BTM S1E11 Jamie Truman
[00:00:00] Welcome to Beyond the Microphone, a podcast about podcasters and the stories of how their shows came together, grew, and what they discovered along the way. I’m your host, Adam Baril. So before we get into our interview today, I want to talk a little bit about delegating and time management as a, as a podcaster, it’s hugely important.
Adam Baruh: I don’t think a lot of people really understand, um, getting into it. You know, you kind of get into it with passion and purpose and whatever the time commitment is. It, it doesn’t really matter, but like, you know, the truth is most of us have. Other careers, other jobs. We’ve got families and kids and you know, it becomes a balancing act.
I mean, we have to balance what we do here because yeah, like there is a mission. There is a purpose. We want to make a difference. You know, so many of us in this line of work. Um, and so how do you do that? Where? You don’t end up [00:01:00] getting burned out. You don’t end up being one of the pod fade statistics where, you know, unfortunately most podcasters don’t make it to the one year mark and you know, it really goes downhill from there, but you can avoid the common pitfalls really the biggest of which is, you know, the time commitment and that feeling of overwhelm, like getting burned out because there’s so much to do.
I mean, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. There’s a lot to do. You want to, you want to keep doing this work and get your message out there. And even if it’s just purely passion and purpose, wanting to make a difference in the world, like you want to reach as many people as you can. Right? And so you become focused on download numbers and how can I, what marketing things can I do to, to improve those, get the visibility out there.
And you know, be. On some level, unless you’re like generating revenue, like there’s a decision point, like, okay, well, each month I’m kind of spending this on hosting and this, that, [00:02:00] the other thing. And I can’t afford to offload it. Like, I don’t have the budget to, to not do everything. But the truth is like, you can’t do everything like you can.
You can do as much as you can and hopefully find success in it. But, uh, if you want to build a model that’s sustainable, um, do it with intention and it starts with time management and time blocking, like try to get to a position where the only. Things that you’re allocating your time to with your podcast are those strategic pieces that nobody else can do like the interview or the monologue or however you’re recording and and You know a lot of the like marketing to grow your podcast like really is gonna come You know, it’s it’s gonna involve your time as well.
So don’t You can outsource a lot of this tasks of like posting to social media, but, but your time, you need to spend time certainly in thinking about your marketing and growth strategy. So, [00:03:00] you know, things like editing, um, writing show notes probably don’t need to do that. If you. You can find a way to outsource that.
It’s definitely worth the cost, um, in doing so, because at the end of the day, you want to keep doing this and avoid becoming one of those podfait statistics. So with that, um, I’d like to introduce our guest here today. Her name is Jamie Truman. She’s the host of the Truman Charities Podcast, a kind of philanthropist’s guide to charitable organizations and Her podcast has a great listen score of 36 and is ranked in the top two and a half percent.
So well done with that, Jamie. She’s also the co founder of the Truman Charities Organization, which has raised over 1. 7 million for several charities over the past 14 years. So Jamie, welcome to be on the microphone.
Jamie Truman: Thank you, Adam. That’s so sweet of you to say.
Adam Baruh: Of course. And You got it. And you know, I’m so happy to hear about the Truman Charities and all the work [00:04:00] that you’ve been doing there. And let’s take it back a little bit further though. Like, how did you, first of all, how did you get into philanthropy work? What were you, you know, has this always been your career?
If not, what were you doing before that? And what, what was that journey that ultimately led into, you know, your charitable work and ultimately into the podcast?
Jamie Truman: Well, before Truman Charities, and this was before I had met my husband Jerry, um, I must have been, you know, early 20s. My father had passed away and I wanted to do something kind of to help grieve and to raise money for a cause. And he had passed away from complications of AIDS. So, they had the, now, I don’t know if the Marine Corps still has a charitable component to it, but at the time, they did and it was the Whitman Walker Clinic, which helped people in the D.
