We recently connected with Darryl Anunciado and have shared our conversation below.

Darryl, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?

Walt Disney and his story has helped me stay grounded with my business mindset. Walt’s story of greatness coming from small beginnings helps me to stay patient.

I loved how Walt Disney took his time to develop his foundations. Coming from a small creation of a mouse to the now undisputed entertainment center for billions of people — that is a testament to his patience in developing the company culture.

Walt Disney was a true leader. He taught people to take risks. Walt wanted people to be passionate about their work. He loved watching people grow when they are free to create and find new knowledge. He created teams that made it really natural for people to grow.

Walt Disney was very good at using people’s strengths and he was a genius at letting others shine. These are his secrets to why so many people were passionate about working with and for Walt Disney.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Darryl, I’m 42 years old and I started Action Drone Inc when I was 34 years old. Before I started my business, I got my Bachelors degree in Psychology and Masters in Business.

After school, I worked in the financial, real estate and property management industries. While working in property management, I picked up a hobby, putting a GoPro on a remote control (R/C) airplane; or what we called a quadcopter. I was so addicted to my hobby, I lived and breathed flying these “drones”. I got into designing and prototyping my own drones for fun and that lead to something I didn’t know was marketable.

One day I posted my videos showing people how much fun I was having flying these “drones,” that people contacted me through Facebook and YouTube wanting to try my prototypes, buy it, or just be a part of it.

My first customer was an archeology professor from Brazil who wanted to use the flying system to capture video and picture for his dig site. At that point, I understood that this technology had other uses asides creating “cool videos”.

After a few drone sales, companies and government entities started noticing Action Drone. They were curious if the drones we built could be modified to help them collect valuable data for their work. This included energy companies who needed to inspect their infrastructure and government entities who understood the use of drones for engineering purposes.

Today Action Drone has completely evolved from the beginning when we were building and selling very simple drones into using them for easy data collection. Action Drone now has a global network of drone companies that are working together to push the drone industry forward. We are bridging the gap between new technology developed around the world and pushing the technology for industry adaptation.

End-use clients like the government, energy companies, environmental groups, including the military are now coming to Action Drone to develop new drones for unique missions. We also develop training programs for their employees and the pilots who will be flying the custom built drones as well as training and maintenance programs.

Occasionally, these companies contract Action Drone independently to operate drone services for solely data collection. So today, Action Drone develops unique drones for unique missions with the help of our global drone partners.

As the CEO of this company. I’m very proud of our ability to adapt to what the drone industry really needs. We are very proud that we are still a private company organically growing from our own hard earned work. We are one of a few drone companies who are still self-funded by friends and family investment. Not having to operate from the pressures of external Venture Capitalists, gives us the flexibility to make right choices. We chose to grow the company at a very sustainable speed. Action Drone has survived through mass commercial drone competition, COVID-19 lockdowns and yet, still continues to grow. This is a testament to our strong foundations of our company. We will continue to grow at the right pace and always make sure that our people grow in their own development and the company grows with them.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

A combination of picking the right clientele and making sure you are committed to quality. After we find the right clientele we go full 100% to making sure we deliver a high quality, service, program or product.

Sometimes we do it right the first time but most of the time, we have to correct our mistakes. When clients see that we care for their needs more than we care for our profits, it’s almost natural for them to endorse us and talk about what we have done for them.

Today, most of our clients know us through word of mouth. Majority of our introduction emails and phone calls start with “my friend from [so-and-so company] told me to contact you regarding our problems”. That is the best way to grow.

Not only do you grow your sales team by having your clients become your salesforce, it’s also much easier for us to create new partnerships and develop new projects. The trust between new companies and Action Drone requires less effort.

At this point we use our energy to focus on 100% quality for our new customers. Especially now that most of our customers know each other! Organic growth takes time and tons of effort in the beginning, but the reward makes your growth consistent and efficient.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Comparing Action Drone to other drone companies was a bad habit of mine.

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is real when it comes to business development. You see other drone companies doing something cool or unique and you want to be part of that movement. Most of the time, we would fail at emulating what they are doing to grow their business and our effort, time and money would just go to waste.

Today we don’t force our direction, we don’t copy what others people do. Our management team, just looks at our own path, creates our own direction, and develops our own growth. This has helped us create our own market and industry.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ActionDroneUSA.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actiondroneusa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ActionDrone
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/actiondroneusa