In this episode, our guest Damon Darnall shares his experience in turning his passion for drones into a profitable live event business. He started as a hobbyist and turned his passion into a business in 1993, which he eventually expanded by helping others start their own drone businesses. With over 100 events done in the last six years, Damon emphasizes the importance of creating an “edutainment” experience with a focus on the customer's overall experience.

Damon stresses the need to prepare before the event, including setting up a marketing strategy, ensuring the team is readily available for clients, and making sure all the behind-the-scenes details are in order. He highlights the importance of owning up to mistakes and making it right for clients, which can ultimately improve the overall experience and lead to better conversions. Damon believes that staying in tune with the needs of the clients is the driving force behind making a pivot, especially in times like COVID-19.

During the interview, Damon shares his belief system for events and his approach to planning and executing successful events. He emphasizes the importance of knowing your audience or avatar when connecting with potential clients to sell a higher-end program. The event follows a simple format that involves visualization, testimonials, and market research.

In the lightning round of bonus questions, Damon discusses common mistakes people make when hosting events, such as getting too attached to the outcome and not being able to go with the flow. He recommends incentivizing clients to provide feedback through video testimonials, which is valuable not only for improving the event but also for marketing and advertising purposes.

Damon recommends two books for someone who wants to host a profitable event: "The E-Myth" by Michael Gerber and "As a Man Thinketh" by James Allen. 

Damon's goal is to help businesses integrate with drones to save lives and make the world a better place while helping people achieve their dreams. He has helped business owners and network members reignite their passion and confidence and aims to continue helping more people break through their invisible wall.

He invites listeners to check out their live events at dronecommandlive.com or reach out to them at Team@thedroneboss.com to learn more about The Skyeye Network.

Subscribe and share this episode to discover more about turning your passion into a profitable event and impacting more lives. 

Want to connect with Damon and Skyeye Network:

Website: https://dronecommandlive.com/dcl-waitlist

Email: Team@thedroneboss.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SkyEyeNetwork

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedroneboss/

If you'd like to be a guest on High Profit Event Show, click HERE

Hi. This is Rudy Rodriguez, your host of the high profit event show. And on today's episode, we have a special guest, Mr. Damon Darnall. And in today's episode, he's going to share with us how he turned his passion into a multiple seven figure education business. And before I bring Damon on, I also want to note that Damon is an accomplished drone pilot with over 13,000 flight hours, and he set two world records representing The United States on the US World Team. And believe it or not, he actually created a whole business around this, and he's done over 100 events helping other people start their own drone businesses. So without further ado, Damon, look, I'm so excited to have you on the show as our guest. Welcome aboard.

Awesome. Thanks. I'm glad to be here.

Awesome. Sir, I know you're a super humble guy, and it probably made you blush with all those accolades, but you are an expert in the field, and that's why we have you here, and we want to jump right into it. Our viewers, our listeners of the show, they're typically people who are probably already doing events or wanting to add events to their business, and they want to avoid making those kinds of costly mistakes that many people who've gone before them have. And maybe we can kind of talk through your thinking process from before, during, and after an event. So before an event, what do you think about when you're going to put an event on the calendar and you're like, hey, I got to get people to this event. What's your strategy or your thinking process?

Well, I think even before I get to that point, I think the kind of overarching view or the belief system I have for events is that they should be edutainment, right? So entertaining education and something that we try to build all the events around is the whole customer experience. So our belief is that people don't really remember the content as much as they're going to remember how you made them feel at the event or how they felt at the event. So we really try and create a really big experience, and pretty much every business I've ever had, I have a foundation of. We try to set up three wows. So regardless of what it is, we want the client to experience, and they can be subtle wows. But even like for us, when we're setting up the room, and that's one of the things that is important to us, to make sure that everything is just neat, clean, pristine, set up right. Temperature is correct. We've got all the signage. Everything is just perfect, and it looks really professional. So people just walk in and they kind of have this wow, either a little wow or a big wow. And then when we get into the event, then we can create more of those. But we always want to have at least three wows. And we do that, we teach that with our business owners to do that when they go out and they're starting their business. And I've done that with literally every business I've had. And it's kind of just a mission that we have and we all follow that. Now to your question about what we do prior to the events. Man, there is a lot of stuff that we do prior to the event.