C. area that were living with HIV and AIDS. So, I was like, okay, well, I’m going to run this marathon. Now, mind you, I had never run at all. So, like, running around [00:05:00] the cul de sac a couple times, I was like, uh, uh. So, but I had already signed up and I had already started fundraising. So I was like, Oh my gosh, now I have to do it. But I ran that and I had raised I think 1, 400 and to me as a broke college kid that was huge. And after that it kind of changed the trajectory of my life because then I got into fitness then I started, um, helping other people raise money and for different races. So I would train them for different marathons for different types of causes.
Now And I was doing that through my 20s and I also had a marketing company too. And I met my husband. He had just started Truman Charities. And it started, so he had started it because his grandfather had leukemia and passed away on his dad’s sixth birthday. So they were very involved with LLS. And one of his, uh, really good friends was in remission and they were doing Light the Night [00:06:00] Walk, which is this really great event that LLS does around the nation in different cities.
And so he said, okay, well, you know what, I’ll help you raise money. And it started out with just this party and an idea, like some solo cups, kind of a bowl, throw a check in, you know, you can see how old it was when I’m like, throw a check and nobody uses those
Adam Baruh: All right. What’s a check?
Jamie Truman: Right? Like, what is a check? No one does that.
And he raised, you know, I think it was like 8, 000 or something. He was like, you know what? This is great. Like, I’m going to continue to do this. So it started out very small and it started out in our house. And it just, and it got so big and it became like a good problem that it got so big that then we had to move it out to a venue.
And our last event that we did, which was… Back in May, uh, we raised 117, 000 for an organization called, um, Strongest Hearts. And remind you, we’re a 100 percent volunteer based [00:07:00] organization, so 100 percent of the money goes directly to the charity that we are helping.
Adam Baruh: Okay. Let’s stay with that for a second. So what are the challenges with being a 100%? You know, all the donations go to the charities because I mean, I imagine there’s there are some costs there. Um, how do you guys work through that?
Jamie Truman: So, it was interesting when we had first started, uh, Jerry and I are very much in that, Kind of non profit, I guess, group or we go to a lot of these different events. And so we went to this one event and it was lovely. And it was down in D. C. It was a beautiful hotel. It was the gallon. You get the dress and the this and the that.
And, you know, my husband’s in finance. He’s a numbers guy. And so he’s always kind of wondering, like, how much are they putting into this to how much are they getting out of it? Right? So they had raised probably, I guess, like 120, 000 or 140, 000, something like that. And we’re like, OK, well, how much actually is going to [00:08:00] the charity after you pay for all of this stuff?
And it was like 5, 000. It was something so great. And so Jerry was like, OK, how do we do this? On like kind of a, you know, a small budget. But raise enough money where we can cover the cost of the event. That’s kind of our donation to the charity. We’ll cover the cost of the event, but then we can still make it fun, but we can make it cost effective.
So what we’ve been able to do, which I talk to a lot of people that are doing different events, a lot of people come up to us and ask us like, Okay, well how, we just started a non profit, or even if it’s not a non profit, but we’re just trying to do different events, and how do we keep it cost effective?
And one of the great things that you do, Is that you keep it at the same venue, right? So you have this great relationship with this venue. So we have a relationship with this place, Tommy Joe’s. It is not, you’re not getting dressed up. It’s, I mean, it’s not like a gala event or anything like that. Um, but you come in, you have a great time.
It’s a great space, little indoor outdoor space, but because [00:09:00] we’re, we guarantee them that we’re going to have four events per year, um, and we have this great relationship with them and they know what we’re doing that they give us these great deals on, um, You know, we don’t pay for the cost of the room and you just pay for the food and we get discounts on that and discounts on drinks.
So when your work is, because at first what we thought and and our board members said, you know, why don’t we kind of travel around to different places in Bethesda to give, you know, a lot of the local people business. And we came down to that’s just not going to work and be cost effective for us, um, because we’re not getting that relationship, right? So, I, I think that’s kind of the best way to go and you can really have a great and fun event and all of these people have been to those type of like gala events and things like that. But honestly, they become kind of a hassle. You know, you going, instead of giving the money to the charity, you’re spending hundreds of dollars on a dress.
