Adventures in Podcasting - Adventures with Bernie J Mitchell: Finding your voice, giving voice to others and making a difference

Adventures with Bernie J Mitchell: Finding your voice, giving voice to others and making a difference

04/10/22 • 49 min

Bernie J Mitchell is currently the host of Tech London and Coworking Values, but he's hosted many other shows before. In this episode, he talks to Pilar about using podcasting to find your voice, and giving voice to others. (And we even have an owl say hello.)

Bernie started podcasting because he loved listening to podcasts and was also a fan of talk radio. He set up his first show and thought that it would be great to have Seth Godin on the show. So he invited him and guess what, he interviewed one of his heroes for his first episode.
This was not a tactic to get lots of listeners, but because he's read everything Seth's written and he's been a gateway to many other people and concepts. Bernie was determined to ask him about his lesser known books, to bring up stuff that he hardly talked about,

Bernie has hosted loads of shows, but the one that went on for longer and that Bernie enjoyed very much was Straight Out of @WorkHubs, which he hosted with friend and colleague Phil.

The podcast fitted in very well with the coworking space's other activities, like the "anti-network" group, writer's club, etc. A lot of what they talked about centred around the conversations that took place in the space, and those events.
13.32 mins
Bernie is now working on the CoWorking Values podcast, part of the European Coworking Assembly, which started with interviewing people about co-working, but it has now evolved to include people running spaces with a community focus, inclusion and accessibility, spaces in small towns, etc. Their content centres around their values of accessibility, community, collaboration, sustainability and openness.
Bernie hosts the show, but has a great producer working with him who has organised the workflow and set up systems and processes that have enabled them to release an episode a week. The media host they use is Soundr, which allows you to search through the podcast. The search engine looks through the transcript to find the bit you want, and then points you to its place in the audio.

25.26 mins
Coworking Values has always had an interview format and they make an effort to find those voices that are rarely visible in the industry.

Bernie also hosts the show Tech London. He made a deliberate effort for it not to become one more podcast about start-ups, so he teamed up with the Urban MBA. The show is centred around 5G and smart cities and so it's more interesting to find guests.

35.54 mins
One of the projects Bernie is most proud of is one that his colleague Jose has recently put together: voices from the coworking community sending their messages to those in the coworking community in the Ukraine.
To find Bernie, google his name!
Or visit berniejmitchell.com/

Get in touch if you would like some coaching and advice on podcasting yourself or connect with Pilar on Twitter @InpodcastingIf you want to hear from me (Pilar) in between episodes, you can sign up to the Adventures in Podcasting newsletter here: https://www.adventuresinpodcasting.com/newsletter/

If you want to support this show and are looking for a media host: I recommend Buzzsprout, and for web hosting, I recommend Bluehost (affiliate links).

Bernie has hosted loads of shows, but the one that went on for longer and that Bernie enjoyed very much was Straight Out of @WorkHubs, which he hosted with friend and colleague Phil.

25.26 mins
Coworking Values has always had an interview format and they make an effort to find those voices that are rarely visible in the industry.

If you want to support this show and are looking for a media host: I recommend Buzzsprout, and for web hosting, I recommend Bluehost (affiliate links).

Previous Episode

Adventures with Myriam Hadnes: Nurturing guests, mapping out episodes and a different view on sponsorship

Myriam Hadnes is the host of the Workshops Work podcast, where she talks to guests about facilitation and collaboration. We also talk about the role the podcast has taken in developing her business and community, sponsor breaks and how she uses a visual map to guide people into her show.
Workshops Work was part of her business communication, and a year and a half into her podcast, she actually changed the name of her business to match the podcast.
Her first guest was her mentor, who also introduced Myriam to workshops. She then reached out to her close community and friends.
The show structure has become freer now - Myriam has gone from scripting all her questions and following the script, to sending some questions through to give "the illusion of preparation" and be able to follow the conversation.

17.50 mins

Through podcasting, Myriam has also learned "the art of taking space", a concept she came across through improv. By being vulnerable and sharing her own perspective, she supports her guest helping them to play with the content, instead of being responsible for creating the content for the episode. Being of service to the other person is also something that comes from facilitation.
Myriam edited the first 25 episodes herself, which is important to do to get a real sense of your own presence and the conversation dynamics. "We don't want a thinking break to be confused with a tech issue." She used to take 4 hours per hour of episode.

