The orange Toys R Us sticker made me scratch my head, but again, I was four.

I had no idea and somehow I was convinced that Geoffrey, who

was the Toys R Us character, the giraffe Geoffrey helped Santa Claus.

Shop for toys for good boys and girls and I mean hook line and sinker I fell

for it as I should have I was only four and four year olds believe anything

Hi, and welcome to Five Random Questions the show where

every question is an adventure.

I'm your host Danny Brown and each week I'll be asking my guests five

questions created by a random question generator The guest has no idea what

the questions are and neither do I which means this could go either way.

So sit back, relax, and let's dive into this week's episode.

Today's guest is Freddy Cruz, whose voice has entertained the greater

Houston area for more than 17, 000 hours across three decades.

He also likes to test his ability to not sound like a movie villain while

jogging in his local neighborhood.

Freddy's the founder of Speke Podcasting, helping a wide variety

of podcasters, media personalities, organizations, and more take

ownership of their brand's messaging.

He also hosts the Cruz Through HTX podcast and is the author of three novels with

his work being praised by Publishers Weekly, Black Texas Magazine, and more.

So, Freddy, quite the old details there.

Welcome to Five Random Questions.

How are you?

Fantastic, Danny.

Thank you so much.

Such an interesting, interesting format for a podcast.

I do have to know though, where is your random generator?

Is, is he or she in a basement locked away?

I would have to pay for that.

That would probably be my kids and I'd have to give them extra credits for that.

So, no, no, no.

We're just using an online one, the good old RandomWord.

com generator.

So that's the one we'll be using for this job.

Before we start, actually, and obviously we'll get into the questions

soon, a couple of quick things.

Obviously, we were speaking in the green room.

You had a little bit of an adventure with your car and a flat tire pre recording.

And my question is, this is not part of the five questions,

this is just out of curiosity.

We can create so much technology for cars.

We can, you know, get them talking to satellites in space

and get maps on GPS, et cetera.

Why can't we solve the flat tire problem?

Oh my goodness, because humans happen.

That's why,

you know, humans happen.

These random nails we, so here in the Houston area, and technically I live in a,

in a, Suburb called Richmond, Texas, about 30 minutes outside of downtown Houston

and suburgatory, suburgatory, suburgatory.

I mean, it is suburban sprawl.

We have a three school complex being built across the street from our neighborhood.

And so I'm convinced that, that we must have run over debris on the

way to taking my daughter to work.

I mean, listen, we, you know, people just random stuff flies out

the construction sites, or maybe somebody just lost a load of nails.

Or some diabolic, diabolical individual decided, Hey, let me just

throw a bag of nails on the road.

Freddy's coming down.

I'm going to stop him from getting to this podcast recording.

Just waiting at the side of the road there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And speaking of, like I mentioned there, the part of that,

and I'm really curious about this.

Part of the your A daily routine is taking jogs around the neighborhood,

and you mentioned that you're trying not to sound like a movie villain.

So are you running along, guffawing and chuckling evilly?

What's going on there, Freddy?

I love running.

It's my sort of my form of meditation.

It gets harder and harder as the summer months pass on and so no matter how well

trained I think I am, I still sound like a horror movie villain and there are still,

there's still going to be the elderly couples walking early in the morning.

The mother with the stroller walking through the neighborhood

who I'm running behind and I'm like, all right, here we go.

I'm she's going to turn around and mace me.

This is the morning.

This is the morning I get maced, but yeah.

You need to get like a little clown horn or something, something

that's non threatening that you can sort of, you know, ask people to move

out of the way and make them aware that you're on the, on the jogging route.

A little waka waka?

There you go.

Like, there you go.

Perfect, perfect.

So, what we're going to do then, we're not going to scare anybody, hopefully,

with these five questions, so I'm going to bring up the random question generator,

Freddy, and we'll take it from here, where we're going to go with these questions.

All right, Freddy, here we go.

Question number one.

What is the source of your procrastination?

Oh, the source of my procrastination has got to be

the what if part because as much as I say I don't, that the, that

the, Careful how I phrase this.

As much as I say that I am not concerned with the opinions of others, at the end

of the day, I am a perfectly imperfect human, and so the opinions of others

actually does matter to me, and I think in the big grand scheme of things,

the opinions of others actually should matter to us, because some of these

opinions are what pays the bills, some of these opinions are are related to us.