I think to kind of cut it down, we've got the marketing side and fill in the event. So we want to make sure that that whole experience goes as seamlessly as possible. One thing that we found is to make your team or someone on your team readily available for their clients. So via phone, text, live chat if possible, and email. I think one of the things that can be super frustrating for clients is if they can only contact you through email and they have a question and they have to wait a day to get it answered, it just creates some frustration. Also, when you make a mistake, and you will make a mistake, there'll be technology that fails, there'll be something that happens, someone gets lost or someone makes a mistake. We're really big on owning a mistake, admitting that, hey, we were wrong, we're terribly sorry, and then we go overboard to make it right for the client. And I think that goes a long way because we want to make sure that whenever they come to an event that they have a really good feeling about us, about the experience and everything because oftentimes they're a little concerned. And part of that, like I mentioned, is making sure that all the behind the scenes stuff is ready and working at the event. So that's all the seating, the signage, even the pins, we're really particular about lining the pins up a certain way, fanning them a certain way and it's all these little tiny one or 2% almost unnoticeable little things that are around. But those all add up. You add up 2% here, 1% here, 2% and all of a sudden you have a 20 or 30% swing in the experience and then ultimately your conversions.

So we're pretty particular about that roof height, size of the room, temperature and then also audio. So we want it to be the audio for we want to make sure everyone can hear us well and that we have good quality speakers so that people aren't straining or getting frustrated listening to us. And also when we play music and we play videos, we want the music to be loud enough and with enough bass where they can feel it, but not so loud that it's obnoxious and people are frustrated. So those are some of the things that we do ahead of time. We also make sure that we have whoever the support team is that's going to meet and greet and everyone that's going to interact with the customers that everybody's on the same page. We have our systems in place for registration and the whole experience, and we just want to make it as the whole focus is the client. Make it as just as pleasurable and enjoyable for the client as possible.

There you go. That is incredible. So much attention to detail. And I love how you came out and said, hey, my mindset from every business that you've started is to have three wows going into the business and focusing on their experience. And I can see how that's translated to what you do with Skyeye and the events you posted and creating that wow experience for clients all the way through in that engagement and ultimately the raving fans that joined your programs. Thank you for giving us kind of that behind the scenes, even as far as thinking through what the room temperature is and how high the ceilings are. I mean, that's incredible how much of a science that is.

Yeah, it really is. And a lot of it has been trial and error. So what we found for our type of audience is that the higher ceilings are better, people feel less constricted with higher ceilings. And also to make sure there's enough room in between a lot of events, they use those locking chairs that have everybody sitting literally elbow to elbow next to each other, and it's not comfortable And they just don't have as much space. We like to have everyone set up classroom style so they have a table that they can work at because we do lots of exercises and written work and then make sure that there are lots of refreshments and snacks and things like that just to make the whole experience just a little bit better. We also do a Chevron layout because we want all the attention basically going to the presenters. So a Chevron layout is basically just kind of a V. So everybody, they're not having to turn to look at anyone. They're just basically looking straight ahead and they're naturally focused right on the stage.

Wow. Incredible. What a detail, right? Like, even they angle that someone is sitting so they don't have to turn their head to see the presenter. Everything is a science, right? It's either adding to their experience, the quality of experience, or detracting, accounting for it all. It's incredible. Coming back to the topic of today's show title, we stepped over it, but you have such a unique story and how I know you've had multiple successful businesses in your past, but the one that you're currently running right now, it was a passion of yours. You were a professional drone pilot representing The United States, setting two world records, and then you grew a business from it. Can you tell us a little bit about that evolution? How you turned your passion into a business and ultimately into a profitable event model that you've done.

