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Cruz Through HTX: How Killing a Good Show Saved a Better One ​ · Your Mic

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  You don't just kill a podcast you love by accident.
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  You look it in the eyes, you sit it down and you say, we're done.
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  No more. I just can't with you.
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  You make it one of those good breakups. You ever have one of those where you and the
• 0:23
  significant other leave, feeling better, right? You know what I'm talking about.
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  So Cruiser HTX was that show. It was my love letter to the city that raised me that built my
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  career. I have lived in the Houston area for all but three of my 50 years at the time of this
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  recording all of my 50 years on this planet. It's pretty much all I've known.
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  And it was really just all about Houston. We're talking about stories, people, spots, events.
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  I loved recording it. It was actually a rebranded podcast from an original podcast called
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  Freddy's Huge Ask Podcast, which really had no focus. It was more of a hobby to keep me busy while
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  I was looking for traditional employment after I left corporate radio at the end of 2021.
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  And I just wanted something to do and I treated it like it was a full-time job, not really knowing
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  what to do. But then I realized that having a podcast was way different than hosting the radio show
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  that was music focused, right? So that was how I ended up launching Cruiser HTX. It was fun.
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  It made sense because hello, former Houston radio DJ knows a lot of people can get access to guests
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  and it's going to be a success. And it kind of sort of not really was. Now it wasn't monetized.
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  I did develop a following a modest one. And it was far better executed than the other show
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  because they actually had a focus and the focus was Houston. But it was bi-weekly and I was
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  beholden to people's schedules. And let me tell you something. If you are going to host a
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  bi-weekly podcast all around the year, that's what 52 weeks, that's 104 episodes, that's 104
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  people whose schedules you got to coordinate. And if you are married and you got kids that you're
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  driving around and you're trying to be present, you're trying to service your clients, I was working
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  a part-time contract marketing job with the local animal shelter as well. So one show became
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  several no shows became a post-pomant became a cancellation. And then I found myself experimenting
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  with solo episodes and then I would run feed drops from podcasts in which I was a guest. But
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  it really had nothing to do with Houston. And then it just caught up with me. And so in the summer
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  of 2024, right, in the summer of 2024, I had enough because I had started 2024 on the wrong track,
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  no show. And then again, more no shows. All the stuff that I talked about, typical pain points when
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  it comes to hosting a guest interview format. And that ought to be a teachable lesson in case
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  you're thinking about having a show and you're wondering whether or not you want to make it
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  an interview format. It's not easy to give people to agree to whatever time you've got going on.
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  In addition to your actual day job, right? Well, so in summer of 2024, I decided to take a
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  planned hiatus and then I launched the podcast that you are listening to right now, your mic.
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  Because I had seen enough terrible advice on LinkedIn and I decided, well, I can stop
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  shouting at my iPhone and actually do something about it because I actually know a thing or two.
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  And so I launched your mic, a limited run series of 12 episodes. And then at the beginning of 2025,
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  and yeah, this is like a deep dive into cruise through HTX. And so at the beginning of 2025,
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  I decided, well, I'm going to do planned seasons and every season is going to be a thing. And the
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  first season was health and wellness. And it was fun. And it was video focused. And again,
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  highly curated, handful of episodes. And it kind of sort of worked. But during that time,
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  when I was off from your mic, I was like, I really enjoy talking about podcasting.
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  But then cruise through HTX, the season of health and wellness went away. And I'm like,
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  well, I guess I got to do another season because I can't just pod fade. Here, I'm teaching everybody
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  about how not to be a zombie podcast and how not to quit. And here I want to end this show.
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  So I decided that instead of having two seasons of each show that I would do the thing,
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  that one was most relatable to my business, which is podcasting. My company is speak podcasting.
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  And we produce iconic shows for iconic brands. So I'd rather do that than talk about
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  Houston because there's enough of that. And so this was, and is my leap of faith as I start to
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  build somewhat of a reputation in the podcast business. And it's my sort of good will to people
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  who may not otherwise hire speak podcasting to produce their podcast. Because honestly,
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  you don't need me. You don't need my video team. You don't need us to produce the binge
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  worthy show for you. You can do all of that on your own, or you can just hire cheap and go with
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  the VA somewhere in, I don't know, in India or South America. There's a lot of talent over there.
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  Far less expensive. You can do that. You can find somebody on five or you can find a VA.
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  You just can't. But my heart belongs to podcasting. One of my favorite authors,
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  Robert Green, talks about your life's task podcasting is my life's task. And being the host of
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  your mic is part of that life's task. You hear people in the, in the business space talking about
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  one to one, one to a few, and then one to many. This is so far. I'm less than two years in.
