110. How do you get started on Clubhouse? (f. Giselle Ugarte)
Is Clubhouse another fleeting trend—or a burgeoning force for professional connections? 📱 Hosts Phil and Lauren are teaming up with returning guest (and now-client) Giselle Ugarte to dish on everything there is to know about the latest must-have app. Giselle gives us a Clubhouse tour, etiquette lesson, and vision of the possibilities that come with this audio-only experience. If you’re curious about emerging technology, over visuals, and ready to meaningfully connect with others, you’ll love this episode.
Episode transcription
Hey listeners. Before we dive right into this episode, where we'll talk all about going live on Instagram best practices and little hacks that I've been learning and using along the way, my 2021 resolution is to go live more. And before we dive into it, I wanted to give you a heads up that I also created a YouTube video on this topic with even more tips, tricks and hacks. Things like adding music to your live without violating Instagrams rules, ending up with them taking your lives down, or how to grow your followers or create new, meaningful connections. The link for that video was philp.al/ig-live and I recommend you check it out. And hey, subscribe to the channel while you're over there for more practical advice to look good online. Okay, enough about that. Now, onto the show.
phil
Well, hello there. Welcome to Brand Therapy. I'm Phil.
Lauren
And I'm Lauren.
Phil
And this is the podcast where we help you position, build and promote your brand. Promote your brand, promote your brand is the focus of today. We're talking about the thing that everyone else is talking about. And we wouldn't be talking about that thing, if it weren't also for a resident expert in that thing. Now I'll talk in specifics, Clubhouse, hello Clubhouse, the app that everyone is talking about. And I'll admit, I haven't fully wrapped my head around it yet. And that's why Lauren and I called our dear friend, Giselle.
Giselle
I'm here.
Phil
You're here. You've been on the podcast before and you're back. And we're so happy you're here because you, my friend are in Boomtown o Clubhouse. And I just thought it would be a good idea to get your help and understand what the heck is happening on this app because I haven't yet figured it out.
Giselle
I am obsessed with Clubhouse. I'll be honest with you, I got an invitation to join a few months ago because it is invitation only, at least for now. Or you have to get on the waitlist and reverse your name or reserve your name. And I got the link an invitation a few months ago, I thought it was spam. I thought it was some sort of like a portal to either a hookup app or maybe some sort of a political conversation. And I just was already overwhelmed by social media, I did not want to have anything to do with it. And now my biggest regret is not jumping on sooner, because it has become my favorite way to create meaningful connections and have valuable conversations. And I am on it so much that I am ashamed to say I purchased a second iPhone so that I can have it on in the background.
Lauren
Wow.
Giselle
Yeah.
Phil
Really?
Giselle
Yes.
Phil
How we have developed from a call that was really only two or three weeks ago, where I said to you, I don't really like this app, and you said, I don't really like it either. Walk us through what's happened in the last few weeks from then. And now please, please, please.
Giselle
Okay. So when I first opened the app, I was presented with this feed of ongoing conversations. If LinkedIn was a podcast, that's basically what it is. So you would click on someone's feed, and automatically it feels like you're entering late on a conference call. And you definitely are recommended content at random to begin with. So you never really know what you're gonna get. It might be super, super odd conversations. It might be a bunch of showboating, it might be a little bit of mansplaining, it might be experts who have no idea what the heck they're talking about. But once you actually get to know the platform, which is why I said, I want to give you guys a tour. Because what happened was, I finally got to sit in on a formal tour of Clubhouse. And that allowed for me to know what rooms I wanted to get into. It helped me to curate my main feed, which is actually known on Clubhouse as the hallway. So that way, I could actually be recommended content that I was interested in. Plus, I could actually find my friends. And that's one of the other reasons why I love the app so much is it is connected with me with some people who I haven't spoken to in 5,10 years. And now all of a sudden, we're speaking on a regular basis.
