“Have you joined clubhouse yet?” , literally said by every IPhone user I know.
“I am not interested in ANOTHER app” said by probably everyone that doesn’t have clubhouse yet.
I asked so many people what is the hype. Why are people talking about it so much. And I noticed literally everyone had night and day reactions to their experiences. Everything from, “Its so good to network with people in my field, I met other chefs and we started a room” to “you have join at night, it gets crazy! Meek, 21 Savage everyone was there”. I stared in confusion. How can this new app be that diverse.
Two weeks, and a very quietly quarantined holiday later, I did it. Christmas week I joined and went straight into the first room on my page. “The Introvert Network”. Ding ding!! Thats me! I opened the room, and was creeped out immediately. “who are these people talking”, “why is everyone talking at once”, “look at all of these little profile pics”. I expected long extensive profiles, with tons of pics, or some kind of moving graphic and presentation. But there was nothing. Just a slew of profile pictures , idle with all of these voices. Amazed as if I’m seeing the internet for the first time. So this is it. This is clubhouse.
I hear a ping, and get a notification “The moderator would like to add you as a speaker”. I freaked out but my intrigue, promoted me to say “yes I’ll join”. And from that day on, I was hooked! The moderator would call on people in order of their profile pictures and ask them to introduce themselves. He explained as Introverts we don’t tend to raise our hand first, so I want to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak. And he was 100% correct. I had no intensions of raising my hand without that nudge from this group. Everyone was so motivating, asking each other questions about their profession, or their interests. I immediately felt connected to a group of humans that I have never met.
Clubhouse is the first app I’ve ever experienced that after you join, there is no content to produce, no learning to cut , paste, and have music add ons. Just me & my voice. But it’s that same simplicity that terrified me. “Hey the next person is …uh..Masharzi, am I saying that right?”. I laughed and with a faint quiver in my voice , I cleared my throat and said “yes..uh.. thats me”.
Insane! If you follow me on Instagram , you will see I’m no stranger to the camera. I take a selfie at the mere glance of my phone. I love making creative content, I smile, I dance. But here I am with nothing but my voice , and I was terrified. It was the most exciting fear I’ve encountered in awhile. (I probably should get out more).
As time went on, I began to hop into all types of rooms. And follow everyone from an up and coming music producer in Chicago, to a CEO of a startup in California. From a mom of 3 in Louisiana that makes jewelry, to the co-founder of Android. Of course you can follow these people on many other apps, but the opportunity to be in a “room”, and hear these people in the moment, hear the confidence, the vulnerability and the buoyant tone in their voice. Incomparable.
Four hours later after joining, I found myself cooking dinner, phone set to speaker mode, and laughing with everyone in the conversation. And thats the catch! You can literally be working, be at the grocery store, scrolling through instagram and still be on Clubhouse at the same time. It doesn’t take you away from your normal life. You’re not tied to looking at a screen, or typing in any chats. Just put your headset in, and you’re connected for as along as you like.
What inspired me to write this blog about Clubhouse was my experience in a room called “Queen Careers”. While working from home, we all have our good days and bad days, with nowhere to go to escape. And I was by definition having a bad day. I stumbled upon this room of women in tech , talking about ways to improve your career and classes they recommend for you to try. They offered people in the “audience” to raise their hand to come to the stage and ask questions to experts in different fields.
Now imagine this kind of networking event happening in person. What would it require? A possible ticket purchase, bringing your resume just in case, wearing your best business casual ensemble, and hoping in a sea of people you get a chance to connect with the panelist. Now fast forward to the Clubhouse edition. I’m in sweats, eating grapes, while sitting on my couch, talking about classes in C# coding to a software engineer of a tech company. I went from having a bad day to feeling motivated and ready to get working.
Of course we all miss in person connections, and the value it can have when networking. But during this time when being around another person that you don’t know requires 6 feet of space, online networking feels so much better.
So whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to network, or a stay-at-home mom who wants to talk about parenting tips, there is a room for you.
However head my warning. Be cautious with who you follow. The rooms you see not only are based on your selected interests, but also of those you follow. Thank me later!