Some of these opinions belong to people who live with us,

who, who mean the world to us.

So in that regard, you know, it's, it's the opinions of others good or bad.

It's well, golly, if I'm procrastinating on this one thing, not so much because

I don't feel like doing it, but.

But it's like, okay, well, what if it goes, what if it goes awry?

What if nobody likes it?

What if, what if it's the equivalent of shouting into an empty forest, at which

point people I love and care for and admire and respect, what would they think?

Now, obviously they wouldn't think anything bad of me.

It's just, oh, well, you know, it was.

The thing happened and you didn't get the result.

So the source of the procrastination almost always is going to

be the opinions of others.

And I continue to work on it, even as I'm.

Nearing 50

now.

Do you have a filter for these opinions?

Because as you mentioned, we should care about opinions because it helps

us, you know, a grow and be better people, but also improve anything

we're working on and better the lives of those that we care for.

But is there a filter that you put on for whose opinion you do take on board

and who's you think I'm not listening to you at all because it's not valid

or do you look at all opinions equally?

It's like a case by case basis.

So we were talking before we started, you know, we're talking about the,

the flat tire incident my, I have two daughter, two daughters, 18 and 19.

My wife is you know, I'm married also.

And those are three opinions who, who I value, you know, their opinions.

I value very much.

And sometimes I'll, I'll think that I put something really cool

together and objectively speaking, because I've been between podcasting

and broadcast radio broadcasting.

I've been doing this for close to 27 years, so I know that you don't

get to do this kind of stuff for this amount of time if you suck.

So objectively speaking, I'm pretty good.

Am I the best?

No, I don't want to be the best.

I expect to chase excellence.

So when I asked my, my younger daughters, Hey, what do you think of this?

And the opinion is, eh, well, yada, yada, yada, yada.

And then they give me their detailed explanation of why, what I did is not

as cool as I think or thought it was.

And then I have to look and be like, instead of, you know, 19

year old Freddy, if it was 19 year old Freddy asking 19 year old cat,

Hey, What do you think of this?

And then she said the same answer.

I probably would have been like, well, forget you.

You're not my real friend anyway.

But the 48, almost 49 year old dad version of Freddy's like, Hmm, well,

you know, you got a point, however.

I'm going to move forward with what it is as it is.

And, and the kids are we've got two kids they're 12 and 14.

And as you say, they're great barometers of whether you're making a good ball.

They're not always great barometers.

They're great barometers for their age group.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

So if I say something to my 14 year old son, for example he usually comes

back pretty quickly with something that disagrees with it and why.

And then, as you say, you've got to choose, okay, am I going

to listen to that or am I not?

And if I don't listen to that, it's because you're 14 or it's because

it's just you being sarcastic, you know, so yeah, I completely

hear you and my daughter's 12.

So that sounds like something I've got to look forward to in the next

6 or 7 years on that, that side.

Yeah.

Well, let me tell you nothing you will do for the next probably 7, 8, 9,

possibly 10 or 11, 12 years will be cool.

Just as a parent I speak from personal experience, although I will say, I say

that lightheartedly there are moments when they're like, wow, that was really cool.

And it makes me feel good.

There are things sometimes that I'll do, and this goes for anybody when whether

it's helping to design podcast cover art or an episode or mixing down something

that I'm not really used to mixing down and, and getting, you know, getting

right that if I receive a compliment.

On it, when I was second guessing myself, the entire process that actually

feels really good and that tells you that it's directionally correct.

So I mean, I as much as I like the positive feedback, I've learned to

really, really enjoy the not so positive feedback and generally the positive.

Did I say that right?

I have learned to enjoy the negative feedback.

Yeah, there you go.

I've learned to enjoy the negative feedback and the positive feedback.

It's it's something that I'm I'm thankful for.

I'm especially thankful for for it when when it's something that I know for

a fact I'm not necessarily all that good at, but am steadily improving.

And then I guess you just gotta decide whether to procrastinate

on taking action on that feedback or not, or just, you know, next

time I'll do it differently.

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely.

Of course, deadlines matter too, so.

Oh yeah, I hear you.

