:44:12] Speaker C: I don't know.
[00:44:12] Speaker B: Like, does that mean that trailer's gonna win?
[00:44:14] Speaker A: Let's not say that for sure because we haven't done it, but maybe.
[00:44:18] Speaker B: I'm just saying, Mike, here's what I'm looking at. I'm looking at 1500 acres with the ground rig. Like, something that we heard again and again is farmers being thankful that we're spraying at night because 60% of the chemical, the fungicide that they're applying actually is more effective at night, during the day. Can't do it with an airplane. True farmer needs it done in an airplane.
[00:44:36] Speaker A: Not where we were. We got to be a little more clear because then there's going to be an airplane guy. I spray all the time at night in Kansas. Yeah. Where there's nothing, but not where we were.
[00:44:46] Speaker B: So in Kansas, an airplane will probably outspray a drone rig with two T1 hundreds because it's just flat. They'll probably outspray it.
[00:44:53] Speaker C: There's nothing in the way, but they.
[00:44:55] Speaker B: Won'T do as good a job. Right. I'm going to go out on a limb and say, if you want to go right up to the power line, you don't want to put fungicide into the trees. $30 an acre, fungicide into the tree line.
[00:45:04] Speaker A: Right.
[00:45:04] Speaker B: Let's keep it in the field. Maybe T100, it starts to be where you compare it.
[00:45:08] Speaker A: No, I'm. I'm with you, Kevin. I'm. I'm telling you, it's my biggest thing.
[00:45:13] Speaker C: Is, like, if you do the buy in at an airplane.
[00:45:16] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:45:16] Speaker C: And then you take that same amount and you invest it in drones, what.
[00:45:20] Speaker B: You got to do is you got to sell your airplane. Yeah.
[00:45:23] Speaker C: Yeah. There you go.
[00:45:24] Speaker B: No, you really. You got to sell your airplane or.
[00:45:25] Speaker A: Keep the airplane to travel from one state to the other to get new clients.
[00:45:30] Speaker B: I. I don't. I just wish there was, because right now I feel like. Right. Tell me if I'm wrong about this, but isn't it true that the spray. The Crop Dusting association is one of the key reasons that a Level 3 medical is required for drone pilots. And there's like, this animosity.
[00:45:49] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:45:49] Speaker B: And I get that from industry to industry, there's a little bit of, like, they don't like each other. But from drone pilot to airplane pilot, why, like, why should there be animosity? Why. Why could not a airplane pilot pick up this new skill well and make.
[00:46:03] Speaker A: More around for a long, long time. And they just want to slow the curve.
[00:46:09] Speaker B: This is like when Uber came into New York City and all the yellow taxi cabs, horrible experience. You're out there, like out in the rain, you know, like waving somebody down. And Uber just came and the taxi association fought like heck to keep Uber out. And Uber just illegally went in without the proper. They just started operating and people want Uber now Uber dominates. Taxis are a fraction of what Uber is in New York City because it's a better system.
[00:46:34] Speaker A: That's a valid point.
[00:46:34] Speaker B: And the same thing is happening. So jump aboard. And how do we help people?
I don't know. I just feel like when, if, if there's a airplane pilot listening to this, they're pissed at what we're saying.
[00:46:45] Speaker A: Well, some are, some are not.
[00:46:47] Speaker C: It depends on the mindset, honestly.
[00:46:48] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:46:49] Speaker C: Are they looking forward?
[00:46:51] Speaker A: The ones that think I'm cocky and I, I say too much or I say it too aggressively, yes, they might take it the wrong way. Right. When I made that funny video of.
There was a. I made a short. It was an airplane flying over the corn. And then I said what a airplane pilot looks like when a drone pilot takes his acres. And then it was a kid having a fit. And then, you know, an airplane pilot commented and said something about, this is non professional, I'll buy my drones elsewhere. It's like, yes, you'll butt hurt some people, but then there's other airplane people that appreciate the true, the honesty, the get to the point like this is how it's going to be and they don't care.
