Launching a Category-Topping Podcast and Growing a Community to 10,000+ People
Role: Host, producer, writer (Edited by AJ Fillari)
Spsonors: Spexi Geospatial / LayerDrone
Result: Top 1% of drone podcasts globally
The Drone Network explores how drones are reshaping the world by documenting the tech, economics and people piloting the world's largest standardized drone imagery network. I created, hosted, and produced the show as part of my role at Spexi Geospatial, where it became the connective tissue between the company, its community, and the broader industry.
A Podcast is a Beacon for Communities
The Drone Network documented the drone industry to reach its audience of drone pilots. Episodes covered the man building America's drone systems, why every map you've used is already outdated, and how drone operators professionalize. These were stories with citable sources and standalone value, where LayerDrone and Spexi appeared as natural examples rather than product placements.
Guests came from across the drone and geospatial ecosystem, including Mike Horton (HYFIX, GEODNET), Bill Lakeland (CEO, Spexi Geospatial), and Dylan Gorman (drone YouTuber and educator behind PilotByte).
The Community as Both Source and Audience
The show's most distinctive quality was how it leveraged — and served — the community it grew alongside. One episode crowdsourced its content directly from the network's 10,000+ pilots, turning the community's most common questions into a definitive FAQ episode. Community calls, pilot leaderboards, and network milestones fed the show; the show fed pilot education, recruitment, and retention in return.
This made the podcast a flywheel rather than a broadcast: pilots heard themselves in the content, new pilots discovered the network through it, and ecosystem partners used it as a window into how the community actually operated.
As Thanks to Our Sponsors...
Each episode generated five pieces of derivative content for Spexi and LayerDrone social channels — clips, audiograms, threads, and Discord recaps — making the podcast the most efficient content production system in the company's community marketing stack. One recording session powered a week of multi-channel output.
Results
- Top 1% of drone podcasts globally
- 5x content pieces per episode across Spexi and LayerDrone channels
- Guest roster spanning hardware, software, education, and enterprise geospatial
- Direct pipeline between a 10,000+ pilot community and the show's editorial calendar
- Contributed to network growth that reached and help grow 11,000 registered pilots, a 12,000+ member Discord, and 50,000+ social followers