Welcome to Boostly Podcast Season 11 Episode 23. This is a recap of my Facebook live video where I had guests who talked about Clubhouse.
Here's the audio for this episode:
Here's the video for this episode:
Timestamp
00:00 Start
02:50 Guests' Introduction
05:00 What is Clubhouse?
17:30 How Clubhouse can help the hospitality business owner
20:40 The most important thing to do on Clubhouse
26:10 What would you like to see Clubhouse do this year
35:30 About Linktree
37:10 Quickfire questions
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Audio – Boostly Podcast
Transcript from the Episode
All of our guests today have been using Clubhouse in some way, shape, or form over the course of the last couple of weeks and months. And what we're going to do is we're just going to have a little chat about this app, we're gonna have a little chat about how we're all using it. And also as well, we're going to see and just think and just predict how this app is going to potentially change and affect the world of hospitality.
Liam: I'm based in Northridge in the UK and I've been on Clubhouse now since the end of December, which feels about two minutes because it's been a whirlwind being on there but really enjoying it.
Nikki: I've been on Clubhouse since the beginning of January. I run a company and I've also got a hotel here in the UK.
Dina: I joined mid-January, and I'm coming to you from British Columbia, Canada, where we are running some luxury rentals. We're pivoting into that space from just our standard short term rental condo. So we're very excited to launch that this year.
What is Clubhouse?
Liam: Clubhouse is the ideal mix between a podcast, an audiobook and a telephone call, really, where you can actually just jump on, get involved in the conversation or whatever the subject is. So I've always liked audiobooks, always loved podcasts, and to be able to be on a medium where you can jump in and join the subject. It's been really helpful. I'm using it really in three ways. So the first way is to learn and to find out more. So obviously, running service accommodation here in Northridge, there's a lot of moving parts to service accommodation. And there's loads of experts on Clubhouse at the moment who are happy to share their high-level information. And the stuff which we're getting, you know, sort of I've been introduced to software that I never would have thought that was out there that I didn't know about that over the last month and a half we've had access to which is amazing. The second way is building relationships with these experts as well. So again, there was there are some great people that I didn't know before Clubhouse, whereas now I've got the telephone number, you know, that we're speaking fairly regularly. And you know, it's amazing. And these people are based not only all over the UK but in the States. And lastly, and in this order, I'd probably say to promote my personal brand. We're about to launch some property serviced accommodation training. So it's been really useful to promote that side of things of the business, which is coming along as well.
Nikki: I was gonna say addiction is a really good word, because it is highly addictive. And I think it's the actual old school interaction that you don't get on Facebook, you know, when you're messaging people all the time. And Liam picked up on one of the points I would say is that the experts they're sharing their knowledge is a mechanism. It's phenomenal. And obviously, it's down to you to verify that the expert you're talking to is an expert in their field. But they share it people are sharing, you know, lots and lots of information. And for me, I take those people and then I go and interact with them on LinkedIn. So I've been on LinkedIn for God knows how long. And it was all my connections were in my past career of operations and HR. And obviously, I'm trying to change the direction of my business and what I do for myself personally going forward. So I've been able to make some really good connections and people coming to us. And I think that the key thing is that you can join specialist groups on Facebook, but your wall is full of stuff that you don't want to ask questions you're not bothered about. Whereas in these rooms you can find and it doesn't have to be about your business. It can be about your hobbies or interests or you know, mental health anything. You can find experts and you can ask them specific questions and you get so many straight answers to specific issues. So I found as a learning curve, it's probably the most intense period of learning I've been through recently, and I'm really enjoying being on it.
