Your Mic

Free resources: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources
Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/

Never compare your first mile to somebody else’s 19th—especially in podcasting. In this episode of Your Mic, I share a story about my neighbor Marcel, a former 150‑pounds‑overweight runner turned marathon machine, and what his mile 19 struggle can teach you about sticking with your show when you’re still on episode one.

You’ll learn why comparing your brand‑new podcast to giants like Joe Rogan, Steven Bartlett, or Mel Robbins is kryptonite for your confidence, and how to flip that energy into steady, sustainable growth instead. We dig into the mindset of playing the long game, plus the actual analytics that matter—Apple Podcasts engaged listeners, retention rates, and how to read drop‑off points so you know what to double down on and what to ditch.

If you’re riding the struggle bus on episode 1, 9, or 19 and wondering if it’s worth it, this one’s for you. Lace up, hit play, and let’s make sure you’re still in the race at episode 20, 200, or 20,000.

🔎 Inside this episode:

- The “first mile vs. 19th mile” mindset for podcasters
- Why copying big‑name shows kills your momentum
- How to use Apple Podcasts analytics (engaged listeners, retention, and more)
- What to repeat, what to retire, and how to stay in the game.

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
Subcribe to Podcast the Newsletter: https://podcastthenewsletter.substack.com/

Subscribe to Earbuds Collective: https://arielle-nissenblatt-4cfp.squarespace.com/

Arielle Nissenblatt and Lauren Passell sit down with Freddy for a no BS round of hot takes about the podcast industry. From fake innovation to recycled failures and hype over listeners, they dig into what actually builds shows that last. If you make or market podcasts, this conversation might hurt and help.

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 with your favorite hosts. Over years, that adds up to days of your life invested in someone else’s show.

•

That relentless listening habit is not random entertainment. It is proof you care enough about the medium to step behind the mic yourself.

•

The world does not need another polished cardboard expert. It needs your warts, your bad decisions, your “I almost quit” stories laid bare.

•

2026 is a clean slate. You can keep donating your time to everyone else’s feed or you can invest time, budget and courage into your own industry-defining podcast.

Subscribe to Your Mic on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@SpekePodcasting) , Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203) , Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/1PQNHuqxIVhkLfjGYuWcxl) or wherever you get your podcasts (https://omny.fm/shows/spekepodcasting/playlists/your-mic) .

Grab your free Speke Podcasting Roadmap here (https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources)

.

Shoot Freddy an email: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .

Free resources:
https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources
Work with us:
https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans
Listen to NMFH’s podcast The Final Curtain Never Closes:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHfgXCJQCyIEiJCuTQl-HyZBR-V3hdxEz&si=DmG9s-QrnItfJ_RL
This episode goes deep into the power of niche podcasting with Genevieve Keeney‑Vazquez, president and CEO of the National Museum of Funeral History and host of The Final Curtain Never Closes. You hear how a museum that used to get lumped in with beer can collections and “oddities” used podcasting to step out of the sideshow tent and into its real role as a serious, educational institution. You get the story of a hyper‑specific niche, death care, and how talking openly about the thing everyone avoids turned into authority, awareness, and a steady flow of guests who now pitch themselves. If you have ever wondered whether your niche is too weird, too dark, or too narrow for a podcast, this conversation hands you proof that your niche is exactly where the power is.
Key Takeaways
Niche podcasting lets you take control of your narrative instead of letting random visitors and lazy writers decide whether you are an oddity or a respected institution.
When your topic is taboo or avoided, like death and funerals, a podcast becomes a safe, long‑form way to unpack fear, denial, and curiosity without the cheap shock value.
1. The best niche shows start in the trenches, tying episodes directly to exhibits, artifacts, or specific angles that only your corner of the world can cover.
2. If you do your job as a host and build something real, the game flips: guests start finding you because they see how their own “little niche” fits your niche and serves your audience.
3. Being a great guest first makes you a sharper host, because you understand what it feels like on the other side of the mic and you respect the conversation instead of winging it.
4. A niche podcast is not about chasing mass appeal, it is about educating the right people, in the right way, on a topic they will actually face in real life even if they pretend they will not.
5. Long, winding stories, like Genevieve’s ride‑along with her cop sister or her curiosity‑driven path into funeral work, are not tangents in a niche show; they are the connective tissue that makes your “weird” topic human and bingeable.
Timestamped Overview

Chapters

Chapters

Chapters

Chapters

Chapters

• 00:00:00 Why a funeral museum is the perfect niche case study
• 00:02:10 From “oddity” listing to respected educational institution
• 00:05:00 Realizing the neighborhood did not even know the museum existed
• 00:08:30 Using podcasting to escape the quirky museum stereotype
• 00:11:45 How death denial and avoidance shape audience behavior
• 00:15:20 Why Americans struggle to talk about their own mortality
• 00:18:40 Genevieve’s favorite part of hosting The Final Curtain Never Closes
• 00:21:05 Starting with episodes tied to specific museum exhibits
• 00:24:10 When niche listeners begin pitching themselves as guests
• 00:27:30 The education mission behind a funeral history podcast
• 00:30:15 How being a great guest trains you to be a better host
• 00:33:20 Ride‑along with a cop: bravery, perspective, and storytelling
• 00:38:10 Curiosity‑born funeral directing and a lifetime of death questions
• 00:42:00 Early death curiosity, coroners, and a cremation speech in school
• 00:46:15 Podcasting as a way to learn things you never knew about people you thought you knew
• 00:49:30 Why niche podcasters need organic, unscripted conversations
• 00:52:10 How a funeral museum podcast helps regular people face the inevitable
• 00:55:30 A thank‑you to indie media and the power of choosing your own narrative