And speaking of deadlines, and that's a really tenuous link, but

I'm not a comedian, so there you go.

Speaking of deadlines, we're on question two.

Okay, Freddy, do you get along with your parents?

Absolutely,

all three of them.

Okay, you got to expand on that.

I'm not letting you go there.

Yeah, so I've got my, my mom and dad divorced when I

was seven and I have a stepdad.

Name is David.

And they're all three incredible individuals in their own unique ways.

You know, my mom, I mean, what can you say?

You know, my mom is the best.

She had me when she was really, really young.

She had the opportunity to go to Miami University on a merit scholarship.

And then I happened.

And so that changed your life forever.

And you know, not a, not a day goes by that.

I'm not just thankful that I'm even alive.

You can choose at least, you know, you're, you're in a Australia and I'm in the U

S and for better or worse, you can make the case that, Oh, things have never been

better or things have, you know, whatever.

But the fact of the matter remains, we're alive in the 21st century in this moment.

And for the most part, we, we have agency in our lives.

We don't get to pick our parents.

And I won, I won the lottery because not only am I here, but I was

born into a family that loves me.

And that once, that once and wanted when I was a kid that one did the best for me

and was not discouraged from wanting to pursue the things that I wanted to pursue.

It was like, well, I want to play football.

Okay, well, we'll go play football.

Oh, you want to play t ball?

Oh, you'll play t ball.

Oh, you want to be a radio DJ?

Okay.

But it was never one of those things.

Well, you know what, you're going to be a doctor and you're going to like it.

It wasn't, of course, I, I would have to be intelligent enough to get

into university and go to pre med.

I've fumbled my way through, through college over eight years and eventually

got a marketing degree somehow.

But no, I, I love my parents very much and very, very thankful for them.

And you mentioned that obviously all three of them get along really well.

And that's.

helped you, you know, from when you were seven growing to where you are now.

Do you feel that because of societal changes and, you know, views towards,

you know, adults separating or adults getting divorced has really changed from

say 50, 60, 70 years ago to, you know, maybe when your parents got divorced

and when parents are separating now and raising kids separately, et cetera.

Do you think that's also helped when that happened with yourself

and and the dynamics between.

You know, your mom, your dad and your step your step parent, or is that

just the three people that they are?

That's what made it, made it work.

It's a function of the three people that they are.

And my, my grandparents, I was fortunate to have all four of them.

One of them was not a very kind man, but you know, I still even was able

to learn some things from, from him.

My stepdad did not come into my life until I was already a young adult.

So I didn't grow up with him per se, but I just think that I was just

really fortunate because there was the, the sort of looking down upon

single moms, especially being a brown guy, looking down on, on single

motherhood and single parenthood.

And there wasn't really much of of we didn't really experience that when growing

up and I spent a lot of time with her and she spends a lot of time with us

and she worked really hard to ensure that we had Christmas presents under the

tree that when we were little kids, the Easter bunny came and left us chocolates

and, and we had birthday presents and, and all that sort of a thing.

So we were really lucky.

And that's not to.

Just because I didn't experience any of that doesn't mean that it didn't exist.

Cause I'm sure it, it didn't, you know.

It'd be really, it'd be really easy to fall into that into

that sort of silo of thinking.

Oh, well, I, I didn't experience that.

So what are you talking about, Danny?

Yeah, no, it's like you say.

I mean, just because you don't experience it, there's a lot goes

on a weird and a very, and actually, sorry, just a quick correction.

And this is not a correction.

So let me.

Take that phrase back, right?

I'm in Canada.

I think my accent throws people sometimes.

But yeah, but yeah, all I was going to say was, so we don't like a really small

rural village in central northern Ontario.

So it's about three hours north of Toronto and people are really friendly.

But we know that there's also.

a lot of, and Canadians by nature are meant to be friendly people,

you know, that's the stereotype of Canadians, but there is a lot of like

racism towards indigenous people and First Nations people in Canada that

we're, you know, there's a lot of reconciliation going on and has been

going on for the last sort of few years.

So I completely hear you like where we are, we're sort of cocooned

away from that, but I know my kids know when they get taught that

at school that it has happened.

So they are aware of it.

So it's, as you say, it's, it's something that we always

have to be aware of for sure.