I think throughout my my career, I've been really lucky to have really great advice. Obviously, your groups have been great for us when we were new to hospitality. And you give all your time freely and for us. And for us, we just wanted to give back. So we don't claim ourselves as experts. We're just people that have experiences that network and get together and chat. So yeah, the group's on a Monday, and it's holiday accommodation owners network. And we cover we do get experts come in and join us, which is amazing, you know, they just say something that says hospitality, and they pop in and that we've had some really, really great people give us some, some help. So yeah, I think we do it just to give back, really, and I think that's the whole ethos of clubhouse. And I think training in general has changed over the decades, certainly since I was in it, because you used to hold on to all your information, worried that you got hold of what you were trying to do right now you give it freely. And you encourage people to come on board that way. And I think, you know, there are hundreds or thousands of people claiming to be experts, but the fact that you can hear them talk helps cement in your mind that actually these are people you really want to work with. And I think from that point of view, it's great.
Dina: I'm using it mostly for learning. I look at it like it's a mastermind a free one. I love it. I love stepping into rooms with a lot of big names and little names. I am learning so much and connecting with people. When I'm attending events like the conference in New Orleans, I tend to shy away from networking in person. I see the groups and I see people mingling, and it makes me just it's really hard to break in. But in Clubhouse, you have that opportunity to connect with people.
Mike: I'm based outside of Boston, Massachusetts. We've run a portfolio of 21 short term rentals across four different states primarily using the management model. I do own some in this past year, we also got into the boutique hotel space where we're acquiring boutique hotels and basically running them like short term rentals. Like we don't have a front desk. It's all contactless self check-in. So really just taking it to the commercial space, and we're taking another one on next month. I'm the host of the short term rental secrets podcast, and I have a coaching community.
I got on Clubhouse like the last week of December. And I absolutely love it. I have not found any other platform like it and I think part of the reason why I like it so much is the Instagrams and the Facebook's and the Twitter's it's all this kind of like 32nd to Two Minute clips, where clubhouse it's long-form content and you can kind of filter out who's real and who's not like you can only bs your way through so much on a 2,3,4 or 24 clubhouse where it's just really cool content. And I love this industry in general just because I mean, we're all operating in different parts of the world. And even I know folks locally, it's never that competitive side where we're like, I'm gonna crush this person or this person that a lot of other industries have everybody's so willing to share and like help each other out. So for me, you know, I've used it several ways, I'll be honest, I get on to initially to grow my brand and promote my coaching program like selfishly, to be totally transparent. But what I found was, that has worked, but more. So what I've gotten out of it is so many amazing connections, like even the folks on this panel, like that I'm getting to meet and hang out with, and I've set up like, you know, private little mastermind groups offline, where we're bouncing ideas off of folks that have, you know, 20-200 listings, where I'm like, okay, here's how I'm running my lane or my business, how are you guys doing it? Here's where I'm struggling and vice versa. So the networking, like a bunch of folks have said has been incredible, whether it's other short term rental hosts, investors, vendors, it's just been an amazing platform to really connect with people and build relationships. And quite frankly, I mean, that's how we're on here, at least from my perspective.
How Clubhouse can help the hospitality business owner
Liam: So I've tried something recently on Clubhouse, I actually tried to give away from Sunday from Valentine's Day, I've actually advertised it in the bio on Clubhouse, talked about it in the rooms that were giving a two-night stay away, which we drew tonight, actually, so we got a lucky winner for that. And just I think that hosts could use it as another form of promotion. I mean, it's one of those things where I've tried that, just to get some more eyes on the business page. But really the thing that people would get more excited about, I think is that experienced kind of stays. So one person who springs to mind is Jenna from America. She's got a farm across there, which is, you know, one of these sorts of rural type farms stays. And while we were just chatting in one of these rooms, she started to post the pictures on our profile or on her Instagram, but also on her clubhouse as her main profile picture. And I want to go there. So it's one of those things where if hosts can do that, just get chatting in rooms. So I don't know, you could have a room subjected with, you know, top 10 places to visit in the UK or in Europe or in the world. And, you know, we could all start up a thread about that. And people could be talking about their own place and you're getting, you're gonna have so many people who wouldn't know about your business on they're listening in. And you know, they naturally follow from Clubhouse onto Instagram. And if you've got that as your business, Instagram, then you're gonna get more eyes on your business and More Bookings.