Free resources:
https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources

Work with us:
https://www.spekepodcasting.com/pricing-plans
Listen to NMFH’s podcast *_The Final Curtain Never Closes:_*
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHfgXCJQCyIEiJCuTQl-HyZBR-V3hdxEz&si=DmG9s-QrnItfJ_RL
This episode goes deep into the power of niche podcasting with Genevieve Keeney‑Vazquez, president and CEO of the National Museum of Funeral History and host of *_The Final Curtain Never Closes._* You hear how a museum that used to get lumped in with beer can collections and “oddities” used podcasting to step out of the sideshow tent and into its real role as a serious, educational institution. You get the story of a hyper‑specific niche, death care, and how talking openly about the thing everyone avoids turned into authority, awareness, and a steady flow of guests who now pitch themselves. If you have ever wondered whether your niche is too weird, too dark, or too narrow for a podcast, this conversation hands you proof that your niche is exactly where the power is.

*Key Takeaways*
Niche podcasting lets you take control of your narrative instead of letting random visitors and lazy writers decide whether you are an oddity or a respected institution.
When your topic is taboo or avoided, like death and funerals, a podcast becomes a safe, long‑form way to unpack fear, denial, and curiosity without the cheap shock value.
1. The best niche shows start in the trenches, tying episodes directly to exhibits, artifacts, or specific angles that only your corner of the world can cover.
2. If you do your job as a host and build something real, the game flips: guests start finding you because they see how their own “little niche” fits your niche and serves your audience.
3. Being a great guest first makes you a sharper host, because you understand what it feels like on the other side of the mic and you respect the conversation instead of winging it.
4. A niche podcast is not about chasing mass appeal, it is about educating the right people, in the right way, on a topic they will actually face in real life even if they pretend they will not.
5. Long, winding stories, like Genevieve’s ride‑along with her cop sister or her curiosity‑driven path into funeral work, are not tangents in a niche show; they are the connective tissue that makes your “weird” topic human and bingeable.
*Timestamped Overview*

Chapters

Chapters

Chapters

Chapters

Chapters

• 00:00:00 Why a funeral museum is the perfect niche case study
• 00:02:10 From “oddity” listing to respected educational institution
• 00:05:00 Realizing the neighborhood did not even know the museum existed
• 00:08:30 Using podcasting to escape the quirky museum stereotype
• 00:11:45 How death denial and avoidance shape audience behavior
• 00:15:20 Why Americans struggle to talk about their own mortality
• 00:18:40 Genevieve’s favorite part of hosting The Final Curtain Never Closes
• 00:21:05 Starting with episodes tied to specific museum exhibits
• 00:24:10 When niche listeners begin pitching themselves as guests
• 00:27:30 The education mission behind a funeral history podcast
• 00:30:15 How being a great guest trains you to be a better host
• 00:33:20 Ride‑along with a cop: bravery, perspective, and storytelling
• 00:38:10 Curiosity‑born funeral directing and a lifetime of death questions
• 00:42:00 Early death curiosity, coroners, and a cremation speech in school
• 00:46:15 Podcasting as a way to learn things you never knew about people you thought you knew
• 00:49:30 Why niche podcasters need organic, unscripted conversations
• 00:52:10 How a funeral museum podcast helps regular people face the inevitable
• 00:55:30 A thank‑you to indie media and the power of choosing your own narrative

Work with us: www.spekepodcasting.com/ (https://www.spekepodcasting.com/)

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203s://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203)

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1PQNHuqxIVhkLfjGYuWcxl

Listen to Dr. Eddie Patton’s podcast Your Health, Your Wealth (start with these):

Understanding Teen Brains

https://omny.fm/shows/yourhealthyourwealth/yhyw-june-2-solo-adolescent-b

The Power of Positive Thinking

https://omny.fm/shows/yourhealthyourwealth/how-positive-thinking-rewires-your-brain-for-health-and-happiness

Understanding Myasthenia Gravis

https://omny.fm/shows/yourhealthyourwealth/understanding-myasthenia-gravis-symptoms-causes-and-modern-treatments

Dr. Eddie Patton spends his days treating Parkinson’s and Myasthenia Gravis. Yet, he still finds the creative bandwidth to host his own show, Your Health, Your Wealth. In this episode, we break down what constant fight‑or‑flight does to your brain, why it silently murders creativity, and how he protects his focus as a neurologist, creator, and podcast host.​

We get into the neuroscience of positive thinking (no, not cheesy mirror affirmations), how task‑switching torpedoes your productivity, and the simple tools he uses to reset: a 15‑minute Calm meditation, deep breathing, plants, a tiny desk labyrinth, and a whiteboard system that turns medical expertise into binge‑able episodes.​

If you’re a physician, founder, or creative who feels like notifications are frying your nervous system, this is your permission slip and playbook.