Then all of this, and it just becomes like, and then a tux and a this and a that. And [00:10:00] all of this will be going straight to the charity and you’re having just as much fun, but you don’t need all the bells and whistles.
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Adam Baruh: Okay. So where did the idea for a podcast, like at what point in, in the journey for you guys, did a podcast come up and how did it come up and, and how did you kind of go about like going from concepts to now this reality, like we have a podcast, like how did that work?
Jamie Truman: Well, it’s funny because my husband had never, I was a podcast listener. I’m a stay at home [00:12:00] mom. And so what I do is when I’m, you know, it’s, it’s sometimes I love it, but it’s a little mind numbing with like a one year old. So I’ll put a podcast on the back. I’m kind of listening to that while I’m playing with them.
So I’ve always been a podcast listener. And so when everything shut down, um, I, my husband was like, Okay, well, what are we gonna do? Because I’m not exactly sure when we’re gonna be able to have events again. We live in an area that was extremely strict, um, with what they were doing. So we were really concerned about when we were going to be able to start back up.
And I also, so there was kind of a two factor into this. The first was that now these organizations that we were never Um, helping kind of market out to the community and for so many people to know what that organization is about, um, we’re not going to be able to do that now. Um, so how are we going to be able to continue for people to learn about different organizations [00:13:00] within the area?
And we also do national ones that help, um, you know, like building homes for heroes. They’re based in Connecticut, but they build homes for, um, for wounded, uh, uh, people. Uh, one of that’s all over the U. S. And so we’re like, Okay, so how are we going to continue to help these organizations, uh, without having an event first?
And then second, we also knew that there was going to be a really negative impact about there’s going to be a lot of lockdowns and there’s going to be some negative impacts that are throughout the community that are going to be helping happening that a lot of people aren’t going to know about, right?
So I’ve, um, Yeah. For instance, I interviewed Empower for Herd Network, which is a wonderful organization that helps women that have been sex trafficked, and the increase was 125 percent on Facebook just when the lockdown happened because So, you Now you have all of these children on the internet and people needed to [00:14:00] know about these things happening.
Plus, you know, there was an increase in suicide and depression and all of these things that people were unaware of that a lot of these organizations were dealing with but needed to get the message out. But how were they going to? So I went to my husband and I said, it’s kind of like a two part thing. Um, we still want to continue to help, you know, these organizations and also people need to know what these organizations are going through now and what’s happening with people right now.
Um. Because of what’s going on, if that makes sense. And so I went to my husband, I said, Well, you know, why don’t I start a podcast? And he said, What is that? I was like, Go on your Apple phone and go on this little app and take a look. And so I had him listen to a couple and he said, You know, I think that’s a great idea.
And that was the first component to really, um, Having our organization become more efficient. Because when we started to do the podcast, I said, Okay. And at this point [00:15:00] we didn’t have board members and I said, if I’m going to do the podcast, I will do the podcast and I will do social media and, um, for our organization.
So why don’t we sit here and we find some really great board members that can do specific things for our organization to make this run like a business. Um, so everything is way more, uh, time efficient. And so that’s kind of how that worked. We started the podcast, it was on a whim. And I’m sure that you know this too, in the very beginning, I made a million mistakes.
Um, my
Adam Baruh: Totally normal,
Jamie Truman: oh my gosh, first person I interviewed, I don’t know about you, first person I interviewed, this was, thank goodness, I said, there’s one of my husband’s very good friends, has a wonderful organization, um, that helps kids that are on the free and reduced lunch program. So I called him and I said, you know, can I interview you first?
And I was like, I know I’m gonna mess up. Halfway through the interview, I realized it wasn’t recording. I was dying. I was like, Oh my gosh, I was so embarrassed. But, [00:16:00] you know, thankfully because he’s so nice and I told him he was kind of my guinea pig. Um, and the funny thing is, is that you keep things that you think are so significant.
And I was so embarrassed. And I interviewed him a year and a half later because we were having an event for him. And I, and I brought that up and he was like, Oh, I don’t even remember. Did that even happen? Isn’t that crazy?
