Why I Deleted Clubhouse - Invite: Here's an Inside Look and Review.

 I have two Clubhouse invites if anyone wants one. But before asking, here's why it's not worth your time joining. Here's how the app normally works. You beg for an invite, sign up for their wait list, or try to somehow buy on one ebay or online somewhere. Once you get in, you feel like you're special or part of the cool crowd. 

The biggest problem with Clubhouse is that it's designed in a way where even if someone with expertize or experience in a topic joins, they have no voice unless they first go through a sort of sorority like pledge week where they have to kiss ass for a while before being able to participate. That means anyone who values their time and isn't trying to be cool, brag or sell you something, will just leave without wasting their time going through the pledge process. 

So how does it work? 

Well, once you get in, you should follow a bunch of people on there who are bragging about how smart or rich they are, while throwing in "I'm here to serve" at the end so they sound grateful. 

As an audience member, you need to "raise your hand" like you're in kindergarten and pray you get called on to have our 30 seconds to speak. In that time you'll try to sound as smart, accomplished and rich as you can so other's will follow you so you have social cred on your side. 

Then try to get enough people to follow you back so you can then become a "speaker" or host your own clubhouse, so you can be on the mic to brag to everyone about how smart or rich you are (even if you're neither). 

The #1 biggest reason why I hate Clubhouse is because that 99% of the time the talks on there are a complete waste of time and a bragging show, but the once in a while guests that come on like Naval or Elon Musk waste their time by having their GREAT conversations by not being recorded. These conversations would have been much better put into a Podcast or a Youtube video for instead of a few thousand people to listen to and gain knowledge from, it would have been a few million and evergreen.

If this Naval episode on JRE took place on Clubhouse, it would be forever lost and not recorded. Luckily it was on BOTH a podcast and Youtube. You can watch and learn from it now.

Clubhouse App Review

Every time I log into Clubhouse i'm reminded why I left America, especially big cities like SF, LA, and NY. 

It's filled with pretentious people who spend more time making up fancy titles for themselves, and brag about who they know, the deals they're working on, etc. 

Here's the biggest problem with Clubhouse. It's a platform where you get a bunch of fluff and BS motivation. Most "speakers" have the mic for 30 seconds or so before passing the mic, which means it's just enough time to pitch a quick few one liners and fluff pieces without ever having to get into anything deep.

People are asking for advice on how to start an Ecommerce business, and even before asking them any of their background, what they're good at, how they can create or add real value, they just spit out a piece of generic advice that sounds good but won't help anyone.

The biggest problem with Clubhouse is that it's not what you know, or what you've achieved, it's simply how many followers you can rack up and who else you know on the platform. 

To get followers you just simply start following a lot of other people and kiss a lot of ass. 

Then once you get the mic, or create your profile, you want to exaggerate and make it sound like you're better than you are. 

Out of the 40 speakers in the "Ask a Millionaire a Question" chat as an example, the majority of them have nothing but debt and there's a big possibility that none of them are actually net worth millionaires. And even if a few of them are, their 30 second pitches aren't going to actually be of any good advice to you as it's just fluff and they don't have the time to actually get to know you or your situation. 

More Inside Intel

A friend of mine was kind enough to DM me and explain in a bit more detail how I could use Clubhouse. It's filled with good information, so I want to share it. Here's how the conversation went and my response. 

Hey Johnny! I’m going to shift to DM coz I really genuinely think you might have misunderstood how clubhouse works / don’t know all the features! 

Not trying to change your mind about it (i only use it once a week or so, so I’m not a superfan), but since the reasons you mention why you don’t like it seem to stem from using it sub-optimally I feel genuinely want to bring these points up in case they are helpful for you:

1. You CAN create content for others to hear - I’m so confused why you think you can’t! Here’s where you set up your own event / room:

2. You can also set up your own Club (eg. Travel like a boss / Digital Nomads / whatever you want). The only one related to digital nomads right now is this one, so there’s tons of space for you to be the leader in this niche:

3. Your point about only being able to speak if someone calls on you to raise your hand is like complaining you can’t jump up on stage at a conference from the audience to join a panel 😂 The best way to be a speaker is to reach out to someone in advance to ask to be a cohost. You have a massive following off clubhouse so it’s an easy leverage point for you. Co-hosting is also the fastest way for you to build followers, and with your profile and experience you really could be a major influencer on clubhouse very quickly.