Key Takeaways

1. Creativity and fight‑or‑flight can’t coexist.
When your amygdala is lit up from constant stress, your brain is allocating energy to survival, not new ideas. You have to intentionally flip the switch back to parasympathetic if you want “creative juices” to flow.​

2. Task‑switching is a silent productivity tax.
Every time you bounce from a report to a text to another task, you’re poking new holes in your mental bucket; by the end of the day, you may not have finished even “Task A” because you’ve been busy putting out micro‑fires.​

3. Rituals beat willpower.
Dr. Patton doesn’t rely on vibes to be focused; most mornings he closes his door, runs a 15‑minute Calm mindfulness session, takes a few deep breaths, and then opens the door to the chaos. That same reset kicks off his creative work, including podcast episodes.​

4. Define a “successful day” before it starts.
His morning list of the top three things he wants to accomplish keeps him from spiraling at night about the five, six, and seven he didn’t get to. Finish one to three, and the day counts as a win.​

5. Make your environment do some of the work.
Plants, a desk labyrinth, and a whiteboard aren’t décor; they’re tools. The labyrinth and breathing slow him down, while the whiteboard helps him think out loud, layer ideas, and turn topics into episodes with three main points and three takeaways.

Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/ (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

Listen to The Rose’s podcast Let’s Talk About Your Breasts: https://therose.org/podcasts/

Be sure to subscribe to @TheRoseHouston!

Taking a nonprofit podcast to 100,000 downloads is not as easy as you think. Founding CEO of The Rose, Dorothy Gibbons, joins Freddy to talk about building a mission driven show, survivor stories, heavy episodes, nervous guests, and her retirement. They dig into play, grief, legacy, and what it means to leave while the work keeps going.

About Speke Podcasting

You don’t need another “piece of content.” You need a show your people actually want to binge.

I’m Freddy Cruz, founder of Speke Podcasting. We produce podcasts for brands that are done waiting for “gatekeepers” to notice them. These are nonprofits, founders, experts, and troublemakers with something real to say.
​
From idea to launch, my team handles strategy, production, editing, and promotion so you can do the fun part: show up, speak your mind, and let the right listeners find you again and again.​

Want a podcast that sounds nothing like everybody else in your feed?
Message me at [email protected].

Free resources: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources
Work with us: https://www.spekepodcasting.com/

Never compare your first mile to somebody else’s 19th—especially in podcasting. In this episode of Your Mic, I share a story about my neighbor Marcel, a former 150‑pounds‑overweight runner turned marathon machine, and what his mile 19 struggle can teach you about sticking with your show when you’re still on episode one.

You’ll learn why comparing your brand‑new podcast to giants like Joe Rogan, Steven Bartlett, or Mel Robbins is kryptonite for your confidence, and how to flip that energy into steady, sustainable growth instead. We dig into the mindset of playing the long game, plus the actual analytics that matter—Apple Podcasts engaged listeners, retention rates, and how to read drop‑off points so you know what to double down on and what to ditch.

If you’re riding the struggle bus on episode 1, 9, or 19 and wondering if it’s worth it, this one’s for you. Lace up, hit play, and let’s make sure you’re still in the race at episode 20, 200, or 20,000.

🔎 Inside this episode:

- The “first mile vs. 19th mile” mindset for podcasters
- Why copying big‑name shows kills your momentum
- How to use Apple Podcasts analytics (engaged listeners, retention, and more)
- What to repeat, what to retire, and how to stay in the game.

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
Subcribe to Podcast the Newsletter: https://podcastthenewsletter.substack.com/

Subscribe to Earbuds Collective: https://arielle-nissenblatt-4cfp.squarespace.com/

Arielle Nissenblatt and Lauren Passell sit down with Freddy for a no BS round of hot takes about the podcast industry. From fake innovation to recycled failures and hype over listeners, they dig into what actually builds shows that last. If you make or market podcasts, this conversation might hurt and help.

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 with your favorite hosts. Over years, that adds up to days of your life invested in someone else’s show.

•

That relentless listening habit is not random entertainment. It is proof you care enough about the medium to step behind the mic yourself.

•

The world does not need another polished cardboard expert. It needs your warts, your bad decisions, your “I almost quit” stories laid bare.

•

2026 is a clean slate. You can keep donating your time to everyone else’s feed or you can invest time, budget and courage into your own industry-defining podcast.

Subscribe to Your Mic on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@SpekePodcasting) , Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-mic/id1777171203) , Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/1PQNHuqxIVhkLfjGYuWcxl) or wherever you get your podcasts (https://omny.fm/shows/spekepodcasting/playlists/your-mic) .

Grab your free Speke Podcasting Roadmap here (https://www.spekepodcasting.com/freeresources)

.

Shoot Freddy an email: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .