Your Mic
Your Mic is a podcast for new and aspiring podcasters. Hosted by Freddy Cruz, founder of Speke Podcasting, Your Mic offers insights, tactics, and mindset strategies. Each episode features practical advice to help listeners build and grow a top 1% podcast. Join Freddy as he shares his experience and knowledge to guide you through the podcasting journey. Tune in and take your podcast to new heights.
Episodes
January 15, 2026 • 4 mins
Clip factories are shredding your episodes into context-free dust. This one rips apart the “47 pieces of content” gospel and shows you how a few intentional, lethal clips can out-pull an army of random reels and quote cards.
Key takeaways
Most “repurposed” clips are contextless crumbs with no hook, narrative, or payoff.
A messy episode chopped up just becomes a hundred tiny messes.
Plan clip moments in the outline so th...
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January 13, 2026 • 5 mins
Silence is still a response. Criticism is proof someone noticed. The podcaster who keeps publishing anyway is the one actually in the arena.
Freddy Cruz drags podcasting out of the comfy “content” bucket and drops it straight into Teddy Roosevelt’s arena, where you show up under the lights, swing, miss, and bleed in public. Episodes flop, guests ghost you on promotion, social feeds pretend your show does not exist, and sometimes t...
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January 8, 2026 • 6 mins
If your calendar looks like a clown car of randos, this is your intervention. Burn the guest factory, torch the canned pitches, and rebuild a show where every conversation serves your listener and your offer instead of some agency’s brag post.
Key takeaways
Booking agencies turn your show into free labor by dumping misaligned guests onto your calendar.
If you can swap guest names and nothing changes, you don’t have a show,...
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January 6, 2026 • 30 mins
Reena Friedman Watts doesn’t do boring, and she definitely doesn’t do lazy podcast guests. In this episode, we break down what separates forgettable interviews from the ones that live rent‑free in your listeners’ heads: obsessive prep, real interaction, and hosts who are willing to bleed a little on the mic.
We get into why you should never pitch yourself cold, how to use every appearance to sharpen your chops, and how deep, thou...
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January 1, 2026 • 40 mins
This one hits your feed a little sideways. Instead of hosting, Freddy steps into the guest chair on Dr. Angela Sturm’s Beauty Unveiled, and the conversation rips the mask off “safe” careers in corporate radio and big hospital systems.
Dr. Sturm and Freddy trade war stories about bad offers, form‑letter rejections, and the exact moment you realize you’d rather build your own wheel than run in someone else’s until you break. From l...
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December 30, 2025 • 16 mins
A founder with two exits cashes out right before COVID, stares down midlife crisis, and decides his next move isn’t another startup—it’s a global charity podcast blitz. Jeremie Mani, co‑founder of Podcasthon, lays out how a simple idea—one mic, one cause, one coordinated week in March—turned into thousands of podcasts spotlighting nonprofits around the world.
He connects the dots between entrepreneurial pitching and podcast story...
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December 25, 2025 • 11 mins
Christmas carols started as drunk pagan hype tracks, got banned as dangerous, then came back as sentimental cash machines—and that arc looks a lot like podcasting right now. In this solo riff, Freddy dismantles safe, background‑music content and makes the case for episodes that feel like carols people actually want to belt in the cold. If you’re tired of “best practices” that drain the soul out of your show, this one’s your ritual....
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December 23, 2025 • 11 mins
Using the chaos behind his third novel, Allow Me to Ruin Your Christmas, Freddy drags the myth of the smooth creator journey out into the alley where it belongs. From an editor’s sudden death to typos in print, getting dropped by the publisher, and book signings where two people show up, this episode is a masterclass in getting your teeth kicked in and still creating. If you’ve ever wondered whether the grind is worth it, this one ...
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December 18, 2025 • 4 mins
Podcast listeners swipe past you long before they ever hear your intro. Freddy Cruz exposes how lazy cover art turns a solid show into background noise no one ever selects and lays out how to clean it up.
He calls out the usual crimes: titles crammed in like a CVS receipt, cringey microphone clipart from 2009, blurry selfies, and designs that only look decent when they’re the size of a movie poster. Instead, he pushes for simple, ...