I don't know why I thought you were in Australia.

Maybe one of your guests was from Australia and that's

why I got it mixed up.

You know, it's possible.

And I've got a funny accent.

I mean, I was in Australia for six months, so I don't know.

Maybe I picked up a little bit there.

I've got a lot of Australian friends, so who knows?

Maybe that's where it came from.

And my lighting's really funny at the moment.

I don't know if that makes me look Australian.

Well, it's funny because now you don't sound

like you are from the UK at all.

Now you sound like completely Canadian.

That is wild.

That is wild.

I know it's strange.

I've been away.

I mean, I'm from Scotland originally, but I left Scotland when I was

21, 22 and I lived and worked in England for about 15 years.

But during that time, as I mentioned, I went to Australia for six months

and I've been in Canada since 2006.

So again, almost 20 years.

So there's a whole bunch of weirdness going on there.

Now you sound Scottish.

It's just to keep the listeners on their toes and think they've got about four or

five people speaking all at the same time.

Keep them entertained.

All right.

All righty.

So let's have a look then.

That's awesome.

Thanks a lot for sharing that, Freddy.

Yeah.

Let's have a look at question number three.

Okay.

Now I think I know some of this because we mentioned it in the sort of introduction.

But what is your favourite type of workout?

I love a good four mile run through the neighborhood.

Now, is that your only sort of workout or do you have

more sort of exercise routines or fitness or just healthy routines?

I hate lifting weights.

I would rather suffer in the 110 degree heat index of a Houston summer than

even lift weights for 20 minutes.

And as we get older, our body mass, you know, our, our, our bone density,

our, our muscle mass, rather our bone density or whatever, all, all

the things that starts to decline.

I think it's by the time you're 30 or 40, you lose like a certain percentage

of your of your oxygen capacity your lung capacity, rather, and so all that

kind of stuff scares the crap out of me.

And yet at the same time, I hate lifting weights.

So the go-to workout is always gonna be a a four mile run.

I used to go between five and six days a week I used to run, and

now it's more like three to four.

If that.

I had talked to a trainer who, who specializes in helping founders and

entrepreneurs, and he essentially gave me permission to not run so much.

He was like, okay, first off, you're overtraining, you're going

to hurt yourself really bad.

And then second off, you should be working on building your business.

And I'm like, Oh, okay.

Permission granted.

I don't have to run as much.

And the crazy thing is Danny, is that combined with the exercise and a little

bit of weights and then intermittent fasting, don't try this at home.

Talk to your physician first.

Don't do anything stupid.

The intermittent fasting and the adjustment in my workout and doing some

weights has caused a really cool weight loss to the point that I am now less

than what I weighed in high school.

And so I'm like, All about it.

And in high school, I was even more active because I played football.

Well, I mean, I sat the bench on the football team, but who's, who's counting.

But you were active on the bench.

So that still counts.

I feel, you know, I still can't.

And so what kind of intermittent fasting do you do?

Is it the 16 8 or something different?

It is between 13 and 15.

And if I'm feeling sexy, I'll go 16.

But I mean, fatty loves food.

So

I've tried the intermittent fasting and I know a lot of people,

as you mentioned, it definitely works.

I, but I do love my food and I found it really difficult to, to stick to

that and to really, you know, be, you know, disciplined to do it properly

for the results to come through.

So if you I know you mentioned the running issue, your favorite, because you don't

like weights and I'm with you on that.

I've got like a TRX system downstairs.

I use now and again, but I don't use it.

As you can tell by this fine physique that you're seeing in front of you, I

don't use it quite as often as I should.

But if you couldn't run for whatever reason, what would be

your go to exercise after that?

You know, I've, I've considered that before.

I think I would do the arms, the arm bicycle thing.

And that's assuming that I have the capacity to use my arms.

So we're talking about like a knee injury or hip injury or hamstring or whatever.

Yeah, I would totally go into the the arm bicycle.

And is that the one that's got like the big sort of arms, like the metal arms

that stick up and you sort of do the back and forth movement with your shoulders,

etc?

I don't even know if that's what it's called, but yes, that thing.

Well, we've got one downstairs and I think that what we, so what's

weird, we've got like a, an elliptical.