Yeah, well, I think like a lot of artists or people that are really passionate about a hobby, I was with drones. I was super excited about it. I just loved it. And it was one of those things I did for fun and years ago, back in 1993, is when I actually decided to make it a business. And it was a little challenging. It was very challenging. But with commitment and sticking with it, I built it into a very successful business. And fast forward 25 years. And then the drone technology got a lot easier, meaning the drones were easier to fly and operate and the public awareness was opening up and the opportunities were getting even bigger. So I had helped several people start their own drone businesses and it was just kind of like the timing was perfect to take that hobby and just expand on it. And so I think that as I've gone through this, I've really realized that there is just whatever you're interested in. I think we've seen this, and we all can touch on it a little bit on the Internet, but whatever you're interested in, whether it's if you're into firearms and loading your own ammo or if you're into botany and specifically maybe, like orchids that you can find, there are lots of other people in the world that are also very interested in that. And I think by niching down, and that's exactly what I did, it's a super specific niche and it was a hobby, but there's a lot of people that are interested in it.

Anyway, that's where I basically built the business. From there, we took a handful of people that had some pretty strict criteria. They couldn't have any drone experience, no photography experience, and no successful entrepreneurial experience. Meaning they could have never generated a net revenue of over $42,000 a year with any previous business. And if they fit that criteria, we put them into this beta program. And the goal was to get them from zero to six figures with a drone with no previous experience in twelve months or less, and they all hit the number. And that's when we knew we had a working model. And we've just done, as you mentioned, we've done over 100 events in the last six years and it's been pretty incredible and impacted thousands of lives. It's just absolutely incredible. So that's the biggest gift for me there.

That's beautiful, brother. I love the journey of something that was a passion of yours and how it evolved into a business. And I think the key thing here is the time frames. You gave 25 years to get to where you were today, right? And then six years of doing events to get to where you're at 100 events, right. And you're still learning. We were just having a conversation before that. There's still things that you're figuring out and learning with your events and your business model. Right. It's constant and never ending improvement.

Absolutely is. And not only in that, because you're always up leveling what you're delivering for your clients, and then there's other outside things that affect you. You've got technology changes, you've got new ways to reach people. You have COVID. That happens, and there's always challenges that come up. And so how can you pivot? So you're basically benefiting your clients, right? That's what we always want to focus on.

Yeah. And speaking of pivots, you had quite the pivot yourself because you were an in person event model. Covid happened, no events were happening, and then you made a pivot. Can you maybe just share briefly about that experience you had in making that pivot?

Yeah, and that's a great example of how quickly you can pivot. And I didn't. I was very slow to pivot when it happened. I thought, oh this will pass. And we just rescheduled some events and rescheduled events. We were doing events about every three weeks, three day immersion training events, and we just rolled them over. We rolled them to reschedule, reschedule, reschedule. All of a sudden, we're doing that 8,9,10 months later. It was almost a year later before we did our first virtual event. And man, I wish we had done it sooner, but it was just one of those things, right, that just hindsight is 2020, and we all have our own fears and paradigms and things that will potentially hold us back. So one thing we teach everybody that starts a drone business is when someone presents an amazing opportunity to you just say yes and figure out how to do it. Which is actually a Richard Branson quote, and I didn't do that, but we at least listened. And we finally did it because the challenge was and what really fueled that was not so much the business model, but we're not being able to serve these people that are wanting to be served. And so that was really what was the driving force. So I think just as long as you stay in tune with that, then I think things can happen faster. You can overcome your fears, and the reality is, you don't know how anything's going to work out until you actually do it.

And nine times out of ten, it's much easier and not near as scary or overwhelming or intimidating. Once you do something, it's like learning to ride a bike. Once you're terrified of it, and then you do it, and it's not that big a deal. Or learning to drive a stick. I think that's some of the stuff that is super beneficial.