They want to come in and start supporting the technology.
We give the small percentage of people that bitch about it sometimes too much credit because I don't think that there's actually that many people that have a problem with it.
[00:47:49] Speaker C: I also think for the long run it would be super helpful if more spray pilots would support drones because in the aviation industry there's a lot of respect for those types of people. And it should be because that's a lot of talent.
[00:48:03] Speaker A: I mean, we have to bring up Mitchell that brought us into this, right. He gave us that big contract in Indiana. He's a helicopter pilot and he's good at it. They say that he is one of the best helicopter spray operators that has ever been around. He's from the military, he worked on Air Force One. He knows how to fly helicopters and spray acres and do it well. But he told me, Mike, I have to, I have to start using this technology. Because it is coming. It's not going to go away.
[00:48:36] Speaker B: And instead of looking like, like drones are going to take your lunch money, you got to look at it like you can. You're set up so wonderfully. You have connections with co ops, so you're set up. You have all. You are set up to make more money with less work and less risk.
[00:48:51] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:48:51] Speaker B: And all you got to do is just adopt a new way of thinking.
[00:48:54] Speaker A: They need to learn how to manage. That's the biggest thing is you will be managing more teams. And then that might sound like a headache, but it isn't. When you, when you get it dialed in like we have it. Right.
[00:49:05] Speaker B: Can we talk a little bit about that system.
[00:49:06] Speaker A: Yeah. While I go blow my nose.
[00:49:08] Speaker B: All right, so you go blow your nose. Okay, so here's what's going on. So we learned this from this system from Indiana where a co op out there had a couple years of experience using different drone teams. I think, you know, it's not uncommon for them to have eight to ten different drone teams. And how do you sell acres that every farmer has a spray period where it needs to be applied? It needs to be applied, you know, within the third and the seventh of the month or whatever, four day period. And so how do you manage 10 different teams with, you know, 50,000 acres? How do you do it? And there is ways that make it easy and we're about to make it even easier. But even now on like Google Earth, with some of the tools you draw the fields, you can, you can share groups of fields with different drone pilots. You can do color coordinations. When pilots are done, they drop like photos for projects. Yeah. Folders and projects. And when pilots do a field, they drop a photo of the as applied map right on it.
There is so much that it's easy to actually spray 50,000 acres with the, you know, five to 10 drone teams.
[00:50:10] Speaker A: I totally agree. And I, I'm glad that you went with us this year and like you actually got to experiences because. Experience it because you have like the, the geeky tech side that you have that you can bring to our company and you already have brought it to our company. But to see physically doing the work.
[00:50:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:28] Speaker A: Then you know, dropping a pin of the next field that we're going to go to and the whole court color coordinating thing, it's organized.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:35] Speaker A: You know what you're gonna go do next?
[00:50:37] Speaker B: Everything from planning to spraying to billing.
[00:50:41] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:50:41] Speaker B: It's all done and it's visible for everyone.
[00:50:44] Speaker C: Yeah. And this was the first time that we ever did billing. Because then last year, like the co op.
[00:50:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:49] Speaker C: So like this was the first time. But it was hard. Yeah. Because those pictures were all in there. And then I could go back and there's some farmers that are like, well, how much was like just this field? Like, because there were maybe two fields in one drop or whatever. And you could do that. You could go in, see the as applied and like share that with them. And they had just appreciated how quick everything was turned around.
[00:51:08] Speaker A: We can literally give them gallons that was put on that field. Because the drone is that accurate when it gets done. Yeah. I'm telling you guys, if you guys are aerial applicators currently and you're just on the fence about adopting the drone technology, I'm telling you, if you're the first to do it, you will see that we're not just blowing smoke. We're not just telling you that this is going to be the next big thing. We want to help you and show you that it can be totally viable in your already aerial application business.