Which I think is maybe what you're on about.

And then we've got like a wind bike where you can do with the wind biking,

obviously you can pedal, but you've also got the option to attach these long arms.

And just use your upper body, you know, to power the bike.

So it might be something like that.

But yeah, that'd be fun actually, because that's, that's still working

out and it's not too, not too bad.

And you're not doing weights, which is always nice.

Yes.

And you're still getting the burn too.

And it's been a long time since I've done.

That particular exercise, I don't even know how long, I would say probably

high school which is a long time ago, but if I remember correctly,

you still get the burn factor.

You probably, you're probably as I'm doing the movements, probably working your

triceps, probably your, your shoulders.

I don't know if it's your delts or what, but yeah.

So we're going to work on the arms.

If we don't have the legs, we're going to work on the arms.

And when the legs come back, we'll be like Popeye upstairs.

There you go.

It'll be awesome.

Hey there, Danny here.

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Thanks for supporting the show and now back to the questions.

Moving on to question number four.

Let's see what the random generator brings up for this one.

Mm.

Okay.

I'm looking forward to this answer because I feel there could

be a few things with you here.

All right, Freddy, question number four.

What are you most likely to stay up all night talking about?

You're right about there being numerous things.

Ah.

I would probably say, in no particular order, Midjourney, failure, podcasting.

American history.

Oh, no, that's quite the random collection there.

So Midjourney, is that the AI tool Midjourney or is that mid-Journey

as in the best part of Journey of the band in the 70s and 80s?

That is hilarious.

I'm talking about the AI tool text to image.

Oh, it is.

It is just a fantastic program that I love, love, love, love, love using.

Now, I know there's a lot of fears around AI and the use of it by creators

and voiceover actors, especially there, we, we saw the Scarlett Johansson OpenAI.

Court case recently where her voice was used, you know, without permission.

Do you feel there needs to be maybe some kind of regulation?

Is it more about the platforms themselves should self regulate?

Or do you feel we're maybe worrying a little bit too much on on the AI?

I

will say that as a user of AI who hasn't quite yet figured

out how to monetize any of it.

So there are some, I mean, even if you use Canva, that's all AI generated, right?

I mean, let's, let's be honest, anyone who uses Canva, who's worried about

artificial intelligence should take a good hard look in the mirror, but.

I would say that as a user who has not quite monetized any of his AI

renderings, et cetera, et cetera, I can tell you that the programs, the ones

that I'm using, are self regulating.

So, for instance MidJourney has some things has some, I guess,

Structures in place to where you can't use certain names or even

certain like I'll give you an example.

I Have got this bank of of images and podcast names.

It's like a strange hobby.

I have where I just create podcast names.

And so I was trying to create an image of a teenager with her parents in the

office of a therapist, and it would not create that image on Midjourney.

It said something about guidelines, et cetera, et cetera.

And I'm like,

And just what about my business?

There's another program that I use for just the heck of it.

I just create things and send them to my family.

It's called Parrot.

And it's got, it's got celebrities, politicians, internet influencers,

Spongebob, Peter Griffin, Eric Cartman, and you can select whatever person

or character and you could write a message and so I had tried to write a

message using a certain politician in the United States and it wouldn't let

me and I was just using it for private.

It was for private message and in a in a.

What I thought was a humorous context and it wouldn't and there was another program

that I can't remember off the top of my head that I again tried to use I actually

try to use two names that are at the top of global headlines who are both running

for a certain political office in the United States and the guidelines were.

It was something I'm paraphrasing, but it was users have agreed

to not allow these names to be used during the election season.

And I'm like, that is amazing.

Like, I think that is the perfect example of self regulation.

Like, I don't know how much more better that could be.

Like, the community has spoken.

The Dans and Freddys of this, that are using this platform, have all banded

together and said, we are not going to use those two names during the election cycle.

Afterwards, you know.

Fair play.

Yeah, fair point, right?

No, that's awesome.

And I feel that, like you say, the community regulation is always the most

effective because you will get some bad people that want to do whatever.

But I feel if you've got the community where you've got 95, 96 percent

upwards that won't use that, that shows the end user could be worried.

Look, we're here.

We understand that we're going to regulate it and make sure it doesn't

happen as opposed to maybe leaving it to a platform that's looking to you.