Most definitely. I think what our listeners hear in listening to the show is a theme of mindset in having events. Learning how to pivot, learning how to reframe, learning how to keep going when things don't go your way? Learning how to shift the meaning of what things mean when people don't stand up and take you up on your offer when you make that offer. Right. So thank you for just kind of giving us that extra layer of the psychology piece behind everything you're doing. So here we are at the event. By the way, congratulations on your pivot to the virtual world. I know I've had the opportunity to get to play with you on a couple of virtual events, and it's been so fun watching you and your team, the way you do things, creating that incredible experience for the clients and the engagement in such a unique industry with drones. You guys make it fun with the music and the prizes and everything you do, right. It's an incredible experience. And it's just so beautiful to see so many people stepping into their new business as a professional drone pilot coming out of your event. So, Damon, here you are at the actual event, and you've delivered the best experience you possibly can over two, three days. And it comes the time, the opportunity to invite people to become members of The Skyeye Network, join your higher end program. Talk to us a little bit about kind of maybe what you do to do that, and then maybe a little bit about the psychology behind it as well. So maybe a little bit of tactics and a little bit of the psychology on how you do that.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, so I think it's really important that you really know your audience and know who your avatar is. And a perfect example is like, I didn't know who my avatar was starting out. I thought I knew. I thought my avatar was a drone pilot. I've been around these men and women all my life, and these guys, they spend all of their free time and free money investing in drones and flying and perfecting their craft. And so the dream is always, if I could only make money doing this, it would be great. And so I really thought that that was my avatar. And we deployed a lot of resources and a lot of effort and energy, and it turns out they're not my avatar at all. They all have the I can do it attitude, meaning that if it can be done, I can do it type of thing. And it turns out our avatar is actually more business operation seeker and entrepreneurs. So, again, this is something that's really important to kind of check your ego, put your ego aside. Let the marketplace dictate who your avatar is, what marketing messages work and what mediums work when you're doing your marketing. We've advertised on TV and radio, and we've done affiliates and all kinds of social media advertising and direct mail, guerrilla marketing, where we do flyers and door hangers, and we've done all kinds of things to find out. Let the marketplace tell us based on our avatar. Number one, who are they? And then number two, how do they like to be communicated with and what's the messaging for that? So it's a process that we had to go through.

So once you have them identified, then it's easier to talk to them and communicate with them. And so that's what I think we do at the event and then the event follows a fairly simple format. So first we want to connect with them and help them overcome any frustrations or any potential negativity that they have of being there because everybody's a little resistant. They've made an investment not only financially, but also time to come and attend a three day immersion training and they all have preset expectations of what they think they'll get out of it. And so we want to exceed those and blow them away. But in the beginning there is some potential resistance there. So what we do is we really focus heavily on day one, on the opportunity, all the opportunities that are there, and helping them to start a very mild visualization process of them, visualizing what it would be like if they were doing this, kind of putting themselves in the future. And we do that with a lot of videos, we do that with testimonials, we do that with content, with market research, studies, stats, numbers, figures, all that stuff. And we do it all very light-heartedly. We try to really pay attention to the energy in the room. The great thing about having a live event, and especially in person, is it is even easier to feel the energy in the room and detect if you need to take a break a little sooner or go a little bit longer.

And we've developed and set the flow of the event over the years, we're constantly changing it. I don't think we've ever had two events that were the same, but the main flow stays the same. So we go through that basically very light, really exciting all the opportunity and everything that's possible. And then day two we get into more of the meat and potatoes of what it's going to take. And this can be a little overwhelming for some people because anything you do, there's a lot of stuff that has to be done. And so we start breaking down because we want to really fill them up and make sure that they understand if they don't end up joining our network and they do it on their own, we want to make sure that they feel like they've got more than enough value to go out and do it. And then we offer the invitation to join the network and then we go into more detail about now implementing an integration and how you can take all this and where the rubber meets the road, so to speak, on day three. And the whole time, lots of high energy like you mentioned, and we control a lot of that with music and some really well done high production videos and at the in person events, we actually take people out and have them fly and teach them how to fly drones and do some fun stuff. So it's a great physiology interrupt for them. So that really helps out.

Oh, super cool. I want to come to your personal event and fly drones. Very cool. Yeah. So I can see how you think through the whole thing, the whole process from day one to day three, showing them what's possible, showing them what the kind of work that it would take, and then showing them how you can help them do that so they don't have to do it themselves. Right. In essence, you're kind of creating a problem, but then presenting a solution so that they have a clear path on how to get there.

Exactly. Yeah.

Awesome, man. Thank you for breaking down all of that. Beautiful, man. You've really laid down some gems here on today's show, like really clear, specific things, and I can tell that you've got it down to a science, which is awesome. So let's go into our lightning round right now of a few extra kinds of bonus questions that are kind of off the cuff 30 seconds or less type responses.

I might have a challenge with the 30 seconds or less, but I'll do my best.