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December 16, 2025 • 5 mins
Most podcasters bail early because they treat the mic like a lottery ticket instead of a long game. Freddy Cruz takes the Michael Jordan route and treats every missed shot as practice, not proof that he should quit.
He knows the sting of tiny numbers, the kind of launch where your “audience” is basically your mom and a bot from Estonia. Even now, with decades of media work behind him, the lesson stays the same: the early episodes ...
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December 11, 2025 • 5 mins
FedEx stayed alive because its founder marched into Vegas with the last five grand and bet like there was no Plan B. This solo episode turns that story into a dare: put real stakes on your content, your schedule, and your distribution so your show stops dying politely.
Subscribe to Your Mic on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Shoot Freddy an email: freddy@spekepodcasting.com.
Key takeaways
FedEx su...
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December 9, 2025 • 9 mins
Cristiano Ronaldo bets on curiosity and Perplexity AI. Your favorite podcasts already own your time. This episode dares you to stop lurking in the audience and build your industry’s next favorite show in 2026.Key takeaways
Curiosity is capital. When someone worth over a billion bucks backs a tool they actually use, it is a signal to stop treating your own curiosity like a hobby.
Every week you are clocking serious hours wit...
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December 4, 2025 • 30 mins
Chung Wu risked his career to put clients first during the Enron crisis, embodying transparency and integrity above all else. Despite immense pressure and personal cost, he refused to compromise on doing what was right. Now, his philosophy centers on living a balanced life with honesty and purpose.
Learn more about Chung Wu here.
Subscribe to Your Mic on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Shoot Freddy an ...
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December 2, 2025 • 34 mins
Earworthy newsletter publisher Frank Racioppi joins the show to spotlight the often-overlooked power of independent podcasters. They dig into why indie creators deserve a much larger role in the podcast ecosystem, how big networks and celebrity-fronted shows dominate headlines, and what that means for everyday listeners.
Frank shares the evolution of Earworthy—from amplifying network press releases to exclusively featuring indepen...
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November 25, 2025 • 2 mins
Happy Thanksgiving.
If you’re sick of amateur hour in your feeds, let’s celebrate everything you don’t have to endure.
Villainous? Only if liking good audio is a crime :)
Subscribe to Your Mic on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Shoot Freddy an email: freddy@spekepodcasting.com.
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November 20, 2025 • 20 mins
If you’re tired of gurus and hype, you’re not alone. On Be Amazing You, Lolita and I get real about building a show, why you probably have everything you need already, and the value of keeping things simple.
Your story is worth sharing. Just make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons.
Subscribe to Be Amazing You on YouTube here.
Key Takeaways
Skill beats fancy gear, every time.
Find your people, serve them, ignore t...
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November 18, 2025 • 19 mins
Speke Podcasting brings you a jet-fueled holiday special with Britney Crosson from Fun Love Media, dropping the secrets combos of social media and podcasting during the holiday season. If you dread marketing or want to ride the festive wave, Britney and Freddy break down omnipresence, platform picks, and why recycling content is pure genius. This chat shows how midlife podcasters and business owners can own their season, set custom...
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November 13, 2025 • 31 mins
When the job market closed its doors, Freddy Cruz opened a new one.
His path from morning radio to founder of Speke Podcasting started with hundreds of rejections and ended up reshaping Houston’s entrepreneurial podcast scene. Integrity Bank
co-founders Hazem Ahmed and Mack Neff, who also host Banking on Integrity, walk through Freddy’s personal and professional pivots, authenticity in business, and what happens when you never s...
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November 11, 2025 • 13 mins
It’s time for a no-apologies pep talk from the founder of Speke Podcasting.
Freddy gets real about editing, perfection, and why chasing that seamless sound is overrated. If you’ve ever agonized about every “um,” “ah,” or background bark, this episode hands you permission to care about the message more than the pixel-perfect audio. He demystifies what listeners truly notice, helps you make kinder editing decisions, and reminds you ...
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November 6, 2025 • 7 mins
Every new podcaster faces the reality of holiday listenership dips, but Freddy Cruz transforms this seasonal curveball into a power move. Expect a direct line on testing bolder formats and rethinking your approach when everyone else disappears for family and festivities. The guidance here is all about owning your choices, setting expectations with your audience, and emerging stronger for the new year. No guesswork, just clear permi...
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