Adam Baruh: so funny that you said that and, y’know, I think Getting into it for a lot of people, um, you know, because most of us are, you know, don’t have backgrounds like in broadcast or interviews and that sort of thing. And I think it’s a common thing to kind of overthink it. And it, you know, there’s a lot.
It’s a big thing. I mean, there’s a lot of emotional courage that just kind of wrapped up podcast, but doing really anything new. And it’s like. You come across your first mistake and that’s the moment it’s like, what do you do in that moment? Do you, do you fold up or do you [00:17:00] like persist and go on and learn from it?
Because I don’t know, like for me, I’ve, I definitely was one of those people when I first launched my first podcast. I think there was a little bit of a chasing perfection. And I mean, I’ll be transparent. Like, I think part of that came from a little bit of like some imposter syndrome. I felt just like, How am I going to be a podcaster?
Like, I had never done anything like that before. So, you know, it was my security blanket. Like, with trying to achieve this notion of perfection, really kind of over prepare, um, versus, you know, Like, I did get, I did get burned out from that podcast. I loved that podcast. Don’t get me wrong, but there was such a time commitment involved in it that, you know, I run two other companies.
It’s like at the end of the day, just, I had to make a decision, you know, but when I set out with this podcast, you know, definitely I thought about that. It was like an intentional thing, like this chasing perfection notion, like, what do I want? I kind of have been. There’s a lot [00:18:00] of intention with how this podcast has been structured in terms of like my time commitment that’s going to be involved.
I mean, that was probably the biggest factor is like, how can I do this very? In a, in a very scalable way where it’s not a huge time commitment, but I’m getting the content that I want to create and, and what I kind of found was as authentic and real as I could allow it to be like, that’s what I’m after.
So like you talk about, yeah, the moment where you’re like. This is not recording. What do I do? I’m sure it was like crisis level number 10. They’re like, what do I, how do I salvage this? But, um, I love that you just kind of, you know, you made it a moment. Yeah. Your guest didn’t even really remember that at the end of the day.
So let’s kind of hold, let’s, let’s stay on that topic a little bit. So then you obviously kept going, like, what do you think? It was about you that, [00:19:00] you know, kind of told you like it, you know, okay, that’s a learning experience. Let’s, let’s keep moving forward and, and, and just keep taking this where, where I want it to go, because, you know, I want it to, I want to like have a podcast.
Like, what was that kind of journey for you in that early, in that early part?
Jamie Truman: Well, and from the beginning, I guess it came to the fact that I had sold this idea right to my husband first off, and then he was, he was on board. And then I went to, then had we had created the board members and we had now structured our organization where those Well, Jamie’s going to do this and then we had told all of these other organizations that we’ve worked with or then are going to work with that I was going to be interviewing them and that we’re going to be doing a podcast and helping them market their organizations.
And so I just had to, but I, there were a few things that I realized when I first started, because I got really overwhelmed too. When I, when I first started my podcast, I had no [00:20:00] idea that it was as time consuming. Okay. Okay, bub. Go. My son.
Adam Baruh: See, exactly that. Like, that’s real. Like, I’m not even going to edit that out. Like,
Jamie Truman: go. So, I don’t know. So, um, alright. So it’s so time consuming. Oh my gosh.
Now I’ve like lost my train of thought. Oh, so then, what? Okay, okay, open the door. Get Miss Nora. Get Miss Nora. I’m on, I’m on interview. Um, so, oh my goodness. I got really, I got really overwhelmed and I talked to my husband and I said, okay, well, something’s got to give. I have a, at this point, my son was maybe like, I got.
Maybe six months old or something like that and then I had my five year old and I was like, I can’t do all of this I can’t do the editing. I can’t do this. I can’t do all of that myself So I think the great thing was outsourcing was amazing. That was one great thing that I did and there was another thing So if I go back to one of my first ones [00:21:00] I made that mistake of sending people Questions and then What they do, and, and I sent, and people get, you know, obviously pretty nervous, and I do all of my research beforehand, but what I’ll do is I’ll send them kind of like three or four maybe topics, right, because what I was watching is that you would ask me, say you asked me a question, and you already sent it to me, they’d already written out the answer, so then they’re just reading their answer, and it sounded I did this technique.