The most important thing to do on Clubhouse
Mike: So the first thing is, I would make sure that my Instagram profile is optimized. So I would have either a link tree or their direct link on my Instagram bio to my property website, even if you don't have a website have you know linked to Airbnb or vrbo, booking.com, whatever it is, so that it's linking to your properties. Because the way clubhouse flows is we get in these great conversations, and then we direct people to click my Instagram link in my clubhouse bio to take them to my Instagram page. Because there are no visuals on clubhouse, right, and there are no links on clubhouse. So you want to make sure that your Instagram profile is optimized. Then in my clubhouse profile, again, I would write a description about depending on what niche you're in. So for me as a manager, it could be something along the lines of you know, a professional short term manager based out of Boston, we currently manage properties in XYZ states. If you have any questions, or if you're looking to stay somewhere, blah, blah, blah, here, you know, check out the link in my Instagram bio, I'm talking in rooms about vacation rentals, short term rentals, creating a great guest experience, things like that. So when people click on you, they're going to know like this is exactly what you do. And then what I would do is I would get in a bunch of different rooms. So you can hop in, you can get in big ones you can get in small ones, the bigger rooms, you're probably not going to speak much, because there are so many people. And you could raise your hand, you might be in there for an hour just to get up on stage to ask a question. But the smaller rooms I think are kind of the sweet spot when you're getting started. To get in a room, whether it's a real estate room or a short term rental room, and just raise your hand come up on stage, introduce yourself, ask a question, if that's what they're looking for. And just start putting yourself out there and just get going into more and more rooms and just adding any value or asking any relevant questions. Don't be the person though, that raises their hand and just goes into a pitch about their business. Like that's annoying, and nobody likes that. So find a way to add value and you know, subtly bring up your business. But that would be my approach and just start to like, make connections with people, right? Like, Liam and I met maybe a month ago through mark and some different rooms that we were in, right and like, now I know, Liam, I'm sure I'm gonna meet some of these other folks up here too. But like, I know him, I trust him. And you know, if I know people that are gonna be staying in his markets, boom, I'm gonna send them his way. Right. Same thing with James Murphy. And a lot of the other guys that I met over in the UK like, Okay, cool. Like, now I I can we can cross-promote business, basically.
Dina: I would optimize my clubhouse profile. 100%. I noticed right away my personal interest when I was looking kind of snooping and perving on other people was a blank profile or just like two sentences took me nowhere, even if they had an Instagram link. So it's funny I suffer from insomnia. So one night I was lying in bed and just checking out all the bigger names on there and what they were doing with their profile and call to action, auctions, website, link to your Instagram, tell them to talk, you know, reach out on Instagram definitely helped. And while you're in a room speaking, people will dm you and try and start a conversation on Instagram with you. So I found it very helpful that way. So if I were to get started, definitely fill out your profile, put a great picture on there. I've noticed a lot of people using when their profile pictures are ring around them. Because in clubhouse when you're speaking, a ring will pop up around your face so that people can tell who's speaking. So I find those people that add the ring, keep drawing my eye to their profile, I can't actually find who's speaking. But the people with the rings are constantly drawing my attention. So whether that's a good hack or not, I think it is because it is drawing attention. I haven't done it myself.
What would you like to see Clubhouse do this year
Nikki: I think it's really important that people fill out their interests. And when you're doing your interest, if you're doing it for business, think about your customer avatar, and what their interests would be. Because obviously that the interest dictate what shows up in the hallway on clubhouse, which is where you choose what range you're going to go sit in, you know and listen to. I found that really helpful during that. I like the fact that it's invite only. And I really welcome the time when it goes out to Android because I understand how those people must be feeling real FOMO You know, I'm really frustrated because they want to get on there. But I would like to see some kind of assessment of people going on there. So the, you know, currently you just kind of verify yourself that you have an iPhone, and you've got a phone number. And I think that there are you've probably been in rooms where you get the odd trolls shouting, and it's making weird noises. And you'll think, gosh, what was that, I think some kind of verification so that, you know, I'm really careful about who I give invites out to, you know, either to know them or somebody else to know them. Because you're tagged with that person, obviously, on your profile for good. So I'd like to see that there's some kind of, I don't know, verification for people coming on, the more the merrier that come on board. But I just think that there are I've seen sort of cases of people having several methods. And I've got several profiles, and they say they're an expert in this and an expert in that. So I think that whether they could ever manage that. I don't know. But, you know, obviously, as Mike said, it's, you're quite able to to ascertain who's a time waster and who's A true, true expert expert in their field. So but yeah, that and yeah, just making sure it doesn't become a platform for sort of bullying or that sort of thing. Really safety.