[00:51:43] Speaker B: We were able to work with one of the co ops down there, the bigger co ops in Kentucky, and kind of. They see the system that we use and how easy it is.
[00:51:50] Speaker A: They didn't. Yeah. They didn't understand it until we started showing.
[00:51:53] Speaker B: Yeah. One of the new things that I. And maybe this is because I've not been on the field with you last year, but Shapefiles.
[00:51:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:00] Speaker B: Just about every farmer has shape files.
[00:52:02] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:52:02] Speaker B: And that makes it so easy. Like it all works on shapefiles.
[00:52:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:06] Speaker B: So I would just, I would love if anybody, if any co op out there is actually trying to scale up their drone operations. I would love personally to be involved with helping because we want to create some content and some education around this. So email me
[email protected] if you want to know how to scale up 10,000 or more acres and how to keep that organized across different drone teams.
[00:52:27] Speaker A: Yeah. We have to go bigger than that now. Like Austin said. Right. We played around with this. 10,000, it's it.
I don't want to sound cocky, but 10,000 acres is no big deal. Like, we'll knock 10,000 acres out in, in no time. 5, 50,000 acres is what we have to start doing. Right. We have to like organize it and get 50,000 acres done. I tried approaching that company in Minnesota. They do like a hundred thousand acres, but they just don't.
[00:52:55] Speaker B: They don't believe it.
[00:52:55] Speaker A: They just don't believe. And you know, I respect them because they just don't want to tell their customers that it's going to be done with the drone and then, yeah, something happens and then it can't.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: And. And to that point, let's just talk about how important it is for the farmer that actually gets applied. It's not like it's optional. So that co op.
[00:53:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:16] Speaker B: They can't risk it on a newfangled idea or some, you know, what do you call it, Joe and a Chuck in a truck. Chuck in a truck.
[00:53:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Or staying in a van or nicking a Crown Vic.
[00:53:24] Speaker B: You're not going to. You're not going to tell. You're not going to risk your clients and the chemical that you need to sell to them if you don't know they're going to cover acres.
[00:53:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:31] Speaker D: So 10,000 acres is laughable in this country. Like, go listen to some of the other podcasts that we have on this show. Like, there's other people here that talk about doing hundreds, thousands of acres.
[00:53:44] Speaker B: This is one of the things that people who are getting into it, they feel like the struggle of getting their first 10,000 acres. It's going to be tough.
[00:53:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:53:52] Speaker B: But it's just perspective and it's just experience because, like, you connect with the right equipment, with the right farmer, and you have 3,000 acres. And then, like, I was shocked, Mike, when we're talking, they're like, we'd like to do some more acres. And he just picks up the phone and five minutes later, that guy and that guy that we have no idea, he's like, yep, I'll have him do mine. If you think he did a good job on yours, I have him do mine.
[00:54:13] Speaker A: It is connections. Like, let's not, you know, try to say it's super, super easy. It's connections. It's. It's showing. Like, the one farmer said, sometimes you just gotta come out here and show us what you can do, and then we can build trust. Because what he doesn't want to do is call his farmer buddy and not been shown what you do. And now he's got his farmer buddy involved and you come to him and then you can't get his done. Well, now he feels bad because he told us.
[00:54:42] Speaker B: Do we think, like, I'm curious what you think. Do we think that there's farmers around the country that want to find a drone operator, but they don't know who can actually show up in style in their area?
[00:54:54] Speaker A: I don't know what I've heard.
[00:54:57] Speaker C: I feel like some people have had drones come out and it Was a bad experience.
[00:55:00] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I think almost not all, but most people have heard of a bad experience.
[00:55:07] Speaker C: And that sticks. It always does. A bad experience always sticks. So when you have a good thing going and you can share that and you can make connections, I feel like that will spread too. But it just like people remember, dude.
