Shows / Your Mic
Your Mic
Your Mic is the 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!
Episodes
- Your Mic
Your Podcast's Invisible Enemies
Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/ Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203 Listen on Spotify…
- Your Mic
Handwashing, Lab Rats, and the Heresy Your Podcast Needs
Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/ Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203 Listen on Spotify…
- Your Mic
Cruz Through HTX: How Killing a Good Show Saved a Better One
Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/ Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203 Listen on Spotify…
- Your Mic
DIY vs Pro: How to Tell If Your Editor Knows What They’re Doing
Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/ Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203 Listen on Spotify…
- Your Mic
Taking a Nonprofit Podcast to 100k downloads (It's Not as Easy as You Think!)
Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/ (https://www.spekepodcasting.com/) Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203…
- Your Mic
Taking a nonprofit podcast to 100,000 downloads (it's not as easy as you think)
Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/ Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203 Listen on Spotify…
- Your Mic
Corporate Nude Podcasts vs. Punk Black Audio
Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/ Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203 Listen on Spotify…
- Your Mic
Your Umms Are Fine. Your Panic Loops Aren’t.
Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/ Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203 Listen on Spotify…
- Your Mic
Podcast Burnout: How to Keep Going When Growth Is Slow
Free resources: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/ Never compare your first mile to somebody else’s…
- Your Mic
Listener Number 37
In this episode of Your Mic, Freddy takes a blowtorch to generic “target audience” talk and replaces it with one real human: Listener 37. Drawing from podcast…
- Your Mic
The Bad Podcast Ideas That Refuse to Die
Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/ Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203 Listen on Spotify…
- Your Mic
The Algorithm Is Not a Podcast God
This solo episode of Your Mic is a friendly exorcism for every creator who’s turned “the algorithm” into a deity. Freddy breaks down what recommendation…
- Your Mic
Welcome to the Podcast Cemetery
Podcast graveyards are full of good intentions. Stats float around saying 40–50% of shows die after just a few episodes, and only around 15–20% of the Apple…
- Your Mic
"Brand-Safe" Is a Podcast Genre (And It’s Boring)
In this episode of Your Mic, Freddy goes after the beige monster: brand-safe podcasts that sound like internal town halls instead of real shows. We break down…
- Your Mic
Put Your Money Where Your Mic Is
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…
- Your Mic
The Email That Cost Him His Job (And What It Can Teach Podcasters About Trust)
Chung Wu risked his career to put clients first during the Enron crisis, embodying transparency and integrity above all else. Despite immense pressure and…
- Your Mic
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…
- Your Mic
Will You Die for Your Podcast?
In this solo episode of Your Mic, Freddy rips the cute Hallmark wrapper off Valentine’s Day and drags you back to the third century—to a priest who got beaten…
- Your Mic
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…
- Your Mic
One Tiny Fish Can Fix Your Entire Podcast Process
In this solo episode of Your Mic, Freddy goes underwater—literally—to talk about what a tiny Japanese pufferfish can teach you about preparation, obscurity…
- Your Mic
You Can Do Everything Right and Still Lose
Today, Freddy goes back to peewee football—four seasons of the Klein Jets dominating regular seasons, only to lose the Super Bowl to the same team, the Spring…
- Your Mic
Your Podcast Is Undefeated...BUT NOBODY CARES
In this solo episode of Your Mic, Freddy raids Creed for every lesson it has about ego, humility, and getting your ass kicked on the way to greatness. We walk…
- Your Mic
Podcast Charts Are Lying to You: How to Use Rankings Without Losing Your Soul
Podcast charts are sexy lies in a tailored suit. This episode pulls the mask off “top 5%” flexes and shows you how to treat rankings like lobby trophies while…
- Your Mic
Resilience Is The Real Podcast Metric
Suffering is not the tax you pay for podcasting. It is the training camp. Freddy Cruz reframes the sting of low downloads, awkward interviews, and lonely…
- Your Mic
You Don’t Need a Weekly Show: The Truth About Podcast Consistency
Weekly-or-bust bros are not paying your invoices. This episode murders the myth that you “have” to publish every week and helps you pick a cadence you can keep…
- Your Mic
Stop Clip Spam: How to Repurpose Your Podcast Without Trashing It
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…
- Your Mic
Building a Podcast While Nobody Claps
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…
- Your Mic
Building a Podcast that Lasts: World Podcast Network Founder Bruce Chamoff on Discoverability and...
