For our milestone 300th episode, we wanted to offer listeners something different – a peek behind the digital curtain from someone who’s been integral to The Cloud Pod’s success but rarely gets the spotlight.

When we started this podcast, none of us imagined we’d reach 300 episodes or the impact we’d have in the cloud computing community. Along the way, we’ve been fortunate to work with talented people who help make this show what it is. Today, I’m thrilled to introduce Heather Baumann, our show note editor, who brings her unique non-technical perspective to our very technical world.

Heather has been transforming our ramblings into coherent, entertaining show notes for over a year and a half, all while coming from a background that couldn’t be further from cloud computing. I’ll let her tell the story in her own words below, but I wanted to personally thank her for being part of our journey to 300 episodes and beyond.

Without further ado, here’s Heather…

Hi. My name is Heather, and I’m a historian. 

Wait wait wait – don’t hit the back button yet. You aren’t in the wrong place. Welcome to The Cloud Pod – where I write up the show notes and social copy. 

I met Justin through a mutual friend, one I’ve done some writing for in the past. I’m a historian and curator at a small museum in SoCal, but I actually pay my bills as a freelance copywriter. That being said, my background has been in literally everything BUT tech. Architecture, cosmetics, health care – you name it, I’ve probably written about it. When I was first presented with the Cloud Pod project, I was excited about the opportunity. Let’s be real – everyone who’s ever been a freelancer is always excited about a new opportunity. So I guess that goes without saying – even though I’ve now said it. 

On the surface, it didn’t seem like a great fit when Justin first explained what The Cloud Pod was and what they covered. What little bit of tech I’ve written about in my career is usually in the context of something else – like using 3D scanners to assist in the adaptive reuse of a historic structure. I was afraid this was more than a little out of my comfort zone (insanely cliche, I know) but my pride – and my kiddo’s love of Disneyland with its ever growing ticket prices – convinced me I could handle it. 

In those first days, episodes took me HOURS to get through. I had to look up literally everything, took copious handwritten notes, and over-relied on show transcripts. I had a mutual friend sit with me through the first two or three episodes, stopping every couple of minutes explaining things to me. Frankly, it was a little uncomfortable being SO far out of my depth. Fellow “Gifted and Talented program but now suffering from intense imposter’s syndrome” folks out there will understand the feeling. But I – and the guys with me – muddled through. I settled on a formatting style that I think works well (although I’m always happy to take feedback on what listeners think would make the show notes more helpful.) I figured out whose voice was whose. I got to know their individual styles of speech and humour. I got faster. The notes got better. The puns got worse. 

And now, here we are, 300 episodes in. (By the time this hits I’ll be working on 302.) The Cloud Pod has become some of my favorite copy to write each week for two reasons. Number one, I have learned so much about the tech world in general. I mean listen – I’m not going to work for Google next week, but I have a much better grasp on something that is a huge part of our news and economy than I did a year and a half-ish ago. I’ve even started explaining cloud stuff TO OTHER PEOPLE *insert audible gasp.* Also – and if you’ve ever read through the show notes or chuckled at some of the social media – it’s because it’s just plain fun to write. The guys give me quite a bit of leeway to play with pop culture. Make a Monty Python or Zoolander reference in the show? It’s off to the races for me. Sometimes Justin even leaves in my ridiculous rantings about AI being the bane of copywriters. 

So here’s to 300 more episodes of making fun of me and Ryan for having Yahoo Mail, limiting the number of “ums” that make it into the transcripts, ridiculous hashtags, and Star Wars puns. 

And just for the record, Skynet will *never* beat my Star Wars puns. Never.

We would love to hear from you email us at pod @ thecloudpod.net, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or tweet, toot or bluesky us at @thecloudpod.