Your Mic

Freddy Cruz
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Language Learning

Your Mic is the podcast about podcasting for new, stuck, and almost‑quit hosts. Hosted by Speke Podcasting founder and 25‑year broadcast vet Freddy Cruz, it blends hard‑earned lessons, failures, and irreverent stories with sharp tactics you can actually use. Listen on your favorite podcast app!

  1. 1d ago

    What rat pits teach creators about addictive content

    Freddy Cruz takes a grim look at Victorian rat pits and bare-knuckle spectacle to expose a modern creator problem: attention without value. Learn how to make provocative work without turning outrage, grief, humiliation, or someone else’s pain into your growth strategy. Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans Key Takeaways 1. High performance does not prove your content is valuable. A viral clip can create reaction, comments, and reach while leaving the audience less informed, less capable, and worse off. 2. A person at the center of a difficult story is not raw material for your content machine. Treat guests, subjects, and sources as human beings, not props built to carry a thumbnail. 3. Risk can serve a story, but it should not be the entire product. Provocative work can have teeth without requiring somebody else to bleed for the metrics. 4. Before publishing charged content, test whether it would still be worth sharing if it earned half the views. If not, the spike may be doing all the work. 5. Build episodes around what the listener will learn, understand, or do differently. Drama can open the door, but meaning needs to be what keeps them inside.

  2. 3d ago

    Build the podcast community your audience needs

    Mavi Rodriguez grew Big Butts, No Lies past 300,000 downloads by serving a specific audience, answering real questions, and posting the damn video. Britney from Fun Love Media joins Freddy to talk confidence, community, visibility, and betting on yourself before the world catches up. Join Mavi, Dr. Angela Sturm, and Freddy for a panel about The Beauty of Podcasting at Illuminate: The Content Creator Experience. Use the code MAVI at checkout for a 10% discount: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/illuminate-2026-the-content-creator-experience-tickets-1991248041495?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true Listen to Big Butts, No Lies: https://www.bigbuttsnolies.com/ Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans Key Takeaways 1. You do not need confidence before you turn on the camera. Confidence shows up after you survive enough imperfect posts to realize the internet did not eat you alive. 2. A memorable title can beat a bloodless, keyword-stuffed podcast name. People remember personality long after they forget another generic industry show. 3. Your audience already tells you what episodes to make. Listen for their searches, their questions, their fears, and the problems they keep repeating. 4. Podcast growth comes from serving a clear mission over a long enough timeline. Mavi built trust by helping women make safer, more informed decisions. 5. Video becomes easier when your message matters more than your insecurity. Stop obsessing over whether you look perfect and start thinking about who misses out when you stay invisible.

  3. Sep 10

    How to know your podcast is actually compounding

    Freddy Cruz separates strategic patience from stubborn self-delusion. Using the signal, asymmetry, and identity tests, he shows creators how to decide whether to double down, change the format, sharpen positioning, get help, or finally stop wasting time. Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans Key Takeaways 1. Persistence is not repeating the same bad episode for five years. Useful persistence includes testing, feedback, iteration, and new information. 2. The signal test looks for movement, not instant fame. Better titles, stronger feedback, more replies, longer listening, and better relationships are legitimate signs of progress. 3. The asymmetry test forces honesty about the upside and downside. Know whether your show is an authority engine, relationship builder, hobby, business asset, or expensive fantasy. 4. The identity test asks who you are becoming through the work. Better interviewing, communication, confidence, and consistency all count, even before revenue shows up. 5. Set a time horizon and track one craft signal, one audience signal, and one business or relationship signal. That is patience with a plan, not hope with a microphone.

  4. Sep 8

    Your podcast needs a book more than another reel

    Lolita Guarin helps nonfiction writers quit hiding behind fear, family judgment, and the lie that publishing a book must cost a fortune. Get the words out first. Clean them up later. Somebody needs the story you keep swallowing. Join us at Illuminate: The Content Creator Experience. Use the code LOLITA at checkout: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/illuminate-2026-the-content-creator-experience-tickets-1991248041495?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true Work with Lolita: https://stress-management-by-lolita-guarin.teachable.com/p/story-to-impact-accelerator Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans Key Takeaways 1. The people you fear will judge your book usually are not your audience, your customer, or the people who need your story. 2. Fear of being seen is often the real reason a writer stalls. It is rarely a lack of ideas, intelligence, or ability. 3. Dictation can help you move faster than your inner critic. Speak the draft, then edit it before you release it into the wild. 4. A book needs an ending and an intended reader before it needs another color-coded outline or another year of procrastination. 5. You do not need a massive publishing budget to begin. You need an honest message, a repeatable writing practice, and enough nerve to stop negotiating with yourself.