Liam: From a technical aspect, there's a couple of things. So I'm definitely more of a Facebook user. So I'd love a link through to Facebook pages or Facebook profiles from a technical aspect, as I'm keener on that than Instagram, but, and also some form of direct messaging as well, because I find that you get a lot of messages via Instagram, that would just be great. If while you're a moderator, people could message in the questions straight away up, because not everybody's, you know, confident enough to jump up and you know, or they haven't got time, you know, if you've got kids, or you're driving or whatever, like, you know, being able to message and then carry on with what you're doing would be handy. But more than anything else, and no more thing I'd like to see, I'd like to be able to have, I mean, it's really professional, there's loads of learning and stuff on there. But I can't wait until you get the rooms where you can just geek out. So I'm a big fan of the Mandalorian and stuff like that. And I'd love there to be rooms where I could finish an episode, jump on there and debate the episode and stuff like that. And I can see that sort of thing coming along where you can, you know, geek out and have fun and get debates going on your favorite subjects basically.
Dina: I definitely need it to be recorded. I use it I listened to it in the background. So while I'm cooking in the kitchen, or I drag my phone into the shower with me, and my mind will wander because somebody said something great. And then I've just missed what they've said I would love to be able to go back and just have a listen. And i-chat feature I do love right now on Facebook, live the background chat between the people that maybe are a little bit too afraid to step up on stage and have something to share or an easier way to speak to people. Even if you're a moderator. Like right now we could be connecting with the audience on Facebook Live with the do with the chat feature. So I'd love to chat feature.
Mike: Definitely live links in your bio, that will actually work. So if somebody goes to my clubhouse bio, I'd want them to be able to click on a link to go to my website or a link tree or whatever similar to Instagram. Because I think they're to your point they're they're definitely boosting Instagram, which is great for Instagram. I don't think that they're affiliated at all so you know if they had the messenger function and like a link tree thing, I think a lot fewer people would leave clubhouse it would be all integrated, and it's probably just doing it in phases. I mean, you have to master one thing and build the whole infrastructure. I'm not a techie but on the chat function inside of a room I think when that does come up, the reason I like that it's not there now is that it definitely minimizes the troll effect. Because it's a lot easier to be a troll and just type something in than to raise your hand, get on a stage and vocalize whatever your random opinion is. So I think it does cut down on that. But yeah, my big recommendation would just be including, including the live links in the BIOS.
About Linktree
Instagram only lets you include one link for your bio. So like on my link tree, they click on this thing, it brings them to a little page and it has a bunch of links. So one of them takes them to my podcast, one of them takes them to my free masterclass, one of them could take them to my properties, right. So it allows you to have multiple links that people can click not just one, right. So it's a nice little, it's, I think it's free. I don't even know my team set it up. But I'm pretty sure it's free that you can use and add multiple links on one page.
Quickfire questions
What have you changed your opinion on in the past five years?
Liam: I'm going to go deep on this one. So that was I didn't really think it was possible to get started in property and to launch your own business as a full-time corporate job. So definitely, as you know, my mind has been changed in the last five years. And it's thanks to the network of people around me. People like yourself, and you know, the people on the panel and you know, people I've met over the years has definitely changed my opinion on that.
