passed my part 107 last month and i am genuinely proud of that but i feel like i hit a wall now. i thought having the cert would open doors but i dont really know where to start looking for actual paying gigs. ive been flying for about a year, mostly fpv freestyle for fun but i have a mini 4 pro for the more normal stuff. i made an instagram and posted some footage and got like 80 followers which is not exactly clients lining up.

i see people talking about reaching out to real estate agents and i tried that, sent some emails to a few local agencies and got zero response. maybe my email was bad, maybe they just dont care i dont know. feeling a little stuck and wondering if anyone remembers what finally worked for them at the beginning

the email cold outreach thing almost never works at first, dont take it personally. what actually got me my first few real estate clients was just showing up - like i literally walked into a couple of small local agencies with a tablet showing my portfolio and asked to talk to whoever handles their listings. felt awkward as heck but two of them hired me on the spot for trial shoots. real estate agents respond to seeing the work in person way more than an email they have to click through.

also dont sleep on facebook groups for your local area, theres usually a community group or a local business group and people post looking for drone pilots more than you'd expect, especially around spring when everyone wants aerial property shots.

honestly the fpv background might be more valuable than you think depending on where you want to go with it. real estate is competitive and kind of boring anyway. if your freestyle footage is good there are production companies and even some sports event organizers who need that kind of thing and they dont always know where to find pilots. might be worth looking at that angle instead of just chasing the same market everyone else is going after