[00:55:17] Speaker A: Kevin, it's like our, our first season when we had the xag, right? We went, we went spraying, mixed up the farmer's chemical spraying, crashed a drone, had his chemical mixed up, couldn't fly again. That's a bad experience. Like we were those people. That's why when I started doing this, I was like, you need two drones. You need two drones. That way if one goes down, you keep the other one flying.
[00:55:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes.
[00:55:43] Speaker D: That, that last batch for that last guy that we did, he had some friends that showed up and he said both of them, prior to us coming, said that they heard that the most that a drone guy could get done in a day is 150 acres.
[00:55:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:58] Speaker D: And it was just.
[00:55:59] Speaker A: But, but he said those guys are also, you know, at 5 o' clock they're stopping and they're going to go home and drink beer. But even at 150 acres, something sounds wrong. I mean it absolutely sounds wrong. That day, the, the, the last batch that you're talking about, we started at 9am in the morning and we, we were doodling around because we're shooting content and creating, you know, stuff for educational purposes. We did almost 800 acres that day.
[00:56:24] Speaker B: Yeah. I think when you say doodling around, probably the image that people have is a little different than like for us it's doodling around. But that's because at 3:00am we're hitting the field and then we're going till 12:00 clock or whatever.
[00:56:36] Speaker A: I mean, we're nobody.
[00:56:37] Speaker C: Madison and I is like a real life 24 hour period is like an actual 24 hour working period. It's, I feel like a lot of people go into spray and they think like, oh, I'm gonna work from this to this. But if you want to get the most out of one season, like, you have to be willing to like just grind. And I totally respect, like, yeah, the.
[00:57:00] Speaker D: Reason, the reason we were doodling around because I was sleeping. I slept in morning till 8 o' clock because previously I went 36 hours on 3 hours of sleep. And that was starting to not work as well.
[00:57:14] Speaker A: But we're not telling people that they have to do that.
Set up, set up teams. Right. We could have switched you out. We, we Offered to switch you guys out, but you wanted to see how hard you can go.
[00:57:23] Speaker D: I, I. For me, personally, I. It was. It was fun for me to, like, see how far I could push myself, but.
[00:57:30] Speaker A: And then.
[00:57:31] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:57:31] Speaker C: Anyway, but, like, long story, I guess, like, a real rig can run. You just need.
[00:57:37] Speaker B: And the other thing is, you can also set the expectation with the co op that you can do 500 acres a day, and then you can just deliver on that easily.
[00:57:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:57:45] Speaker B: You know what I mean? Like, you don't.
[00:57:46] Speaker A: If.
[00:57:46] Speaker B: If you just want to take it. Cool. Like, maybe a co op will at least. You know, the. The thing where you get in trouble is you've promised them you can do 5,000 acres in a week, and then you're going to work from 9am Till 5pm not going to work. Not going to work.
[00:57:58] Speaker A: Not going to work.
[00:57:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:57:59] Speaker A: No.
[00:58:00] Speaker B: And I. I think, like, I heard you on the phone, right? I. I was in the truck with you for two weeks.
[00:58:05] Speaker A: Miserable phone thing.
[00:58:07] Speaker C: Kevin's gonna fix it. Are you gonna fix it?
[00:58:08] Speaker B: I have everything in line to fix.
[00:58:10] Speaker A: It.
[00:58:12] Speaker B: But I heard you talking to.
To the agronomist, to the farmer. It's like, I understand better than ever that it really matters to everyone that this stuff gets sprayed.
[00:58:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:58:23] Speaker B: And it's like we just do everything we can in our absolute power to get them covered.
[00:58:29] Speaker A: Get it knocked out.
All right. That's all I got. And my nose is still itchy. I'm over it. It's been an hour. I appreciate you guys. Listen, I don't have anything else to add to this one.
[00:58:40] Speaker B: All right, we'll see you in the next one. Thanks for watching.
[00:58:41] Speaker A: Yep.