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  And it's, I would say one to, one to a few. And it's eventually going to be one to many.
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  Because I'm not going to quit at all. And so back to Cruiser HDX. I decided to
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  in the show and put it on a permanent hiatus. The show is over as, as it is, as anyone's ever
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  listened to it, I wanted to end it with the season of powerhouse pet owners. As you know,
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  speak podcasting is named after two of my dogs, Sparrow and Zeke. It's even spelled after their
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  names, S-P-E-K-E. And so my family, my friends and I were crazy about dogs. And so I decided to,
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  you know, riff on a hue scenario business podcast, but center it around pets. And we had fun doing
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  that. Had some friends, former clients, people I've known for a long time, joined the show
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  for a very limited run series now is, is ending the show with eight episodes. The quote-unquote
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  right way to end the show. I don't know. That's not for me to decide. What I do know is the right
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  thing to do is to at least tell people who have spent more than 120 episodes listening to Cruiser HDX
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  to give those people the respect to let them know that, hey, this is over. And yeah, you
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  hardly heard from me in 2025. And you're hardly going to hear from me in 2026. And that's why the
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  show is over. And if you really want to hang out, then you can listen to this show. And if podcasting
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  is not your jam and I get it, it's probably not for everybody. You can follow me on social media.
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  I'm on Instagram and on Facebook. I'm on LinkedIn. And, you know, it's cool. Not everybody needs to
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  be a fan of me. I get it. Just like not everybody needs to be a fan of you. Not everybody wants
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  my service. Not everybody wants your service. Not everybody wants to listen to your mic. Not
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  everybody's going to want to listen to your podcast. And so I hope that you're listening to this.
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  And if you are on the brink of giving up your show, I would encourage you to not quit just yet.
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  Not yet. You can end it, but do not for the love of Pete. Just quit.
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  You don't want to like break up text your listeners. You don't want to just ghost your feed. And
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  if somebody's somebody's listening to your show and then they wonder where the heck you are.
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  Well, that's not cool. You don't want to five months from now be at a conference or
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  be out in public or whatever. And someone's like, hey, whatever happened in that show, you just kind
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  of fell off the map. Not cool, right? So what I want you to do is take your podcast and map out
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  eight episodes. Why eight? Well, you can sort of shadow what I'm doing. And this is we're going
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  to riff here, you and me. You're going to map out eight episodes. The first one is going to be an
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  intro. Okay. You're going to introduce yourself, your podcast, and you're going to explain what's
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  going on and why you're leaving. Episode two is going to be if it's a guest format, somebody that
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  you highly respect that you would love to have on. It could be somebody that's a repeat guest,
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  whatever. Episode three, four, five, six, seven, and so on. Episode eight. And I know this is very
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  specific to guest formatted shows. And we'll go there if you're a solo or co-hosted show too.
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  Episode eight is your final. And that's where you debrief, you share best of moments. So with
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  Cruiser HTX, I had more than 120 episodes to pull from. And so I took some of the five biggest
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  moments or from my some of my most favorite moments as well. And I mixed them up into a final
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  episode. And I had an intro. I ran the montage. And then I did the outro. And I said, hey,
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  this is where I'm going to be from here on out. And then you end it. And it could be like a
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  love letter to your audience because that's what Cruiser HTX was. A love letter to the people
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  who invested their time for more than 120 episodes. You don't just get to 120 episodes and then
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  ghost your feed. Oh, you know what? I quit. I just got bored with it.
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  And how fair is that time is the one thing? Time is the one thing none of us get back.
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  None of us. So there's anything you get from this episode about why I decided to quit my other
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  podcast. I hope it's this that you owe it to the listener because at the end of the day,
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  you're not podcasting just for yourself. You're not the main character in somebody's story.
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  Your listener is the main character in their story. Your listener is. And so
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  I owed it to the people investing that time to end it with a beautifully wrapped love
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  letter, perfectly packaged or at least I think so. Love letter to them into the city I love,
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  the city that raised me, the city that produced me, and the city that continues to support my
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  business as we continue to grow and expand beyond the Houston area. And so if you'd like some
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  help walking through what might be your final season of your podcast, please, please, please
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  hit me up. Do not give up. All right. Don't end it until we have talked. Oh, and by the way,
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  cello episodes before we wrap because I did promise you that. If you have a cello episode,
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  upload all of your all of your transcripts into your favorite chatbot,
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  chat GPT, Claude, I use perplexity, and then ask to create an eight episode outline for your final
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  eight episodes of your podcast series. Again, though, you want some assistance
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  drafting all this together, putting all this together, hit me up. Freddie at SpeakPodcasting.com
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  really appreciate you listening to this episode.