This is the formula I have been looking for.
I want to put my balls on the line in a decent way. I am no longer feeling depressed and crushed I have suddenly become a balanced and realistic human being.
The last few years of depression have taught me when to say no, when to go home and what to eat turning me into an invigorated ‘thing’ that is loving making a ruckus in 2015.
My love for my WordPress Rainmaker FM site grows deeper every day and I am still gagging to do a little podcast on my own – one where I can’t get fired from for being being a bit lary and sliding into political shenanigans or offending some public-school-smug sharing economy entrepreneur.
There are ALWAYS conversations that come up on OuiShare Radio and Beyond the Business Card that I’d like to develop more but are just not congruent with the themes of those podcasts.
Simply the best at:
If you ask people what am I known for they’ll say being late, and then they will concede that I connect people. This is the bit I love the best, I have connected people who have got married – then divorced and then remarried (true story), people who have gone into business together – then fallen out (true story), people with somewhere to sleep in London, Paris, New York and Berlin – and so on. That line was getting a bit self serving so I’ll stop.
Where I get the kick from:
I want other people to know about other people and also I really want to be talking less. Imagine how cool it would be if you could sit down and I’d just listen to you? Then when we are done I send you a podcast from person X and person Y so you can connect with and go further with them than just listening to me talk.
People in my community often ask me if I can help them get the word out and if I can find a way I’ll bust my balls to help – you have probably noticed. It is not easy, tweeting, emailing, calling, handing out stuff is not only ineffective it is really time consuming.
Of course there is a very selfish angle to this – I need to make really good use of my time. I like being with my wife and child so spending less time at events and / or at my workstation in @90Mainyard is good.
Also I am way more interested in satisfying my curiosity and lust for learning than I am doing any real work, so producing a podcast interview is a great smoke screen.
What is the inspiration for this?
For a long time I have been beyond envious of Peter J Thompson’s ‘50 coffee’s in London‘ riff and have been looking for a way to build a project of my own around this framework, he also led me to Megan Gebhart’s “52 Cups of Coffee” project so I am going to shake the two together and add a side of podcast.
On top of this my ‘quiet little mate’ Luis Suarez got me pondering for my own way to “work out loud” with my community and this was further built upon when I was playing golf with Lisa Gansky. Lisa was musing about how it would be great to share the coffee conversations she was having with experienced instigators and connect their wisdom with other people. Of course, how dumb of me to secretly meet with people and talk about amazing things I will never put into action.
I found myself starting to join the dots in ‘World of Bernie’ – note: this is not an actual place it is a little space in my head that only me and Amelie my therapist can get to.
Where was I?
Ah here! I spend a lot of my time telling other people about other people, then I want those other people to know other people and I want those people to connect in person at an event or Meet Up. Doing this is even more clumsy than that last sentence.
There is a strong thread of ‘Tummler’ or ‘Impresario’ in my blood and I have been looking for the combination of using this to connect people in my community. Even more important was to design a way that is less blood sucking than pulling people to breakfast networking meetings or subjecting London to yet another self-serving panel of talking and no questions.
Side note: the best way I have EVER found to fill an event is to DM or email people one by one in a very personal manner – THEN follow this up with a Mailchimp newsletter (notice I did not say BLAST there) over the last 8 years I have been working out how to cultivate a community around my email list this is the best way to have people join in.
So anything ‘mass’ or ‘get in front of as many people as possible’ is out. I LOVE events with around 50 – 60 people max, warm and welcoming with enough people in the room who know others to be able spark conversations – this is the atmosphere I am attempting to reflect in the podcasts I work on.
There is WAY more to the collaborative and sharing economy in London than the six companies you see on stage at every event and read about in the paper. Places like Dinner Exchange, Copass, Grub Club, Food Assembly, Nimber, LiftShare, and Economy of Hours are a few of the companies I follow closely and / or work with. (If I had clothes that went beyond jeans and a T-Shirt with an app logo on I’d take part in rentez-vous.com too.)
I have to shoot – I am due a haircut and I need to buy batteries for my Zoom recorder!