  5. Sep 6

    Do the hard thing your podcast actually needs

    Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans Freddy Cruz explains why brute-force grinding is not always brave. Sometimes the hard thing is pausing a broken show, fixing bad data, replacing a stale format, confronting a weak co-host dynamic, or building seasons instead of pretending chaos is a strategy. Key Takeaways 1. Pushing harder is not always the hard thing. Sometimes stopping, pausing, or changing course takes more courage than pretending a broken setup will heal itself. 2. Bad analytics, weak formats, stale branding, and broken workflows do not improve because you keep publishing through them. Diagnose the real problem first. 3. Own the shiny-object decisions that created the mess. Accountability is uncomfortable, but it is the fastest route back to a system you can trust. 4. Your podcast does not need to run all year just because somebody told you consistency matters. Two intentional 10-episode seasons can beat 52 episodes made in panic. 5. The hard choice is often the clearest one. Invest in needed equipment, have the uncomfortable team conversation, or admit that the existing format is no longer serving the show.

  6. Aug 20

    A Podcast Pause

    We’re taking a short reset to make the next run of episodes even stronger. New episodes return the week after Labor Day. In the meantime, follow the show so the next episode hits your feed automatically—and send us your questions, guest suggestions, and topics you want us to tackle at freddy@spekepodcasting.com. We’re taking a breath. Not backing down.

  7. Aug 18 ·  Video

    Stop Asking Friends What They Think of Your Podcast

    Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans Podcasters quit right before it starts working. This episode breaks down the real timeline behind three working shows, and why time, effort, and feedback (not luck) are what actually separate the ones who make it from the ones who don't. Key Takeaways 1. Compounding takes years, not months. One client didn't cross 100K downloads until roughly two and a half years after they started recording — not after launch, after recording started. 2. Effort has to scale with your timeline. Publishing twice a month for six months and publishing twice a week for two years are not the same bet — pick your intensity level honestly. 3. Reps beat obsessing over analytics. One host went a full year treating his show as a skills‑building exercise instead of a numbers chase — and got better because of it. 4. Friends and family can't give you real feedback. They love you too much to tell you the truth — find a podcasting community instead, regardless of niche. 5. The fundamentals are genre‑agnostic. Weak titles, bad cover art, and rambling intros will lose listeners whether you're in true crime or tax law — fix the basics before blaming the algorithm.

  8. Aug 13

    The Neurologist Who Prescribes Podcast Episodes to His Patients

    Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans Watch Freddy and Dr. Patton: https://youtu.be/sObzbAAOxW4 Freddy Cruz breaks down what he learned from Dr. Eddie Patton, a neurologist who treats his podcast (Your Health, Your Wealth) less like content and more like a prescription pad. When Dr. Patton runs out of time in the exam room, he hands patients a flyer with a QR code linked to an episode about exactly what they discussed, so they can revisit his voice when they are calmer. It is bedside manner in their earbuds, and it works in any field. This episode shows you how to stop treating your show as algorithm food and start treating it as extra time with the people you serve. Key Takeaways 1. Fight-or-flight and creativity live on opposite ends of the spectrum in your brain. If your amygdala is constantly lit up, your best ideas stay locked out. 2. The wiring that once saved you from predators now fires over phone buzzes, traffic, and deadlines. Most of us live with the gas pedal slightly pressed all the time. 3. Your best ideas show up in the shower and right before sleep because those are the two places you accidentally put your phone down. That is not a coincidence, it is neurology. 4. Patton hands patients a QR code linked to an episode covering exactly what they discussed in the exam room. The podcast becomes extra time, clarity on demand, and a voice they can replay. 5. Patients under stress cannot absorb a 15 minute conversation while processing scary news. A recording lets them hear the same doctor, the same brain, once the amygdala cools down.

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5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Your Mic is the podcast about podcasting for new, stuck, and almost‑quit hosts. Hosted by Speke Podcasting founder and 25‑year broadcast vet Freddy Cruz, it blends hard‑earned lessons, failures, and irreverent stories with sharp tactics you can actually use. Listen on your favorite podcast app!

Information

  • Creator
    Freddy Cruz
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    113
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Freddy Cruz
  • Show Website
    Your Mic