In this episode of Your Mic, Freddy Cruz sits down with Bruce Chamoff, founder of the World Podcast Network and host of Become a Successful Podcaster. With…
- Your Mic
Burn Down the Guest Factory: How to Take Your Podcast Back
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…
- Your Mic
How to Not Suck as a Podcast Guest
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…
- Your Mic
Choosing Your Hard: From Corporate to Calling
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…
- Your Mic
Banned Carols, Boring Podcasts
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…
- Your Mic
Allow Me to Ruin Your Christmas (And Fix Your Creator Mindset)
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…
- Your Mic
The Harsh Truth About Podcast Cover Art
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…
- Your Mic
When Your Podcast Scoreboard Says You Lost
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…
- Your Mic
Your Podcast Needs a Vegas Moment
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…
- Your Mic
Put Your Money Where Your Mic Is
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…
- Your Mic
The Email That Cost Him His Job (And What It Can Teach Podcasters About Trust)
Chung Wu risked his career to put clients first during the Enron crisis, embodying transparency and integrity above all else. Despite immense pressure and…
- Your Mic
Chart-Toppers vs. Difference-Makers: A Case for Independent Podcasts
Download free Speke resources: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Listen on Apple Podcasts…
- Your Mic
Our Thanks to Good Taste (and Proper Podcast Etiquette )
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…
- Your Mic
Keep It Simple, Launch Your Podcast Anyway
Download free Speke resources: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Listen on Apple Podcasts…
- Your Mic
Holiday Social Media Strategies for Podcasters
Download free Speke resources: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Listen on Apple Podcasts…
- Your Mic
Time to Make Your Holiday Content Power Moves
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…
- Your Mic
How Rejection Built Speke Podcasting
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…
- Your Mic
How Bad Editing Can Kill Your Podcast
Download free Speke resources: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Listen on Apple Podcasts…
- Your Mic
The Indie Podcaster’s Guide to Editing Without Fear
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…
- Your Mic
Experimenting with Your Podcast Format During the Holiday Season
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…
- Your Mic
Can You Really Sound Pro Without Paying Pro Prices?
Audio quality is everything. When you drop a podcast or step up as a guest, the way you sound says plenty about your show before you ever say a word. A solid…
- Your Mic
The Power of Confidence: Pop Star Anna Storm’s Creator Mindset
Download free Speke resources: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Listen on Apple Podcasts…
- Your Mic
Stop Your Podcast From Fading Out
Podcasts lose steam when consistency slips and priorities shift. In this episode, Freddy Cruz breaks down how pod fade happens and why batch recording is key…
- Your Mic
From Zero to Launch: AI Edition
Freddy Cruz shares how to launch and plan your podcast using AI. Download Perplexity AI, upload your writing, and use prompts to generate a show description…
- Your Mic
Missed a Podcast Episode Drop? Who cares!
Have you ever missed a deadline and wondered if it made you less dedicated? On this episode, I talk about how I used to push for strict podcast consistency…
- Your Mic
The Prompt That Will Level Up Your Podcast
What’s a surefire way make your next podcast episode better than your last? A perfectly crafted prompt. Duh. You might be thinking about your flow, time…
- Your Mic
My Thoughts on Speke Fest 2025
What does it really take to launch your first podcast event? I had big plans for Speke Fest—months of work, meetings, and some tough lessons. Three things…
- Your Mic
Why Your Podcast Pitch Gets Ignored (and How to Fix It!)
Download free Speke resources: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Listen on Apple Podcasts…
- Your Mic
The Power of Podcasting for Nonprofits: Behind the Scenes at The Rose
What happens when you have a goal that keeps getting moved to the next year, and then someone comes along with a way to make it real? Dorothy Gibbons put…
- Your Mic
The 80s Movie That Unlocks Podcasting Success Today!
What can a 41-year old movie teach you about communication in the 21st century? A lot, actually. You know, there are lessons buried deep inside classic films…
- Your Mic
Using Your Podcast to Break Taboos: Lessons from Japan
Johatsu—the phenomenon of Japan’s “evaporated people”—sheds light on the extreme decision to abandon everything and vanish from one’s own life. These stories…
- Your Mic
Behind the Mic: Building a Purpose-Driven Podcast from Scratch
Download free Speke resources: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources Listen on Apple Podcasts…
- Your Mic
A Love Letter to Podcast Creators
Experience the behind-the-scenes journey of “Age of Audio” with producer/director Shaun Michael Colon, whose seven-year passion project culminates in a…