But just kind of whatever comes to mind, whatever comes to you. So what would you say are just like three common mistakes that maybe you've made in the past and you learn from, that people often make when they're doing an event? What do you say are, like, three of the most common mistakes that you've experienced?

Well, I think, number one, I've seen a lot of people, they get too wound up and too uptight, and they're basically too attached to the outcome. So I think one of the things is to just kind of try and have fun, because if you're having fun, you're going to be able to connect with your audience and they're going to have fun. So we always try to over deliver, but if stuff doesn't go right, you have to be able to go with it and remember, they're going to feed off of your energy, whether it's a virtual event or an in person event. And we've had all kinds of disasters. We were in Florida doing an event and there was a hurricane that came through and the doors burst open and all this crap flew in and tables blew over and stuff. Everybody's looking at you on whether you need to freak out, what needs to happen. I think it's really important, whether it's a natural disaster like that, or if it's a power issue, a keynote or something else goes on, to just not get too attached to the outcome and just focus more on the experience for them. Because in spite of whatever happens, if the AC goes out or whatever else, just be creative. Think about them. I always try to put myself in their shoes if I were in the audience. And if something came up, what would it take for me to feel really good about it? So a little longer in 30 seconds, but that's basically it.

That's perfect.

And you asked for three.

What else have you got?

The other thing is that I think it's super important to measure everything. And I didn't do this initially and we did it pretty quickly after the first couple of events. We just started tracking and measuring every little thing because you can't manage what you don't measure. That's how we come up with all the things, even the colors of the pens and the size of the books and all. We played around with a lot of different things and we'd see what would work better for awards and prizes and everything that we've done. And so I think it's just if you get in the habit of just measuring everything that you can and you don't have to do everything again, don't stress out about it, but measure as much as you can. And then as you're measuring that, then you can start adding more metrics and start measuring more stuff. So I think that's super helpful. And then I think the other thing that is super valuable is, and I know most people do this, but getting feedback from your clients and really getting their experience, what they have, we kind of incentivize people to give us feedback, video feedback at the events. And the great thing about it is we can find out ways we can improve and oftentimes we can do it right then and there. If somebody is having an issue or something isn't working, they'd like it to be even better. We can often pivot right there and make that experience happen for them. But the side benefit of that is you end up with, in our case, thousands and thousands of video testimonials that 99% of them are just raving fans, which is fantastic.

So as inconvenient as that might be for some people to do testimonials or to get feedback, video feedback and do it at the event, even if you just have somebody just get their cell phone and just have them sit there and just get a little video testimonial or video feedback, whatever you're more comfortable with. I think that is something that has been really instrumental and not only for us internally, but also for marketing, advertising.

I love it, man. Those three valuable things. Use your environment. Whatever happens, use it to your benefit. Even the doors fly open when the hurricanes come through. You mentioned getting feedback, right? What's going on? Even also the testimonials and measuring stuff right, what gets measured, gets managed. Those are super valuable tips. The whole podcast can be those three things and it'd be super valuable. Okay, great. What would you say is a good book or resource that you might recommend to someone who wants to host a profitable event?

Man well, I'm not a voracious reader, but two books that have really helped guide me and been instrumental to me are The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. And we do an advanced leadership training every year, and we basically unpack that and go through that. I think that's just super beneficial. I know a lot of people think there's some, especially if you're a more seasoned entrepreneur, then a lot of it is fairly basic, but man there's just the basics. That's the fundamentals. That's where all the foundation is laid from. And then also another one that I'm a big fan of and I go through and I read this book over and over again. I've probably read it over 90 times, and it's a small little book. It's called As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. And it was written in the early 1900s, I think it was around 1934 or something like that. So the language is a little different than what we're currently using, but it's been very powerful and instrumental in being able to connect with the audience and also the business. So those will be my top two amazing resources.

One of my earliest mentors in life, the first book he recommended to me was The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, and he had me read it over and over again until I basically could recite it. And to this day I'm always referred to it and go back to it. Actually, I'm due for another reread on that, so I'll join your book club next time you read. Awesome. All right. Cool, man. Beautiful. So, Damon, if listeners want to learn more about you or about The Skyeye Network, what's the number one way they can get a hold of you or learn more about what you do?