And what I love the most about the app is it is entirely voice, it is called a drop in audio app. And so you are the content, you don't have to prepare for it. It is simply you and your ideas. You can't hide behind filters. You can't hide behind hitting the record button a bunch of times, if you want to just sit and hang out and absorb and learn kind of like you would a podcast or a morning show you can. Or if you want to raise your hand and join that conversation, this app has allowed for me to connect with friends, colleagues, mentors, mentors who don't even know that I exist. I've shared the virtual stage with Sophia amoruso, Grant Cardone Amy Purdy, just all of these different people who previously had no idea existed. And now all of a sudden with in some cases, we're having these meaningful conversations and in some cases collaborating but some of the most people conversations are with people who I'd never even heard of. I now have a real life mentor who I met on Clubhouse, who previously I didn't even know who he was. and now he is very much taking me under his wing into his business and helping me with the transitional period that I'm currently in with my business.
Phil
Well, so it's been a few busy weeks, it's been a few busy weeks.
Giselle
So it's only been about two and a half weeks where I've been active on the platform. And I have almost 7000 followers on Clubhouse, and that has translated to followers on Instagram and actual sales and clients in my business.
Lauren
That's crazy.
Phil
And that's why this conversation is inspiring and why we're having it. Go ahead, Lauren.
Lauren
Do you think that sort of the best way to wrap your head around Clubhouse is to think of it as a bunch of radio shows or even podcasts or interviews that you can actually jump into?
Giselle
Totally. You both know, but those who are listening don't quite know. I always humanize anything that is technological marketing or social media. And so there's something nostalgic about it, where I feel kind of like back when you were a little kid having a slumber party with your friends, and you would turn out all the lights and you were supposed to go to bed. But then you would stay up and talk about the most random things almost wanting to see who could stay up the longest. That's kind of what it feels like because you can't see anybody and it's all audio. There's a lot of vulnerability. There's a lot of stories. There's a lot of humor again, are you going to find rooms where all they want to talk about is building $69 million businesses, sure.
But for those who are really creating a meaningful space here and using this to leverage relationships, not just in business, but also in their personal development. It has been such a beautiful space, where there are even people who maybe we had supported each other or followed each other on Instagram or Tik Tok. And now I feel like we have you know, we're we went from maybe date One, two to date. 50. And actually, Never have I ever Okay, this is a secret here. Never have I ever slid into anyone's DMS romantically until Clubhouse.
Lauren
Oh, wow. Wow. So you can actually find love on Clubhouse as well, because you're not in love yet.
Giselle
You can. Okay, so first of all, there's no validation, there's no likes. Yes, you have followers, but you don't have to worry about likes. And also, every single time that you enter a conversation, your little avatar pops up in the room. So you can see who's leaning into conversations, even if they're just listening. And so in that sense, when so many of us are sometimes afraid to admit who we are, what we're interested in, what our hobbies are, what our opinions are, you're getting to see this, peel back the curtain piece of your life. And you're also able to have multiple exchanges within short periods of time. And again, you can hear someone's voice. And you can tell a lot from someone's voice, even without body language. And all of a sudden, you can get to a different space. And I really truly love it and have had to create time blocks in my schedule so that I'm doing other things.
But there are people who are honestly on the app 24 hours a day, almost. My friend William has a newborn right now, and he legitimately is up at all hours of the day and he is on Clubhouse at all hours of the day.
Lauren
I love that.
Phil
So take us there.
Giselle
Okay, we are sharing my phone screen. And my calendar, just let me know that we have a meeting in 10 minutes, thank you calendar, we're already here.
Phil
We'll talk through it for our podcast listeners. We're looking at it on a screen together and we'll make sure I have a video version of this streaming on Facebook and wherever else it goes. But we'll also talk through it.
Giselle
We'll talk through it so that even if you don't have a screen in front of you, you'll still understand what we're talking about. When you first log into Clubhouse your main feed is referred to as your hallway. So anytime you hear people refer to the hallway, that's what they're talking about. The first thing you're going to want to do is pick a profile picture ideally of your face. I choose to have a bold background color because sometimes there are a lot of people and a lot of speakers in a room, and so if you have something in your profile that is differentiating whether it is a border or a background color or words, it will let people know who is speaking if perhaps they can instantly tell based off of the little ring that appears around your avatar when you're speaking.
