Your Mic

Freddy Cruz

Your Mic is the no‑fluff, say‑the‑quiet‑part‑out‑loud 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. FEB 17

    The Danny Trejo Blueprint: Turning Your Worst Chapters Into Podcast Fuel

    You’re out here trying to build a pristine, “professional” podcast while the guys who actually win are the ones bleeding on the mic. In this episode of Your Mic, we steal a page from Danny Trejo’s life—heroin at twelve, armed robbery, San Quentin, then Machete and taco shops—and use it as a blueprint for turning your worst chapters into your show’s sharpest edge. You’ll hear how Trejo went from prison boxing champ to character actor and restaurateur by refusing to sanitize his past, and why your botched launches, flopped products, and face‑plant episodes are the exact raw material your listeners will trust most. Then we drag it straight into podcast land: how to mine your “bad” episodes for patterns, turn failures into recurring formats, and use your own rap sheet as the before‑picture for your audience. In this episode: The Trejo blueprint: addiction, prison, boxing, recovery, Runaway Train to Machete, then Trejo’s Tacos and beyond—and why he says everything good traces back to helping someone else.​ Why the ugliest parts of your business story (botched launches, public flops, brutal pivots) are the only truly proprietary assets your podcast has. How to treat failed episodes as a gym, not a morgue: mining low‑download shows for patterns, building new formats from “accidents,” and keeping your worst work live as proof you earned it.​ Life’s Task vs Personal Legend: what Robert Greene and Paulo Coelho would say about Trejo’s “cell to set” arc—and how your mic becomes the place you practice your own version in public.​ A 90‑day Trejo‑style playbook: naming your worst chapter, building a 3‑part mini‑series from it, adding a recurring “prison yard” segment, and stealing Trejo’s service‑first north star so your pain actually helps someone.​ For: Podcasters who are done pretending everything’s fine and are ready to turn their rap sheet—business, life, and back catalog—into an RSS feed people can’t stop coming back to. Subscribe to Your Mic on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Shoot Freddy an email: freddy@spekepodcasting.com.

    14 min
  2. FEB 10

    Using AI Without Losing Your Soul

    You’re not a factory. You’re a tastemaker. So why are you judging yourself for not being a one‑person production line with a ring light and a nervous system on fire? In this solo episode of Your Mic, we drag your AI guilt into the daylight and beat it with a mic stand. You’ll hear why nobody cares who normalized the waveform, what TV anchors and radio hosts know that podcasters forget, and how to treat AI like an invisible production team instead of a threat to your “purity” as a creator.​ We’ll also talk about the real reason AI makes you uncomfortable: not ethics, not robots, but ego. Because once the busywork excuse disappears, you’re left with one brutal question—do you actually have something to say or not?​ In this episode: Why you’re not a “realer” podcaster for doing everything yourself—and why that belief is burning you out, not building your show.​ The TV and radio reality: anchors and hosts don’t touch half the buttons you’re punishing yourself over. Listeners only care how you make them feel.​ A simple workflow for using AI as your invisible production team to turn one messy recording into show notes, clips, emails, and social content.​ The guilt and ego piece: how “It’s cheating to use AI” is often code for “I’m scared to run out of excuses.” Subscribe to Your Mic on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Shoot Freddy an email: freddy@spekepodcasting.com.

    7 min
5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Your Mic is the no‑fluff, say‑the‑quiet‑part‑out‑loud 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!