So like, not conversational at all. And it wasn’t that, it wasn’t that great to listen to. So I saw there wasn’t that many downloads and I was. I was spending all of this time and effort on these interviews and I wasn’t getting much back and then when I ended up, I’m hiring this wonderful woman that worked at a local news station and she’s been interviewing people for 20 plus years and she gave me some great advice and she said absolutely [00:22:00] never.
Send questions. That was like a big one and then also just don’t be scared of the silence either because sometimes you get really great stuff. So when you’re talking, especially when you’re on zoom, if you have like that moment of silence, you start getting like anxious to have to say something and most of the time just let it be and they’ll continue with something really great, which has ended up happening quite a bit.
And then the last thing is just try not. To, to put words in their mouth, kind of like, well, didn’t you feel it? How weren’t you very excited because of that or something like that? Instead of being like, you know, well, how did you feel about that situation? You know?
Adam Baruh: Completely. I think one of the things that podcasting has taught me is to be a better active listener. Um, because I, you know, I, I mean, I’ll be honest with you. My wife will tell you right now. It’s probably one of the things that I’m worst at. Um, so I, I like that, you know, podcasting has given me kind of like a way to work [00:23:00] out my listening skills, right?
Because what you said is absolutely true. Like there’s, there’s like a nervousness or, you know, like. Just this propensity to want to fill that space, like when there is a pause, part of it is like, okay, well, I better, you know, offer some new take on what they just said. Right? Or, you know, it’s an uncomfortable silence.
But, um, I’ve come to learn that those moments like if, especially like if the guest said something that was like pretty, like, kind of like a profound statement, like, let it sit there. Like, Don’t feel you need to jump right in with like a follow up. Let the audience absorb the information they were just given.
Where they’re going to have kind of like an emotional experience from some profound statement. Like let, let that hang in the air. Play with that. Like there’s a way to be creative with that. Um, and I love that, you know, [00:24:00] you spoke about. You know, just like the time management stuff, because really, really, it is, it’s so true and it’s, it’s a hard thing to think about delegating, um, and relinquishing control.
But, uh, at the end of the day, like, like I said in my intro, like just that the ability to kind of like recognize what, what are the true value ads for, you know, what you need to get involved in. Um, because I, I personally think the number one thing that podcasters. should work to avoid is that kind of overwhelmed feeling because it’s just, it’s something that is out there and I, I feel like the majority of people are going to run into that.
So,
Jamie Truman: I didn’t, didn’t they say that something like most, most podcasts only last like five or six episodes because I don’t think people understand how much is involved. But I do think that if you’re smart, what you’ll do is you’ll realize what you’re good at and what you’re not good at. And what you’re not good at, just have somebody else delegate it, have somebody else help [00:25:00] you out.
You know? And now with all this AI stuff, I couldn’t believe I’m on Buzzsprout. And um, I tried, it was like an extra 10 a month or whatever you throw in your, uh, you throw in your, um, your transcript. And then they come up with great, um, title recommendations and their actual show notes aren’t so bad. That I’ve, I was impressed.
I tried it last week for the first time and I was like, well, let me just give this a try. And I was like, oh my gosh.
Adam Baruh: Yeah, you’re talking about Buzzsprout. I think they call it the co host, um, AI or
Jamie Truman: Mm hmm. AI co host.
Adam Baruh: Exactly. Um, okay. So let’s talk about some of the tools that you use. So Buzzsprout, you mentioned, you’re just now exploring the co host. Um, what platform do you record on? You record on zoom or?
Jamie Truman: I do. I do. But I’m actually looking for a new platform because for some reason they don’t do the two video, they’ll do two audio outputs, but they won’t do two video outputs. So, for, you know, the reels that you want to do, I want to be able to have a little bit more, um, [00:26:00] uh, What’s it called? Yeah, I want to have more options on what I can and can’t use.
