Your Mic

Your podcast does not need to become a hungry little beast demanding dinner every Tuesday. You have clients. Payroll. An inbox that apparently reproduces overnight. In this episode of Your Mic, Freddy Cruz dismantles the idea that seasonal podcasts are for people who couldn’t hack it and explains how to build a show around your business goals, your calendar, and your actual capacity. You’ll learn...

More than a thousand silent duplicate episodes turned Freddy Cruz’s podcast feed into a mess and wrecked months of analytics. No tidy comeback speech here. Just the damage, the uncertainty, and a harder question: what matters when the dashboard stops telling you anything useful? Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/free-resources Work with us: https://www.spekepodc...

Being authentic does not mean handing strangers a transcript of your worst week. Freddy Cruz challenges the no-filter gospel and separates useful vulnerability from public oversharing. Choose the truth that serves your listener. Save the rest for people who have earned it. Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/free-resources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting...

Your archive is not a cemetery. Freddy Cruz brings 26 years of radio experience and real Speke client examples to the case for podcast reruns. Give useful episodes another shot, disclose the repeat, and stop manufacturing fresh content just to satisfy the calendar. Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/free-resources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pri...

Most podcasts book a guest. Freddy Cruz apparently took that as a lack of ambition. In this live episode of Your Mic, over twenty creators, entrepreneurs, and communications pros take turns at the microphone for rapid-fire questions. There are social media disasters. Imposter syndrome confessions. Strong opinions about AI. Someone owns roughly a hundred URLs. Freddy floats a world-record claim wit...

Frank Racioppi is the founder of the Ear Worthy newsletter and is a Forbes journalist who covers independent podcasts. He and Freddy break down why the big names barely move on the charts while indie shows keep growing, and why the CPM model leaves most small shows poor. Frank offers a blunt take on the rush to video, a real example of a live event that outearned a year of ads, and a few lessons o...

This bonus episode from Illuminate is a little different. Freddy is not at the mic as a co-host. Britney and Dr. Trevor Boffone, a Houston educator turned content creator, run the conversation on social media growth with a live room. Trevor shares what viral actually feels like, why posting three times a day is bad advice, and how to protect your mental health when the notifications explode. Podca...

Dr. Sturm, a plastic surgeon who has been making YouTube videos since 2012, and Mavi, host of Beauty Unveiled, take the Illuminate stage to talk about the part of podcasting nobody schedules: getting over yourself. Mavi launched a plastic surgery show without being a plastic surgeon and turned that "not qualified" voice into her edge. Dr. Sturm went from terrified of the camera to ignoring the com...

Freddy Cruz uses Victorian post-mortem photography to make a case for deeper work. This episode is about creating podcast episodes that preserve voices, stories, and memories without manufacturing trauma or chasing disposable algorithm fodder. Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans Key Takeaway...

Freddy Cruz breaks down why your podcast name is not a cute afterthought. From vague titles to accidental double meanings, learn how to pressure-test a name before you buy the domain, print the logo, record episode one, and wonder why nobody clicks play. Key Takeaways 1. Your podcast name is the front door. Great content inside does not matter if the title makes people assume the house is boring,...

Freddy Cruz explains why motivation is a lousy production plan. Learn how topic banks, batch recording, checklists, episode reserves, and a repeatable workflow can keep your show alive when life gets loud and your release date is staring you down. Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans Key Take...

Freddy Cruz delivers a hard truth for creators hiding behind fear, excuses, or somebody else’s opinion. Your story may be exactly what another person needs. Stop waiting for permission, pull the mic out of the closet, and give your voice somewhere to go. Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans K...

Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/ Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1PQNHuqxIVhkLfjGYuWcxl?si=50a834335d2d42e7 Victoria Meyer turned a chemical-industry podcast into a six-figure media business. We talk niche authority, paid guest access, sponsor-ready media kits, and why your download count is...

Chris Richardson joins Your Mic to unpack how The House of Theft became Speke Originals’ first true-crime podcast. A $3.8 million family fraud scheme is the backdrop, but the mission is bigger: spot the red flags, stop suffering in silence, and tell stories that can actually help somebody. Key Takeaways 1. A personal story does not need to begin as a polished book proposal. Record the first versio...

Chris Richardson turned a $3.8 million family fraud story into The House of Theft. This is not true crime for gawking. It is about red flags, survival, and telling the truth before silence does more damage. Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans Key Takeaways 1. A personal story becomes more po...

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/...

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 Creat...

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 K...

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...

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 strate...

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.

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. C...

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 run...

Free resources from Speke Podcasting: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans Listen to The Son of a Blitch Podcast: https://www.sonofablitch.com/ How do you prepare for a milestone like hitting 100 podcast episodes? It's a journey that takes persistence and learning through every step. George Blitch has navigated this path with his...

Get the FREE Speke Roadmap: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/givethemroadmap Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/ Indie podcast expert Frank Racioppi joins me to unpack AMP’s new play metric, Spotify’s ad skip feature, broken CPMs, and why targeted listeners beat vanity downloads if you actually want a podcast that makes money. Subscribe to Frank’s newsletter (https://podalization.substac...