Yeah.

You know, appease shareholders, for example, so don't care what goes on there.

So that's great.

That's great example.

Great to see.

And speaking of like Midjourney and a I like that.

Have you ever tried to create anything involving Sparrow, your dog?

And if so, what happened?

What was the best one?

Okay, I feel like, okay, so Speke Podcasting is my podcast

production company and it is spelled S P E K E because Sparrow and Zeke

are the namesakes of the company.

And so, yeah, I threw in this what I thought was going to turn out to be

the perfect blend of Sparrow and Zeke.

Sparrow being, we, in Houston, we call them a Houston, like a

Houston special because the homeless animal population is just terrible.

So he's a mix of something shepherd and God knows what Zeke was a

cattle dog, Jack Russell mix.

So I typed into Midjourney, please design a cattle dog, Jack Russell.

Shepard mix wearing headphones set against the backdrop of Houston, Texas, primary

colors, orange, red, and Navy blue.

And it spit out several iterations of really cool looking dogs.

And one of them ended up being the logo of Speke Podcasting.

And I'm like, That's the one when I saw it, I'm like, that is, that is the one.

So when you see the, the logo that, that is exactly, it's an AI rendering.

And I don't know that the logo will ever change because I love it.

It just looks cool.

And you could turn it black and white.

So if it's too many colors, if some sort of brand coach.

Tells me there's too many colors.

I'm like, okay, make it black and white.

That is very cool.

And that, there you go, folks.

If you're into branding and you're not sure what to do with your next

artwork, logo, et cetera, for either your podcast, your company, use your

dog or use your pet as an inspiration.

Then your logo awaits.

That is awesome.

I love that.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Very cool.

So moving on, we're doing really well here.

We're up to the final stage and I've really enjoyed this so far.

Curious as to what's happening now with the final question.

So let's bring this one up for you.

Ready?

Yep.

Let's do it.

All right, here we go.

Question number five.

What is your first memory of being really excited?

Okay, the first memory of being really excited has to

be when I was, I think, four.

It's one of my earliest childhood memories.

It was Christmas morning and I had gotten some Star Wars toy.

I forget what it was, but it was a Star Wars toy.

I was elated.

I was beside myself because I got this toy and the orange Toys R Us sticker

made me scratch my head, but again, I was four, I had no idea, and somehow

I was convinced that Geoffrey, who was the Toys R Us character, the giraffe

Geoffrey helped Santa Claus shop for toys for good boys and girls, and, I mean,

hook, line, and sinker, I fell for it.

as I should have.

I was only four.

I mean, four year olds believe anything.

And did you ever, so, was there ever a point after?

I mean, I'm guessing there's a point at some stage where everyone,

if there's any kids listening to this podcast, Santa exists forever.

Yes.

But was there a point where you found the reason for that sticker being on there?

Oh, I'm sure it was probably the, the typical last, last minute parent deal.

I mean, don't we all wait until the last minute to buy, to buy the, the.

The highly coveted Christmas present.

There was a movie made about that too.

It was Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Mm Ah, what was that movie?

Ah, I'm

not that was the one where like the, it was, it was

based around the same time.

Toy Story was really big with Buzz Lightyear.

Right.

And it was like the space, like Soldier toy that was, that had come out, I think.

Yeah.

Jingle All The Way.

I think Jingle all there.

You.

Yeah, that's it.

Yeah, we've watched that.

We like we said, we take a there's a tradition in our family

where from December 1st right up until Christmas Day, we watch a

Christmas movie every single day.

Love that.

And there's four of us.

So me and my wife, two kids.

We each get to choose.

You know on alternate days what the movie is going to be and Jingle All The

Way i think that normally happens in the second week usually and we still enjoy

it's it's it's irony what's not to love

Oh yeah absolutely fun fact we lived in in Minneapolis for three years

which is where that movie is set and there's a place i don't know if it's open

anymore i think it's called Mickey's Diner or Mickey's U Train house or something

rather, and when my wife and I had moved, this is before we had kids, we had moved

to Minneapolis for the first, it was the first time for both of us to ever move

away from home, much less out of state and we, I took a radio gig up there and we're

like, Oh, we get to finally go to Mickey's in downtown Minneapolis and Yeah, it was

a rat hole, like literally had a rat hole.