27.30 mins

When conversations are long, the episodes are split into two shows, as Myriam asked her audience about their preferred length - they said 40 minutes and that it would be good for longer episodes to be split into two. This shows there's all kind of preferences, and it's worth asking your audience.
32.36 mins

A few years ago, Myriam went to a conference and was so dissatisfied that eventually, after being prompted by a guest, she set up her own conference. She invited her guests to do something at an event, where they would do something that had never done before.
The first 24 hour festival took place in November 2020, and now it's evolved into this whole thing, the Never Done Before community and events: https://neverdonebefore.org/

40.50mins

Myriam talks about how she decided to get her listeners used to "sponsors breaks" since the first episode so that, if at some point she could sell sponsorship onto the show, the audience would already be used to it.

46.50 mins
Myriam has a wonderful visual map on Mural for her episodes. You can find it here: https://bit.ly/podcast-map ,
Finally, Myriam talks about what she likes best about having her show: those moments when her and the guest forget that they are recording a show and have memorable, or incredibly fun conversations. Some of her favourite moments are her conversation with Meg Bolger, and Howard Gray.

You can connect with Myriam on LinkedIn, and also check out her site Workshops Work.

If you want to hear from me (Pilar) in between episodes, you can sign up to the Adventures in Podcasting newsletter here: https://www.adventuresinpodcasting.com/newsletter/

Next Episode

Ep 23 Adventures in preparing for my 300th episode!

In today's episode, Pilar shares some of what she's learned from the first three interviews for this show, and how she's getting on with episode 300 of the 21st Century Work Life podcast. Plus ,she's got a book recommendation for you.
I'm pausing the interviews, but will be recording more in June.

But I think I'll have enough adventures of my own for at least another three episodes, so I'll hope you'll stay with me until then. And it's also an opportunity for you to get in touch with your questions and even, hey, why not, if you're in podcasting, maybe you can come on the show as a guest. Just drop me a quick note.

06.37 mins

First I'd like to thank all three guests,

So the three conversations are very different, and so are the points of view. For example, both Myriam and Bernie interview guests and have a completely different idea of how to interact with them.

Myriam talks about how she's learned to "bring more of herself into the space", by contributing to the conversation with her own opinions, examples, etc. This helps the guest to have someone to bounce off of, and releases the pressure of them creating most of the episode content.

On the other hand, Bernie prefers to stay out of the conversation as much as possible, to give the guest as much space to share.

One thing that struck me about Craig's interview, is how he plans for spontaneity with his co-host. Have a listen to his interview in Episode 20 for more on this.

14.40 mins

I'm starting to record the guest contributions for the 300th episode of the 21st Century Work Life podcast. As I'm recording this episode, it's the 23rd April and the show comes out on 5 May.

I've overdone it! 12 guests! I've recorded 3 so far. Plus Ross, the podcast polisher for that show.

I set up a Calendly for guests to book themselves in, and one of them even changed the date

I'm using Zencastr to record with and gave each person their individual link. This means I'll have transcripts to work from.

For episode 300, I'm thinking of putting together three parts: general thoughts, personal thoughts and thoughts about the podcast. I'm also thinking of releasing all the interviews as a separate show. There are lots of free platforms now - Libsyn Studio and Buzzsprout have an option for a free show.

28.12 mins

Today I'd like to recommend the book Big Podcast by David Hooper, which is mainly about mindset. I'm finding it similar to Julia Cameron's The Artist Way, which I read on Saturday mornings at the Riverside Studios Café.

In David's words,

"This book isn't a series of techniques, it's a philosophy." So my kind of book! Here's a quote I like:

"Softening your message is disrespectful to your audience because it doesn't allow them to hear who you really are."

And this is so true.

And remember that I too have a book: Plan Your Podcast or if you prefer to be prompted by email, I have an email sequence to help you do just that. You can find the link at the end of the Resources pages.

If you want to support this show and are looking for a media host: I recommend Buzzsprout, and for web hosting, I recommend Bluehost (affiliate links).

Get in touch if you would like some coaching and advice yourself or connect on Twitter @Inpodcasting