Anyway I’ll leave it there haha, like I said I’m not trying to convince you it’s a good platform (I don’t give a shit what social networks people use 😂) I just wanted to make sure you know how to use it properly coz it pains me to see people miss opportunities based on faulty intel!

My Response:

1. No one will see or enter your room unless you already have followers/are following others, or promote it off the app. It's a waste of my time to sit around in an empty room hoping for people to come in. And i'm 100% not going to waste my time following 1,000 people in hopes they follow me back so I can have some social cred. 

2. I don't want to push my audience to an app that 99% of people can't even access to, I think it's elitist and rude. Also if I wanted to arrange a talk with my audience, I would just set up a Zoom call or a webinar. Why in the world would I push them to an open platform like Clubhouse where they can get lost to some shiny object. It's like ecommerce retailers who send their customers to an Amazon page filled with other cheaper knockoffs, or a hotel sending their customers to booking.com instead of having them checkout on their own site. 

3. Clubhouse positions itself as an app where everyone can be part of the conversation. But in reality, it's an elitist club where you need to know someone or kiss a lot of ass to be part of the conversation. I'm sure I could become a "major influencer" on Clubhouse, but it's a waste of my time. I don't see why anyone does it unless they are trying to push something like an MLM, Cyrpto ICO or drive up their ego on an exclusive invite only closed app.

4. Even if someone goes on Clubhouse with good intentions and genuinely knows what they are talking about, the information they give on their talk is quickly lost to anyone who wasn't online and live at the time. Naval gave a great talk about why $USD is still the winner right now and what Crypto would need to ever surpass it, but that talk isn't recorded. Instead if Naval had simply used Youtube or a Podcast as the medium instead of Clubhouse, Millions of people today would have access to that information instead of just a few thousand lucky ones.

I love learning from @naval but his lessons are now lost to those who weren't able to listen live and didn't have an invite to Clubhouse.

A recorded podcast like this is helps 1,000,000+ people verses a few thousand: https://t.co/am20DZcDkH

— Johnny FD (@JohnnyFDK) January 24, 2021

Final Thoughts on Clubhouse

 

The majority of the rooms seem like they were made by kids who peaked in High School and still want to be part of the cool crowd. 

You don't need an invite to Clubhouse to be cool, or part of the "in crowd." Don't waste your time. I wish I never wasted my time with it.

If you want to learn something, watch it on Youtube or listen to a long form podcast episode where the speakers didn't to jump though hoops to try to get a few seconds on a mic along side a bunch of broke idiots who have never actually completed anything in their lives besides adding "Founder" or "Bitcoin Investor" to their profiles.

The #1 biggest reason why I hate Clubhouse is because that 99% of the time the talks on there are a complete waste of time and a bragging show, but the once in a while guests that come on like Naval or Elon Musk waste their time by having their GREAT conversations by not being recorded. These conversations would have been much better put into a Podcast or a Youtube video for instead of a few thousand people to listen to and gain knowledge from, it would have been a few million and evergreen.

Luckily, Clubhouse is only popular because large scale, live, in person events aren't possible right now due to travel and gathering restrictions. But people know that drop in audio is no substitute for being there in person, getting to meet and shake hands with the speakers, and meet follow attendees in person. 

 

How would you rather listen to your favorite band, singer or artist preform?

The same should apply to interviews and talks.

Live in Person is Conferences.
Streamed Live with Video is Youtube/Zoom.
Streamed Live Audio only is Clubhouse.
Recorded Pro Studio is Podcasts.

— Johnny FD (@JohnnyFDK) February 21, 2021

Follow Me: 

Twitter@JohnnyFDK

Facebook: JohnnyFDK

Instagram: JohnnyFDK

Youtube: JohnnyFD

Travel Like a Boss Podcast

Invest Like a Boss Podcast

Clubhouse: JohnnyFD

*I've deleted the Clubhouse App. You won't find me there.

Warm Regards,

Johnny FD