So then if you have both videos and that’s a little bit more options of like cutting, um, I don’t do that, but I want to send that to the production company that I use, um, for them to have more options cause that’s what they would like. So I would looking to move, but I’m going back and forth of where.
Adam Baruh: Okay. So you mentioned a production company. So do you, you just simply like, you know, show up, do the interview and then they kind of go in, they’ll download. The files and and kind of package everything together and kind of give you the finished product or what’s what do they do for you?
Jamie Truman: the. The interesting thing is, is when I didn’t know anything about podcasting and decided to do it, there was someone that I knew that was using, uh, an agency. And I used that agency for a while and they were terrible. And I didn’t realize it because I had never podcasted. And I didn’t have any real ability to do any pre editing before I sent everything off.
[00:27:00] So there wasn’t any transcript for me to look at. So what I would do is I would just send them my Zoom. And then I would have to go in and audio listen and like put in time stamps if I like what, it was terrible. So, but the production company that I use now, I don’t know if anybody uses Descript, but I absolutely love it.
Do you use it too? Yeah. It’s,
Adam Baruh: I just started using it only about a month ago
Jamie Truman: It, it’s life changing, I, I love it when it comes to podcasting. So the first time I used it, I was like, oh my gosh, you can cut and paste things. You can, um, put in different intros. You can put in a, I mean, you can add different content later on. It’s wonderful.
So I’ll do my pre editing there, and then I add them to my descript. So as, uh, an editor to it, and then they do their
Adam Baruh: Yep Yeah, exactly. So like when we got started, it was very much because I had a sound engineer that I worked with and he’s my brother in law and he did a fantastic job, but it was very time consuming. It was expensive. And like [00:28:00] you said, like where we would have like, um, dialogue edits, like we’d have to like give him the specific timestamps.
We’d have to like listen to the whole thing and very time consuming, right? Descript, um, which You know, I’m an affiliate partner. If anybody’s interested, you can go to, um, podtask. com and, um, under the resources page, there’s a link to the script. So if you are interested in signing up, please use my affiliate link.
Um, but it’s, it’s been a total game changer for us. So, um, now it’s pretty much myself and my assistant and my assistant just had a baby, so now it’s pretty much just me, but, um, I could bring everything in. Um, we record on Riverside, as you know, cause you’re here today. Um, and so it does separate the video and the audio files.
And so I drag those into the script. It generates the transcript. I can easily edit things in and out of the transcript. It uses AI to find filler words or like ums and ahs. I like to keep as much of those in, to be honest, as I can. Cause again, going after that. [00:29:00] Natural, authentic feel versus the chasing perfection idea.
Um, but the coolest thing that I absolutely love about Descript is the ability to create short form content from it very easily, right? So So what I do, my flow is I use, I use pod task, um, which is a sponsor of the show. So transparency on that. Um, but it, it has all the AI tools in there. So I drag the file in there, it generates the transcript.
I click a button that says generate quotes. Um, it’s so, cause it will go through the transcript and like find the hooks to use. And I’ll, there’s a generate show notes button. And so, you know, once I have all that, um. Like the generate quotes feature is kind of cool because then Like, the AI is telling me where in the transcript is a good hook, right?
So then I’ll create a composition in Descript. I’ll find where that quote is in the transcript, in Descript, create a composition, which is kind of like a new virtual, you know, [00:30:00] shortened form copied from the original. And then there’s different templates in Descript that you can tweak to your heart’s content, but it gives you the out of the box audiogram, the TikTok, you know.
Long kind of portrait format and so, you know, you can create like a tick tock real in a matter of 10 minutes versus like, I mean, we weren’t even doing it before because I think I just was. I was already very overwhelmed with time allocation anyway, so just, but now, I mean, yeah, it’s a huge advocate for descript.