Oh,

that's right.

So it would be more pulled down or it was just like it was worse than

what your memory had left it as

it was.

It was pretty bad to the point where I mean, my wife and I were not snobs

by any stretch of the imagination.

But I think when you see a rat hole, you kind of stay away.

But I mean, it was there's a scene in that movie.

Where they're fighting, it's Sinbad plays the role of the guy who, who I

think he steals the toy from Arnold and so I, I think it's toward the end,

spoiler alert, and so I think we're past the statute of limitations, but

yeah, there's, there's the, the little diner car where they're fighting and

yeah, so we're like, Oh, we'll go there.

That is cool.

And that came from, so that car, that was from Mickey's Diner

then, that actual car thing?

Yeah, the actual restaurant, yeah.

That is very cool.

I, we don't have any of these like things here.

I think that might be a good thing if it's such a bad place now, but

yeah, it'd be awesome to have like a memorabilia or a movie place nearby

to go to, but that sounds cool.

Yeah.

Well, we've reached the end.

That's, I, you know, we've made it.

We've done, we've done well and I appreciate you sharing these very

different questions and answers with us, Freddy, as is only fair because I put you

on the spot for the last 30 minutes or so.

It's only fair that I, you know, you have your own random

question to ping over this way.

So over to you, good sir.

All right, I love this part, claps his hands, rubs them together

because you are a fellow podcast professional slash connoisseur yourself.

On a scale of one to 10, 10 being absolutely ridiculous.

How ridiculous is it, Danny, when you see a random podcaster or YouTuber doing

the man on the street interviews and they're holding a lav mic, not using

the lav mic the way it was meant to be wearing it, but they're holding it.

Holding the lav mic.

How ridiculous is it?

I'm going to, I'm going to get a lot of hate for this.

I apologize in advance, podcasters, I'm going to say at least a nine.

I'm not going to go quite full scale 10, but I'm going to say at least a

nine because yeah, as you mentioned, it's meant to go, it's, it's, it's

built for a certain reason and how to pick up the vocal frequencies,

which is below your throat.

Obviously that's where, you know, you need it in close, close vicinity.

So yeah, yeah.

It's not a great wind rejector.

It's not a great noise rejector.

It's not a great X, Y, Z, unless you maybe get a top of the range one.

So if you're waving about, you're picking up all sorts of crap.

And then when you go to a podcasting event, you must have been here.

Loads of events where you'll see the same thing.

And then you listen afterwards.

And there's so much noise in the background.

You think, no, no, please don't do that.

There's so many good options that you can use.

So yeah, the lav mics are I feel there's maybe a reason they're doing it.

And I don't want to give them too much you know, crud.

But yeah, I'm when I see something like that, I can be a bit of a

podcast snob and I've been told that and I'm trying to be better at that.

Me too.

I would give that a good, a solid nine.

So that was a great question.

I was not expecting that at all.

So thank you.

And you can also address your hate mail to Freddy at Speke Podcasting.

com.

By the way, Freddy with a Y.

Oh, I'm going to set up filters now, mate.

And then anything that comes in about it's got love or whatever in the title

or tweet or whatever, that's going to be pinged straight over to you.

Oh man.

Yeah.

So

Freddy, I, as I say, I really enjoyed chatting with you today.

For people that want to know more about

speke Podcasting that want to know more about your, you know, your work.

or want to find out more about Sparrow, for example,

or Zeke or anything like that.

Where's the best place to connect with you, connect, et cetera.

I'm most active on LinkedIn and on Instagram.

Just look for the Freddy Cruz.

That's Freddy with a Y C R U Z.

And then the website is Speke Podcasting dot com.

If you want to learn more, I got some stuff going on.

Our client shows are incredible, ranging from Breast cancer awareness to healthcare

economics to entrepreneurship and more.

And I will be sure to leave all these links in the show notes.

So whichever app you're listening on, make sure you check them out and

they'll link straight through to Freddy.

So you can find out more about what he does and who he helps.

So again, Freddy, thanks a lot for appearing today on Five Random Questions.

Really appreciate

you,

sir.

Thanks for listening to 5 Random Questions.

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