Jumping Into Clubhouse: 2/23/2021

Last week, I was so excited! I woke up and my one of my teacher dreams finally came true- WE GOT A SNOW DAY! I had a whole day ahead of me with no work that I had to do. As I was contemplating all the things, I could do- I noticed that there was a Clubhouse discussion for edupreneurs happening at 9 AM.

For those of you who don't know what Clubhouse is- it is a synchronous audio platform where people with a common interest join in a room. Each room consists of a stage where people can speak and share and an audience, where people can listen. Recently, it was described to me as being like a conference, where you can go in and out of rooms based on your interests.

Last week during my "Ignite Your Legacy" session with Lindsay Titus, we were challenged to try something that we were nervous to do- I decided then and there that I wanted to try Clubhouse. So this snow day seemed to offer the perfect opportunity to do so. But I hesitated- was I truly an edupreneur yet? Yes, I am in the process of publishing a book , but did I belong there? I made the decision to turn that self limiting belief around and formed a truth statement. I am an edupreneur and want to learn more about ways to build my brand and connect with other inspiring educators. So I jumped and entered the room!

I was happy to see when I entered the room that I was among friends- Jeff Gargas and Taylor Armstrong from my Teach Better family were moderating. It was super quiet at first and then Kevin Leichtman came on the stage and asked about promoting his upcoming book, #PerfectTenEdu, for students. As I listened to all the advice he was getting, I took another brave step and raised my hand and joined the stage.

Once there, I asked a similar question, but with a focus on promoting my book for educators. As I engaged in conversations with so many amazing people, magic started to happen. Before I knew it, I had a page full of suggestions that I could check out immediately- apply to guest blog more and additional suggestions of podcasts to be a guest on. But even more than that, I made so many new connections- people that I had never met and suddenly connected with on Twitter. One hour became two hours and it was suddenly 11 am when I finally logged off.

I ran upstairs to share how inspired I was with my husband and to get started on following up on the suggestions. I was thrilled when fellow author, Kevin Leitchtman, tweeted how excited he was about my book and told others to follow me. After meeting and hearing that Peter Hostrawser and I had many common interests, I DMed him to talk. That night, we spent about an hour chatting about our common goals and discussing some future collaborations. I reached out to my friends at Tech4Learning and asked about doing a Wednesday Wixie webinar. I was delighted when they not only offered me 2 sessions but said that I could add blog posts about both of these sessions to the Wixie blog. I reached out to Matthew Joseph about guest blogging on the MASCD blog and checked out opportunities to guest blog for other state sites. I found 2 other podcasts that I was interested in being a guest for and reached out to them. If you can't tell, I was inspired and on fire!

Keep in mind- all of this happened from just spending 2 hours in a Clubhouse session. As that day progressed, I joined in a few more Clubhouse sessions. Like before, I loved how I got to not only connect with people I knew from Twitter in a new way, but also how many new connections I was making. By the time the day was over, I knew that I was hooked. Like many other educators had warned me, yes, Clubhouse is addictive. I was Voxing about in my Teach Better Administrator Mastermind group and admitted to my publisher, Darrin Peppard, that he was right- Clubhouse was an amazing resource for educators,

So why should you jump into Clubhouse? If you have an iPhone and want to learn with others, why not start now? I have plenty of invites- just DM me and I would love to help you out. Think about it as a progression. Yes, you can start out by just listening if you want, but just like most social media, you amplify the impact when you create, rather than just consume. Raise your hand and share on the stage. Click people's pictures, learn about them and connect with them on other social media. Broaden your horizons and learn new things. See how you can use Clubhouse to level up yourself.

Yes, trying something new can be scary, but sometimes, we just need to jump- get started. Try Clubhouse and let me know what you think- share cool rooms you join or start one and let me know. After all, we are #better together.

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