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

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 @Inpodcasting
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/

If you're thinking of starting your own podcasting adventure, I recommend Buzzsprout as host - click here for my affiliate link, which also gets you a little discount, and Riverside FM for recording, which you can access through this other affiliate link.