What I would recommend doing is follow anywhere from 25 to 100 people to begin with, you don't want to do it all at once, because you don't want the app to freeze up on you, but simply so that it can start to get a sense of perhaps the types of conversations that you'd be interested in. And also, if you actually have friends on the app, who you would look forward to sharing rooms with, some of you I know are like, I don't want to be in the same rooms as my co workers totally cool, don't follow your coworkers, it is fine. And then make sure that you fill out your bio as thoroughly as you can and in bullet form, so that it's easy on the eyes. A lot of people use emojis here, the first three lines are going to be the most important because that shows up as the preview text when people are either looking for your profile. Or if you raise your hand in a room, the moderator might look to see a little bit about who you are and what you're about.
So some people actually switch out those first three lines every time they walk into a different room. But that's not at all necessary, totally up to you. But that's just a little quick trip.
Your bio is also utilized in terms of search. So when you're searching for someone on the app, you can also search by some of those keywords, not just necessarily by their first or their last name. So if you have conversation topics that you'd like to talk about interests, specialties, then consider that when you're creating your bio, you also want to make sure that you have at least your Instagram or your Twitter connected, because there's no way to message inside of the app. The only way to communicate is through voice. And if you're sharing the stage with someone, otherwise, you're not able to connect and you want to take your relationships online offline, hopefully. So make sure even if you don't remember your password, it's worth digging it up so that people are able to connect with you offline, especially if you want to use this as a business tool.
Once you actually get into a conversation like the one that's appearing up on this screen, that is what is referred to as a room. So people will refer to the room a lot, that's simply referring to the conversation, the space.
The room is always split into three different categories. Either it can be private, so just between you and whoever you invite. So right now Lauren, Phil and I are in a room, it can be based off of social. So who any of the moderators follow, the moderators are the one who starts the room, they have the controls to say who is and who is out, they can also give people that privilege, and it's marked by a little green asterisk. And then there's public so anybody can come no matter where they are, they can join the room.
The room itself is also split into three different categories. So up top, you have the stage. So that is where Lauren and I currently are, if you're looking at the screen, we're on stage. That means that we have microphone access. Anytime that you are brought on stage in a room, the first thing you want to do is the bottom right hand corner of your screen, you want to tap your microphone, because it's the opposite of zoom, where automatically your microphone will be hot. So you want to make sure that you tap that microphone, especially if you're doing something in or around your house that might make a lot of noise. Or maybe you're on the toilet, I've totally been there. The first thing you want to do is make sure to mute that microphone. Also, anytime that you're not speaking, you want to mute that microphone as well.
Beneath this stage, you'll see a section called followed by the speakers, which will show all of the people in the room who are followed by the speakers. Because currently right now the application is entirely referral based and run by influence, it simply shows who is connected to those who are on stage. And then beneath that is everybody else. And the goal is to pull everybody else up, because we want to create meaningful connections on this platform.
A couple of just little tiny things. For the first week that you're on Clubhouse, you'll have a little party hat in the lower left hand profile section of your profile picture on the screen, that simply lets people know that you're new to the app and you've been on for less than a week. You'll also potentially see people blinking their microphones when they're up on stage. That is not technical difficulties. That is actually simply a noiseless signature of applause, laughter or agreement. So I've actually found that I've been on the app so much that I'll be on a zoom call or on a real phone call, and I'll want to hit mute on mute. And I'm like, wait, no, I'm not on Club. They can't see it. This is so stupid. So Lauren's blinking her microphone right now.
You can also raise your hand. So Phil, since you're currently in the audience, if you want to raise your hand right now, which is just tapping the little hand thing, you'll hear that cute little noise, I can invite you up as a speaker. The first thing you want to do is mute yourself. And then there you are on the stage.
Phil
Hello, hello.
Giselle
Look at you you're doing it, you're doing it you're making it happen. On the top right hand corner of every single room is this little icon with a piece of paper and the right corner folded over. Those are the clubhouse community guidelines and fill out a reminder of the rules and such but it also gives you tips on being a better contributor, speaker and moderator. So I always recommend that even if you've been on the platform for a while, go take a look at the Community Guidelines so that that way, you get a refresh on why we're here and how we can make this place better.
