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Fun is a Requirement, Not a Reward for Hitting Your Numbers · Your Mic

• 0:00
  Twice now, the same idea has changed my business. The first time, it came from Alex Hormozzi. The second time, it came from a woman who used to run a breast cancer nonprofit. And between those moments sits the entire origin story of Speak Podcasting.
• 0:20
  This is your mic. My name is Freddy Kruse, and today I want to tell you about my first client, the first big yes after hearing more than 450 rejections and the five words that quietly became the pillar of my company. This has to be fun.
• 0:36
  When I left radio, I did what everybody tells you to do. Update the resume, pitch myself, apply everywhere. 450 plus rejections. Most of them met with silence. A few with kind rejection. One with a rejection. So thoughtful, I still talk about it. But mostly, crickets.
• 0:56
  So I decided to do the thing Hormozy talks about. Instead of waiting for opportunity, I went hunting. I opened my socials, Facebook friends lists. I started sending DMs. Hey, you want to do a podcast? Hey, you want to do a podcast? Hey, you want to do a podcast? Hey, how are you? Do you know anybody who might want to launch a podcast? Copy, paste, send, over and over. Most of those messages went nowhere. One of them...
• 1:22
  went to Dorothy Gibbons, co-founder and former CEO of The Rose, a nonprofit that provides breast cancer screenings and diagnostic services to women insured or not across more than 40 counties in Texas. She's a woman I had known for years from my Sunday morning radio show in The Rose's Shrimp Boyle. I messaged her. We set up a meeting. And,
• 1:47
  And this is where the story usually gets cleaned up, but I want to tell you exactly how it went down. I suggested coffee and she was like, Freddie, if you've got something to sell me, you have to come to me. So I went to her. I showed up at the Rose with my little proposal that I designed on Canva. And before I could even walk her through it, she said something that rattled me. Freddie, we've been waiting to do a podcast for years. We just didn't know how.
• 2:17
  It was that simple. Not, do we need this? Not, what's the ROI? Not, who are you again? It was, we've wanted to. We didn't know how. And sitting across from her, I remember, there's no way it's supposed to be this easy.
• 2:39
  And trust me, it wasn't. The yes was loud, but there were a lot of no's before and plenty after. But something clicked in that moment. There are organizations, good ones, great ones, important ones, that do not need to be convinced that podcasting matters. They need somebody to show them how. The rose was my first yes. My first client, my, oh, this might actually work moment.
• 3:08
  But that's not the only reason they're foundational to speak. The other reason is that one sentence. This has to be fun.
• 3:19
  And this time it wasn't a general life philosophy. It was directed straight at me. We were talking specifically about the podcast, about the work, about what it would realistically take to make a show for a nonprofit that deals with breast cancer day in and day out. And we'd already been, I think it was like maybe about a year, possibly nine months, possibly longer than a year, but around that, you know, about that long of a timeframe. Dorothy said point blank, this has to be fun.
• 3:47
  It was never if this doesn't go viral, not if this doesn't hit some arbitrary download number. This has to be fun. She was talking to me as the service provider because the truth is podcasting is a lot of work. She worked so hard on this show.
• 4:09
  She and her marketing team. Booking, planning, recording. I did the editing. It's a lift for the client. She knew that. I knew that. We knew that. So her condition was simple. If we're going to carry this weight together, joy has got to be a part of the deal. Fun wasn't just a nice to have experience.
• 4:28
  It was a hard rule and I heard it. If a woman who runs a breast cancer nonprofit can look her podcast producer in the eye and say, this has to be fun. What excuse do I have to build a company where everything feels like drudgery?
• 4:46
  fun in that context is not frivolous. It's the fuel that keeps the mission moving when the subject matter is heavy and the work is nonstop. And if you've ever listened to the Roses podcast, Let's Talk About Your Breasts, you can hear that rule in the way they use the medium. They didn't
• 5:16
  is commitment. Oh, you want more commitment? How about every October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month? They call it BCAM. They release 31 episodes in 31 days. Some are interviews, some are solos, some are these beautiful mosaics of event audio, supporters at fundraisers, survivors, advocates on stages stitched together as a love letter to the people they serve and the people who support them.
• 5:42
  They repeat some, they remix others. It's never just content. It's a living archive. It's a month long full court press of education, hope and reality. That is what it looks like when a nonprofit takes podcasting seriously. But underneath it all, the rule is still there. This has to be fun.
• 6:11
  You can hear it when Dorothy laughs about her alphabet game, the one where she talks herself out of negative loops by going A to Z with positive words. I'm able. I'm bold. I'm courageous. I'm daring. I'm eager. By the time she hits XYZ, the anxiety has lost its grip. That is a woman who understands that mindset is never a motivational poster.
• 6:40
  It is survival and it is culture. So what does any of this have to do with you, with your show, your business, your mind? I would say everything.
• 6:58
  Because if you're listening right now and you're in the same place the Rose was before that first come to my office if you're going to sell me something meeting, you need another way to tell your story. You're tired of relying on whatever social algorithm decides to show people this week or whatever reporter decides your work is newsworthy. You had, quote, start a podcast on the goal list for years.
• 7:24
  You just don't know how. And maybe, like me, you've quietly convinced yourself that this has to be miserable to count. That if it's fun, you're slacking off. So let me offer you Dorothy's rule. This has to be fun. Fun.
• 7:48
  Fun does not mean careless in this context. The Rose still has a marketing team. They still have goals and metrics and budgets and all the unsexy stuff that keeps the lights on. Fun means you remember that you're a human being talking to other human beings about something that matters. And human beings...
• 8:11
  Well, they respond to joy, even in the middle of fear. Maybe especially when they're in the middle of fear. Dorothy once told me, when I was lowballing my own potential, I'm not going to argue for your limitations. So I'm not going to argue for yours now. If you have the idea, go for it.
• 8:36
  There's no one rule that's going to make it work. You'll be working by the seat of your pants more often than you're comfortable admitting. Do it anyway. And while you do, ask yourself, where can I put more fun back into this? Into my show, into my business, into the way I talk about the hard things, into the way I talk to myself.
• 8:59
  That's a big one. Because if the rose can talk about breast cancer and still make space for laughter, for stories and play, you can find a way to make your work fun again too. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Your Mic. If this hits you, if it gave you an idea, please consider sharing with a friend, the podcast host in your life.