Nikki: You don't have to be on social media 24/7. And I thank you for that, Mark, because I remember early on when I started following you and you said you need to turn your notifications off sometimes. And that's what I do I make time for family now. I make time not to be on social media because I was really hostage to it. Social media doesn't need to control you. You need to make social media work for you.
Dina: Mike said something about competition that there really isn't a competition here and I've always feared it. But now I use it kind of as fuel in the local area just to keep me on my toes and just to stay on top of things instead of kind of get complacent because this job when you're doing it by yourself, you kind of just stay in your lane and when I'm now looking and seeing what everyone in my area is doing. It's just lit a fire under me. So I'm really grateful for that.
Mike: I think the big shift that I've had in the last five years is, and some people are going to take this the wrong way. But you don't have to work hard to be successful. Right? For years, like I was working a full-time job two side hustles, like 80 hours, 100 hours a week. And I wasn't getting ahead. And then I got some really good mentors that helped me really laser in and focus and learn about systems and teams, and what are my highest dollar productive activities and how to manage my calendar effectively. And I still work hard, but I work way less than I ever have. And I make way more money. And it's, it's it's learning how to focus and be productive, but you don't. I don't want people to feel like you have to grind 24/7, yes, there's a lot of work, especially at the beginning to build the momentum. But the focus should always be on what lifestyle Am I trying to build? Right? Like, so many people ask me, like, you know, I want to I want a property in every single state or I want 1000 listings or whatever. And I always go back to why like, what is your why what's the end game with your business? Like? And for me, it's lifestyle, like, Yes, I want to get income, but I want to go hang out with my wife and my four year old and go tubing whenever we want or go skiing or whatever. So the money is great, but if I don't have the time to use it, who cares? Right? So figure out what resonates with you and work smarter not harder.
What was the first music record album you bought? And what file format was it on?
Mike: It's funny when you sent me this I was honestly thinking about it for a while probably spending way more time than I needed to and I narrowed it down to two and I can't remember which one I got first one of them and they were on cassettes. Okay. So one of them was the Beach Boys. I can't remember what the name of the album was. But I remember it's a Beach Boys album. And the other one was a band called Great White. It was like an 80s Rock Band. And yeah, those were the first two that I got. I'm gonna have to have to get it so great.
Dina: Cassette tape 100% and it was the soundtrack to the movie cocktail. Beach Boys. I don't even know the name of the song because music's not really my thing. But I told it that cassette tape around with me to daycare anywhere. I was like playing my song. I had a huge crush on Tom Cruise.
Nikki: The day of my eighth birthday, Greece The album was released and in those days used to go to a shop and the album's would be on the whole wall and Greece was there. And that's what it brought Greece the album on vinyl. And I still love Greece if I'm honest, very cheesy, and it's one of my guilty sins. But I have much better taste in music now.
Liam: I was lucky enough to have two older brothers, so I would just steal all of their music. So the first one that actually bought was Limpbizkit's chocolates covered starfish. And yeah, I was really, I mean, looking back, I probably wasn't that into that music of the time. But the cover was great. And I got to see him a few years back and there are some cookies on there, obviously.
What is your favorite place in the world to travel to?
Liam: If I could just pick one that has to be Columbian Corfu. There's a jetty right in the middle of a bay. Me and Charlie have been there several times and that was before Harry was born. So we'd love to get him across there you know in on you know seeing the weather the food is amazing and you know snorkelling, catch the crabs, just anywhere warm would be nice at the moment.
Nikki: I used to really love busy places New York was an absolute favourite for us but Maldives I think or anywhere like it that's just so you really do go on holiday and just switch off and just do nothing but but I like that.
Dina: My heart is in Rome. I lived in Italy for a year and I cannot wait to get back and last year I was planning another trip back so that will be the first place I go. The best place in the world. Since that's where my heart is.
Mike: I haven't travelled as much as I'd like to I've got some bucket list items small divas on there. I think I want to plan that for my wife a nice 10th anniversary but I think Montego Bay Jamaica we went there on our honeymoon and it was unbelievable. Like it was absolutely stunning. And just so relaxing and just such amazing people.
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