But then also on the bottom left hand corner, there's a little sign like a little piece out sign. At any point in time, if you want to hop from room to room, you can, you don't have to say goodbye. You don't have to make a big announcement. It's not rude. People know that you're busy people know that your attention span might be short, and you want to get the most value that you possibly can. So you can always leave if you want to. And that is more than okay.
But yeah, that's like the very basics of clubhouse in terms of the functionality and how it works. I actually host welcome rooms almost every single day. And I will give people public tours of Clubhouse and I will allow for people to network. I host two a week specifically for realtors, actually because I have stumbled into so many real estate rooms. So I do on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8pm Central time I will specifically do real estate networking, welcoming rooms.
But it's just been such a fun fun place for networking, friendship, building conversation, having uncomfortable conversations and I can do it without having to do my hair and makeup. I don't have to wear pants. If I can't sleep, I can hop on if I wake up early, I can hop on. One of my favorite rooms actually starts at midnight, central time and it's a UK Breakfast Club. So while my friends over in the UK are having breakfast, and I'm getting ready for bed, it's a fun way to connect. And I hope that you guys hop into my rooms, I would love to host some conversations with all of you.
And it really truly is incredible who can pop in were my first I wasn't even on the platform for a week and I hosted a room where hundreds of people came to talk and connect. And as I mentioned before Sophia Amoruso stopped by Paralympian Amy Purdy stopped by, just to like, come and say hi and be part of the conversation because they felt like the title of the room was engaging. So it's really, really remarkable what you can do on this app.
Phil
Where does someone like me, for example, even begin, I create a lot of content on Instagram. I do Lives every week, you popped into mine earlier today, I saw you, two YouTube videos every week. I'm tweeting and posting and where I guess I just and that was such a good walkthrough. Where do I begin if I only have 100 followers to start? Because I haven't done anything with the app? Would I create a room even though there's no one in it yet? Where do I start? What if you were me? Where would you start?
Giselle
A couple of things. Anytime you're new to a platform, I say spend some time listening, which I know you've dabbled in a little bit here and there, I've seen you come into my rooms as well. So listening, raising your hand seeing the styles of moderators to figure out the type of moderator or host that you would want to be. Or maybe you decide, oh, my god, that seems really overwhelming, I would want to have a room where someone else is the lead moderator. But I at least want to guide the conversation, which is totally acceptable. So the first thing I would do is, is listen and follow a bunch of people just to see the types of conversation styles and cadence that you like.
And then from there, you can determine, well, on a particular day do you want to be more of I want to learn or do you want to be more of I want to contribute. If you want to learn, then you can take a look at your events calendar inside of the hallway and see what conversations are coming up. Some of the best rooms are completely impromptu, and they're not put on the calendar. But if you're a calendar type of a person, and you just want to see what's coming up, then you can always turn the notifications off and simply look at what conversations are going to be happening that day in the next couple of days. And certain time slots that you know are going to be open. Kind of like if there was a conference or actual workshops happening in person, you just schedule it out in your calendar in that way. Or you can also think about planning out an event with your friends.
And if you're brand new to the app, and the best thing you can do is make sure that you have co moderators or speakers on the stage, who also are I mean, it doesn't really matter if they're new or if they've been there for a while. But the hope is that you'll each be able to pull your own unique audiences, whether your audience is less than 100, or more than 1000. It really doesn't matter because some of those most meaningful conversations that I've had, have been in rooms that are with less than 20 people. And the app was actually created for rooms that are less than 30 people. So even though we want to have hundreds and in some cases 1000s of people in a room, the cap is 5000 by the way in a room, just know that sometimes the most valuable conversations are actually those smaller, more intimate settings where everyone gets a chance to speak.
Lauren
So where do you see Clubhouse going? In the next year or two? Like do you imagine conferences happening here? Do you imagine events where people are paying to enter happening here?
Giselle
Clubhouse recently revealed that they are looking into a monetization model. So there will be opportunities to potentially tip your moderators or the hosts of the room. There might be membership elements, kind of like Only Fans but like without you know the only fans kind of thing. There are also there are also brands who are starting to reach out to me moderator saying, can we sponsor your room, because Clubhouse has been pretty adamant and wanting to keep businesses off the platform in terms of creating usernames that are specifically for a business, they'd rather have the professionals of the business be forward facing. But they are wanting to get in on the fact that you have a room. And it's usually a very targeted conversation. So whether it's 100 people or 1000, people who come in for this very specific conversation, they're all potentially interested in whatever that product or business or brand is.
So I definitely could see it going in that direction. But I just don't really even know if the servers are going to be able to handle the capacity of what could happen, especially once Android users come because in the last two weeks, I have found multiple times where around like seven, eight o'clock, the busiest times of night, the servers are overwhelmed, and you can't do anything like the app is pretty much frozen.
So hopefully, it'll be able to keep up with the demand. And I just don't know what's going to happen once the intimacy level isn't there. So that's why I think right now is the best time to get on, even if you're just blocking out an hour a day, to learn about it or to be parts of these conversations and to get acquainted, because right now it It kind of feels like it feels like LA, where it's a big small town. Like you start to see a lot of the same familiar faces over and over and over again, if you keep showing up. And so it'll be interesting to see what happens.
Phil
When you create a room. Does it live on forever? Can you make it just for one specific conversation? How does that work? does it become something like a podcast almost where you host it weekly?
Giselle
Totally up to you. If you want to host it weekly, you can, if you want to host it once, that's totally fine. If it's totally if it's a completely random conversation, that's okay. The hope though, is that whatever your topic your title is, it's going to be relevant to the conversation because that's what people are clicking in for. And as you have new people who are exploring Clubhouse, you want to be able to give them a preview of what's going to happen because chances are they will leave the room if it turns out to be something that they're not expecting and if what that is is not entertaining to them, but it's it's very impromptu. I do schedule a weekly room on a regular basis because I want to apply to have my own club on Clubhouse, and you need to host a room consistently for three weeks or more in order to be even eligible for something like that. But I have plenty of friends who have started impromptu rooms, and then it ends up being a 48 plus hour room that they just keep on flipping moderators and they keep the conversation going and I'm totally fine with not ever doing that. Unless it's for a good cause. I'm like four hours max by I've got to take a shower. I'm sweating like walking around and pacing around my kitchen island. Just like no.
Phil
Well it's incredible how much you've learned in just a short amount of time and I think you saying that now's the time to check this out before it becomes you know the Facebook version now like grandma's on Facebook remember when Facebook was cool, not anymore. You know like now's the time to get on there and understand it and make connections and I think you've explained us in such a clear way that no one else at least up to this point has explained it and I'm we're so grateful for that.
Giselle
There are seriously conversations about everything to like when you go search I mean, if you want to talk business if you want to talk funnels if you want to talk biohacking plants, like ever sexuality, sex to like everything, everything. There is something for everyone there. It's not just what is immediately recommended in your hallway, you can go explore and discovers so much.
Phil
So cool. Thank you for this little window into this world. We're gonna hop off here, we're gonna hop on to clubhouse. A huge thank you to you all for coming back on the podcast to give us a little tour today. We talked through it for our listeners. We've also recorded our screens and you can find that on Facebook, maybe YouTube if I can get it up there in time. If you enjoyed this episode you enjoyed Giselle, go follow her on Clubhouse she has lots of followers but she can use some more come find us Lauren's on there. I'm on there @philpallen
Lauren
@thelaurenmoore
Giselle
@giselleugarte
Phil
There we are. Also Giselle gets a shout out for an amazing Clubhouse bio. I have that in my to do list this week and get inspired by hers because hers is amazing. If you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review in the iTunes Store, five star, five star. It helps other people discover this podcast that we work really hard to create. And until next time, we'll see you back here on Brand Therapy. Thanks for hanging out with us today.
Lauren
Bye, bye.