Well, you could check out our live events at dronecommandlive.com, or if anyone wants to reach out to us, they can reach us at Team@thedroneboss.com. Those two ways are probably the best way to get in touch with us and see what we're up to.

We'll be sure to include that in our show notes as well, so people know where to go to learn more about you guys. And a couple more questions, more on the personal side for you. Damon, what would you say is like, the next summit that you want to climb? Like the next kind of goal that you're aiming for?

Well, I think to reach more people. So we're actually expanding this year, and we're developing, kind of listening to our clients and what they'd like to have more of, and so we're coming up with just that. So we're coming out with a new four day immersion program, and then that comes with twelve months of basically white glove coaching that's going to be with it so we can help people get even more successful and faster than what they're currently doing. And in our world, the other thing is getting clients and customer acquisition for our clients. So the great thing is this network has been built up so it's the largest network of professional drone entrepreneurs in the world. And so it gives us a unique ability to fulfill the needs of some of the larger companies and government contracts that no one else can. So we're in the process of building that out so we can help businesses integrate with drones, and help save lives. It's a tragedy just how many lives are lost doing routine inspections that a drone can do easily. And to know that we have the technology, the means to save human lives and we're not doing it yet, it's a travesty. So we're really pushing forward to make that happen sooner rather than later. And of course, reaching more people to help them, help them reach their dreams, to keep it as a well balanced growth for them.

We want all the wheels of their life to, you know, to be fulfilling, rewarding, and satisfying, definitely.

I remember that statistic when I was in your event watching, and then you share that statistic about how many people die from accidents that could have been averted if a drone was used. And for me, that was a big wow factor. I was like, wow, I can see how you literally can save lives as a drone pilot and a drone entrepreneur. And it's a massive market and a huge wave that you position yourself in front of and your network is really cool. Thanks for sharing, man. And kind of the last question here, just you personally, Damon, when it's all said and done, what legacy do you want to leave? What do you want to be remembered for?

Wow. Well, I think the network of helping people. To a lot of our business owners or our network members that have started businesses, they've forgotten how to dream. I won't say they've given up on life, but they've given up on their dreams. And so just being able to reignite that and help them fulfill and reach their dreams or help them exceed what they thought was possible, that's really what we're pushing and helping them grow and to do. And it's funny, one of the things that was super frustrating for me when we first started was whatever people currently made in their salary, if they made $60,000 a year or $150,000 or $400,000 a year, they would get there. We've got a really good paint by number system. And they would build up their business pretty rapidly. And then they would quickly get to that number 60, 100 thousand, whatever that number was, and then they would just stop, and there was just this invisible wall that they would hit. And it was just really understanding that psychology and helping them to overcome that so they could get beyond that. And not just for the financial gains, but man, when you help somebody break through that ceiling and they get to a new level. The confidence and the relationships, the friendships, their family. I've got tear jerking stories from our clients of just how their lives have radically turned around and changed.

And we've got kids that are 16 years old starting their drone business. And we have 83 year old retired pilots that are starting drone businesses. And the 83 year olds, we've got them, some of these people have just kind of given up. They're just waiting to die. And now they have purpose and they wake up and they're more energized and they say they're the happiest they've ever been in their life. So I think that keeping that energy and that moving forward, keeping the network growing and going and helping people, that's what I would really love as my legacy, to be able to help people realize their dreams.

That's beautiful, brother. I love how you inspire others to pursue beyond their dreams, beyond their goals, and find that purpose even late in life. I think they say without a vision, people perish, right? And it sounds like you've really been able to help reignite the vision for many, many entrepreneurs through The Skyeye Network. So congratulations on what you've done so far, and I look forward to seeing the legacy as it continues to grow and impact many people. And as we're coming to a wrap on our show, for our audience who's been listening to this point, if you have found value from today's episode, I encourage you to subscribe if you haven't subscribed already. If you're seeing this on social media as well as sharing it with someone who you think this message would make a difference for, this is more than just running profitable events. This really is about making the shifts that we need to make internally inside of each and every one of us so that we can become the better version of ourselves and ultimately impact more lives. So, Damon, thank you again for being a wonderful guest on our show, and we appreciate you having on today. With that being said, we'll go ahead and call it a wrap.