Some of the following was originally written as a Freedom Framework blog post on the Formulate Freedom website and has been edited and included to provide an example within the How To Formulate Freedom course. To see the original blog post click here.
Golf is the greatest game on earth, and that's an undulating hill I’ll die on.
Knowing you're playing golf the next day is like a surfer anticipating good swell.
You’ve cleaned your grooves, loaded up your bag, and your shoes are waiting by the end of your bed, but it’s only 9 PM.
I’ve been in this situation many times before, and I find myself on the website of the course I’ll be visiting, trying to get a peek at the gift I’ll be receiving come morning.
But all I see is a couple of blurry photos from a decade ago that barely show the course.
So, I head on over to YouTube thinking, “surely some opportunistic young gun with a drone has flown over every golf course in this state and listed it online”, but nope.
A couple of courses here and there and a plethora of vlogs, but that's not what I’m looking for.
I want to feel like I’m already there. I want to slowly glide over each hole of the course, envisioning what it’ll be like tomorrow while I’m definitely not slicing every second drive into the bushes.
But I can't because the videos don’t exist.
That’s where the Golf Course Drone Flyovers Service should swoop in and inform Golf Course owners that its 2023 and they’re literally flushing money down the toilet by now showing off their course online.
Here's the play:
I'd purchase, rent, or borrow a drone (or hire/rent/borrow a drone operator). I'd go to the nearest golf course, flip the drone into cinematic mode, and fly it over the whole course in the direction of play - hole by hole. I wouldn't do it as a full-on bird's eye view, and I wouldn't do it at eye level either. I'd do it at about 2 or 3 times the height of the average person. This way, the video gives the viewer an advantageous look while still showing the beauty of the contours of the course. It shows them what it would be like to play there and makes them want to play there. It makes them want to see the next hole.
This process wouldn't take too long at all. Covering 18 holes in one or two hours with a drone would be an easy feat. And that's budgeting extra time for some artsy shots around each green.
Charging even $50 per hole could net you $900 for less than a days work. Flying a drone around a golf course and trimming some videos is hardly gruelling work but personally i’d charge at least $100 per hole.
I've thought about this in great detail before and even pondered the possibility of having QR codes at each hole so golfers waiting can simply scan and get an instant real-life overview of the hole ahead of them. This, of course, would be an obvious upsell to the course owner.
I know this example is quite idealistic and specific. But when I think about ways I could make money, the very first thing I think is, "What would I love doing?" How could I rig the system in a way that I'd get paid a considerable amount of money for doing something I'd genuinely enjoy doing? Then I think about how much money I could make per unit of work; that is, how little can I do for a considerable amount of money. I love golf, I love flying drones, and I love the idea of making decent money just by standing around on a beautiful golf course flying a drone. So for me this ticks all the boxes!
And again, I know it sounds overly idealistic, but as someone who's made a seriously decent living doing what I love already, I'm convinced I could do it again; I'm convinced you could too.