My daughter called me the other day to tell me about Clubhouse. She had gotten an invitation to join it and after trying it out, thought it would be something I might be interested in. At first I groaned. Not another social media, please. I’m trying to get *away* from being online so much, not looking for more ways to occupy my time. Then she said it was like Zoom, except no video and I really balked. I am tired of Zoom and hate being on video. I’ve got instructional and YouTube videos I want to make, though, so I need to get over that.

I Checked it Out

But she was really emphatic that it wasn’t another FB or Twitter sort of thing. It was more like listening to podcasts… which I really like a LOT. So I checked it out. And she was right. It’s more like live podcasts, or virtual meetings without video. You don’t have to mic in, you can just listen on mute.

So I decided to accept her invitation to join. Except she didn’t have any invites left to hand out. So my son, who had also joined, send me one. Right now the platform is still in startup/beta phase and you can’t get in without an invitation. Each new member gets two invites to pass out. I haven’t invited anyone else to join, yet, so I still have two. After reading this if you think you’d like to join, email me and I’ll invite you. I think at this time it’s only for Apple users. An invitation is based on your phone number.

How Clubhouse Works

There are interest groups and individual people you can follow. I haven’t followed a lot of people, and don’t have many following me. But I have been browsing the interest groups and have started sitting in on some of the talks. I joined groups dedicated to art sales, art marketing, and entrepreneurship. Yesterday I listened to a chat among gallerists, artists, and creatives about how they are building their email lists and what they write about in their newsletters. There’s a chat coming up about marketing for creatives, so I’ll listen in on that one.

So far, I haven’t gotten brave enough to speak up. Not even to introduce myself. Usually I listen while I’m doing other things, like washing dishes or cooking supper. I’m afraid my background noises will be distracting under those conditions, so I just stay on mute.

Ways to Use

Anyone can start a ‘room’ to hold chats or meetings on whatever they want. Unless you have followers, though, it’s unlikely anyone will find them. So it seems like kind of safe space for me to start doing some live Q & A type chats about my art or paint-making process. I don’t know. I might just keep listening and never step out of the shadows of anonymity.

Find Me on Clubhouse

Anyway, I thought I’d let you know that I’m there. My handle is the same as everywhere else: @wildozark.

If you’re already there, what topics are you following? Have you participated yet? If so, did it go smoothly, or was it awkward?