I’m happy to hear that you’re using it. So, um, a couple other questions here. What, you know, just in your journey. And I think because looking at your podcast, it looks like you do biweekly. So every two weeks, um, you’re recording and is everything guest based. Like, do you ever do like solo, uh, monologue type episodes?
Jamie Truman: only time, and I just started doing this, probably, uh, this year I just started doing this, and that’s because I would get a lot of DMs with a lot of questions. So, typically [00:31:00] what I do is I do a Bi Weekly Podcast. At first I was doing weekly, and then I realized… Stay at home mom with two little kids bi weekly is going to be working out better because it isn’t short monologues It is a longer guest interview Which I do have to do a lot of research on when I’m interviewing these individuals for their organizations So it’s very you know, again that it’s very time consuming So All right, what was your question again?
Adam Baruh: The, um. Um, the episode frequency, how you’re recording a monologue versus
Jamie Truman: Oh, oh, that’s it. And so what I ended up, what ended up happening was that I was getting all of these DMs throughout the year asking me a lot of questions, for instance, like, um, like I was saying about Where should we host? Right? And a lot of people are asking that. And then, you know, how can we make this cost effective?
And how, how can we get auction items? And what’s the best way? And all of these type of, these type of questions. [00:32:00] And instead of answering people because I don’t have the time to make it more efficient, I’ll take those questions and after each of our big events, I DMs.
Adam Baruh: Okay.
Jamie Truman: Which is actually, it’s really fun because I never do monologue type, uh, episodes, so it, it is kind of fun to do those.
Adam Baruh: Yeah. I, in fact, I was having a conversation earlier this morning with a new podcast I’m about to produce and, and asking her the host, like, you know, and I’m glad you brought this up because this is, I think something for people to think about as well. Like when you’re doing, when you have a podcast and it’s like almost completely guest interview based, you know, it’s hard for the host.
Like the, the, the, I guess the value of what the host brings to kind of come through because really the episodes are all about the guest and they’re doing most of the talking. So how can, what are some strategies for you like Jamie to get your kind of unique [00:33:00] spin on podcasting or charity work and that sort of thing?
Like how can we allocate time for Jamie to come through? And so there’s different tools that you can do that. Like narration is a good tool. Um. Answering DMS or like answering questions that have been sent in that you do. That’s a fantastic way. I love that you’re doing that. Um, or doing the monologue episode.
So I think it’s, I like when I hear podcast hosts also making sure that they’re allocating time for their own kind of like. To, to have their own kind of angle on things or their own thoughts about this or that, like, you know, giving the time for that, because I think that’s important, um, like I said, sometimes if you’re entirely guest based, it’s, you know, I mean, it, it really is all about the guests, so let them be the star, but, you know, thinking about those ways that you can also kind of inject your, Spin on life because I think that’s important as a podcast host, right?
And that’s that’s a unique thing that you have that nobody else has Jamie [00:34:00] Truman’s kind of, you know Thoughts about this or that so Um, definitely important to, to do that as a podcaster. Um, as we come to, to wrap up here today, I ask everybody the same kind of couple of questions on the theme of discovery.
So the first is going to be, you know, what discoveries have you made just about podcasting? I think you’ve mentioned several, um, throughout the episode here today, but what are some of the discoveries that, you know, things that you didn’t know just about podcasting in general that you’ve come to learn in your podcasting journey?
Thank
Jamie Truman: There’s a lot of things that I had already previously mentioned, but one of the things when it comes to interviewing people, and especially how I’m interviewing different non profits, so I’m, I’m interviewing founders, and everybody has a very unique story. And I found it so… Um, fun, I found a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be to learn about people from all different kinds of backgrounds of all different kinds of situations.
And you [00:35:00] realize that every single person has that unique story and it is really, it. It makes you learn a lot about yourself. It makes me a better mother, makes me a better wife, it makes me a better friend, just by kind of understanding people more. And that’s just by actually being a podcaster and having to learn like you have to be a good listener.
And that is something that I never thought I was going to get out of it. You know, my whole purpose was is that I wanted to help market these organizations and help Help them as much as I could with marketing and that’s part of my background. So that was kind of made sense to me, but I didn’t understand the effect it would have on me personally learning about so many different individuals.
Adam Baruh: I love that. All right. So you already segued into my second question, and so we’ll see. We’ll see where we go with this one. But the final question is in along the [00:36:00] lines of discoveries. Um, what personal discoveries have you made about yourself that you were surprised to learn through your podcasting experience?
Jamie Truman: You know, so I am I started this podcast series that I’ve been working on this summer and what I did realize by By interviewing now, gosh, I mean, hundreds of people, um, that there is kind of this common theme with a lot of individuals and that is that there has been a lack of, of a father figure within the home.
And so I’ve really wanted to dive deep into that this summer. And so I started this podcast series that will be out in the new year and I’ve been, and I’ve been. Um, listening to a lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds with a lot of different situations. And now me personally, I kind of went through the same thing of kind of an absentee dad. And you would never think that you would be talking to somebody that I would personally never run into, um, on my day to day basis, and you would never [00:37:00] actually be thinking, and nobody, you don’t go up to people and that’s a little TMI, like you just start talking about your whole life story, right? But being able to have these conversations with people, you would be so surprised of the similarities that you find in people that you would never think you would.
Ordinarily. Um, it’s, it’s really, it’s fascinating, like, how everybody is kind of connected and you don’t even realize it in one way or another.
Adam Baruh: I love that. And, um, one of the things I’ve found really. It’s one of the kind of beautiful artifacts of the pandemic is, you know, obviously, and you meant you were talking about the lockdown, and it’s weird to think about it because it’s not really been all that long, but like that whole time back then seems like a blur, like, I don’t know about you, but it’s just, it seemed so at the time, like life just slowed down.
But now looking back, it’s like, It’s, it’s almost like it didn’t even happen, but, you know, some things are legacy from the [00:38:00] pandemic. Like even my company that I run, like we went to be an entirely remote workforce, you know, because of the pandemic, but we’ve stayed that way. And I think a lot of companies have stayed that way.
Right. And, and I think a lot of people love that, but I think at the same time, like we’ve lost, you know, some ways in which we used to connect. With other people, um, that, that human connection just eroded a little bit because we don’t, you know, we’re not, we’re seeing kind of the same people every day now that we’re working out of our houses, right?
But, uh, just the, that, that level of human connection, what I think is beautiful about podcasting is for me, at least it’s been. A pretty interesting replacement, not that I’m trying to replace human connection because it’s so fundamentally important, but even as a podcast listener, if I’m listening to somebody telling a story on the moth and they’re, it’s a really vulnerable story and they’re, they’re very off lent, authentically and genuinely like recounting an [00:39:00] experience while I’m not there in person and I’m just a listener through my headphones, I feel a human connection because of that emotional connection.
And I think podcasting is such a cool format in that it does that. So thank you so much for being on the podcast today and for sharing your story and, um, for doing the work that you’re doing, because it sounds like you’re made, making a huge impact and, and intentionally setting out to do it the right way.
So Jamie, thanks so much for being on beyond the microphone today.
Jamie Truman: thank you, Adam, and I learned so much about you. So, I love what you’re doing, too. So, thanks
Adam Baruh: Thank you. Jamie Truman hosts the Truman Charities podcast, a philanthropist guide to charitable organizations and is one of the co founders of Truman Charities, which is 100 percent volunteer based. Truman Charities has raised over 1. 7 charities over the past 14 years. Truman Charities has one simple and important [00:40:00] concept.
When good people get together, great things happen. Beyond the Microphone is sponsored by PodTask. Whether you’re just starting out in podcasting or you’ve been at this a while and are looking to save time so you can focus on creating amazing content for your listeners, go check out PodTask, a podcast management and marketing platform designed by podcasters for podcasters.
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EIQ Media: Beyond the Microphone is produced and distributed by EIQ Media Group, LLC. Elevate your emotional IQ with podcasts and content focused on entrepreneurship, overcoming [00:41:00] adversity, stories of emotional courage, women’s health, aging, and more.