On today’s episode, I am chatting with Lacey Barratt, who is any multi award-winning international photographer and doula. She is a disruptor and challenger of societal norms, embracing the flow of life in business, all while challenging you to do the same. Lacey and I actually have so much in common, but recently just connected for the first time on Clubhouse. So I am thrilled that she was willing to come on the podcast and share her beautiful journey here with us today. Lacey, welcome to the show.
Lacey: Hi Tavia. Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here.
Tavia: I am super excited to have this conversation with you today and I cannot believe that we just recently connected for the first time, because I realized after e-mailing back and forth with you and messaging, we have so much in common.
Lacey: Yeah. And it’s so funny because I’ll chat to Liz Cook from the association and you know, she’ll say something about Tavia and I’m like, “Oh, I need to reach out to Tavia.” And I, you just get so caught up in life and business and kids and family and I just never had a chance to do it. And so when I saw you on Clubhouse, I was like, “Oh, this is it.” I have to send you a message!
How Lacey Got Started in Birth Photography
Tavia: Yes. I’m so, so glad that we connected on Clubhouse. Before we talk about Clubhouse, I would love for you to just share with everybody, how did you get into birth photography? Like what did that look like?
Lacey: Yeah. So birth photography for me was kind of born out of regret. So my family is in America, so I’m from new Orleans and I came on a 5-day holiday to Sydney, which I ended up getting married and never going home. So, yeah, I met me a nice Aussie man and we had lots of babies together.
Tavia: That’s so cool!
Lacey: Yeah. And so when I got pregnant with our first baby, my mom actually asked me if I was going to take any photos. And I was like, “You’re so intrusive.” But my first thought was, which is another way for my mum to stick her nose in my business. And I asked Matt, my husband and he was like, “Nobody needs to see you like that.” And I was like, “Okay,” remembering I’m like 22 years old and was like, “Okay. Matt said no.” And then Facebook, 12 months later, popped up…by this time I’m pregnant with our second baby. Newly pregnant with our second baby.
Tavia: So what year? I just want to pause, I’m sorry. What year was your first baby born? Cause I know that in different countries, birth photography–but I feel like Australia has been pretty like on pace with America as far as birth photography goes. Cause you guys are doing tons of stuff over there
Lacey: Only just recently. I’d only say within the past 3-5 years. More so 3 years that it’s really started to pick up. But that was in 2012. And so, birth photography was not a thing here in 2012. And I lived in what I call the ass-crack of Australia. So I lived in Darwin, which is like way up North. It’s super, super hot. It’s tropical. There are two seasons: hot and hotter. And so my mom was asking like, “Will you take pictures?” And I said no. Fast forward 12 months, Timehop popped up on my Facebook. And it showed the three photos that I posted of him after he was born. So when he was on the scale, when he was on my chest–it was four photos–when he was on my chest, a photo of me, Matt and Sam, and then one of me like with my cell phone, holding it up, trying to, you know, above his head. And I like cropped his head off. He was in between my knees, on my thighs. And that was it. That was the only four photos that I had from his entire birth. And it wasn’t even really his birth. It was like immediately post-partum.
And it was in that moment that I thought back to what my mom said, “Are you going to photograph it?” And I was like, “I missed out on that whole experience.” And I always think back to that day and I wonder like, “Did I have that birth face that all of my clients do?” And you know, I just had no idea. And I had a shot of Pethidine, which I think is equivalent to like Morphine or something. It’s more of a sedative than a painkiller. And so I was like super loopy, just completely disconnected. And I regret that decision. It was from that moment forward that birth photography just became so passionate for me because I never wanted anyone else to feel the same regret that I did.
Tavia: Man. That’s so interesting to me that your mom thought to suggest birth photography in 2012. Were you a photographer at that time?
Lacey: No.
Tavia: Interesting! So she just thought like you need to photograph this because I can’t be there?
Lacey: Well, I think that that was part of it, but I actually went and I talked to my mom about that after, and she was like, yeah, obviously there was a selfish part because I can’t be there. And because I was so young, I didn’t see the disconnect of generational mother and daughter being separated from future generations because, you know, that’s how women gave birth 200, 300 centuries ago was in that community. And we were disconnected from that. And so I didn’t catch that. And I think that she was unconsciously kind of pointing me in that direction of, “Hey, there’s a disconnect here.” I don’t think she realized she was doing that either or alluding to that either. But I think it was definitely an unconscious thing that was going on. So she was like, “Well, yeah, of course it was partially that, that I wanted to be there and I couldn’t be there. And that was one way that I could be there. But it was also for you,” she said, “because I remember thinking back and not remembering too much of anything as well, and I didn’t want you to forget.” But she never said it like that at the time. And so I was like, “Mom’s just being a bit nosy.”
Tavia: Right. That’s so cool. And you know it’s so interesting that in birth and in life, there’s so many things that we look back and we’re like, “Man, I wish I had done that differently,” but also I’m kind of glad it happened that way because it leads you on such a cool journey to like where you’re supposed to be. And so I love that. So you suggested that and you were like, no, and you had some regret, but ultimately it led you where you are today.
Tavia: So that happened, you realized like when you saw the Timehop a year later, you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I wish I had done photos.” So then what happened? Like, did you learn photography as for birth photography? Cause most people, at least here and most of my listeners, usually start out as a portrait photographer or they have like photography experience and then they decide to get into birth. So is that how you did things or what did that look like?
Lacey: It’s kind of blurry because I feel like it moved so quickly. So when I started shooting photography was actually shortly after our first son was born. And instead of, and I’ve actually talked to my newborn photographer about this. She’s incredible. I hired a newborn photographer to take photos of Sam, which is our first born. And I remember getting her price list and being like, “Goodness gracious, this woman is making a killing!” I was like, “I could totally do that!” And so I actually started off shooting. I mean, that was two weeks after he was born, I think he was like 10 days old? And so I actually started photographing and documenting when he was around that 1 month old mark. And it was as a way to take my own photographs without having to pay another photographer to take photographs. So that was about a month after, that’s where my photography journey started. And then, you know, when you first start shooting, it’s kind of like, “I’ll do anything events, weddings, birthdays, newborn–I’m amazing at everything!”
And that’s what I was doing for the first 12 months. And so kind of six months in, I transitioned from kind of shooting everything to just maternity and newborn. And then by the time he was 12 months is whenever I had that huge realization. So I had already been photographing, but there was about that 9, 11-month gap between when I started shooting before I had that huge epiphany. And then once he turned 12 months, it was like, “Oh, I have to shoot birth. Like, this is what I am meant to do.” And that was how I started shooting births.
Professional Supporter of Women and Women in Business
Tavia: That is so cool. I love that. So let’s fast forward a little bit to today. What does your business look like today? I know you have a lot of stuff going on.
Lacey: I do. So today, goodness, what’s business look like. So I basically have two sides to my business. So I have my private clients that I work with and I shoot their births and encapsulate their placentas, and I’m a doula for them. And then, so that’s kind of like the B2C side. And then I’ve got the B2B side where I offer coaching and courses and I help other birth photographers to become thrivable and sustainable businesses because I feel like there’s such a, gosh I don’t even know the word, but a stereotype with this like feminine energy that women are nurturers and caretakers and therefore anything we do is a hobby. And I feel like women kind of get stuck in that hobby mentality where they want to transition from hobby to full-time or legitimacy or whatever word you want to use for that, but they can’t escape the stereotypical and generational norm of that femininity. And so that’s where I come in is to try and help them escape that to not necessarily become more masculine, but to be able to flow between that femininity and that masculinity to create those thrivable and sustainable businesses.
Tavia: I love that so much. And I think that that in and of itself could be a whole episode like that we chat about because obviously that’s like the entire theme of this podcast is showing women in creative industries, how to go full time and be the sole income provider if they want to. And you know, that’s so much of our story as well. And just like living in the South and how, you know, you were from New Orleans, there’s just a stereotypical norm, especially in the South for women and especially in communities of faith like I roll in, it’s so…like homeschooling, like it is so conservative. So to be someone who’s like, “Oh no, my husband stays home and I work full-time and not only do I work full time, I own my own business” is like so strange. There are no people who do that.
Redefining Gender Roles in Marriage
Tavia: And so I actually, I don’t know if you know Jen Myers. She has a podcast called The Homeschool CEO and she and I had a whole conversation about this because you feel like there’s no one else out there like you. You just feel like, “Oh, I’m this weirdo. Is this even possible? Can I even do this? Is this even a thing?” You know? And so I think that hearing your story is going to be really inspiring for people to hear that there’s more than one birth photographer out there sustaining their family, which I don’t even know if we actually talked about. I know that about you, but I don’t know if we actually said you’re the sole income provider for your family. Your husband is a stay-at-home dad?
Lacey: Yeah.
Tavia: That’s awesome. And you guys have five kids, right?
Lacey: And five kids. Yeah. So I had been wanting to kind of switch because I just had this epiphany–my Southern drawl just came out. Did you hear that? I find that I switched between this like super articulated Aussie accent, but I don’t have an Aussie accent. And then you’ll know when I’m talking to my mom or my American friends, cause I’m like, “Hey, how y’all doing!” But I kind of had this epiphany, I don’t know probably, Lennox is 4, so 5 or 6 years ago that my husband was capped at the amount of money that he was going to make. So he was a truck driver. He was in logistics, he was a manager. He was kind of like doing all of the things. And the companies that he worked for kind of had this because he did the work of two men, like he was so efficient at his job. So instead of paying two people 50,000, they would pay him 75,000. So that way they didn’t have to hire that second person.
And he was like, “Yeah, look at all this money that I’m making!” And it was long hours, he was constantly being called out, and it was 12, 14, 16-hour days. And that was taking a toll on my mental health. It was taking a toll on his physical health, as well as mental health. And the whole house was just in like huge disarray because we never knew what time dad was coming home, when did I need to have dinner cooked, and it was just super stressful. And I kind of wanted to have him transition into being a stay-at-home dad about two years before he actually did it. And it sounds like gaslighting and it is technically gaslighting, but it wasn’t meant in a malicious way, but he would always say, “Oh, I’ll quit when you make more money.”
And I was like, “But I can’t make more money if you’re always at work.” And so we kind of went around in that cycle for two years where he was like, “Well, I can’t quit because you’re not making money.” And I was like, “I can’t make money because you won’t quit.” So we were kind of deadlocked with each other about what was going to happen next. And then we got pregnant with our 5th baby in 2016. He was born in 2017 in January. And after he was born I said to Matt, I was like, “That’s it. It’s do or die. Either we’re going to do this thing or we’re not.” And I said, “Do you trust me?” And he said, “Well, of course I do.” I said, “Well, quit your job.” I said, “Do you want to quit?” You know, obviously I didn’t want to be like bullying him to do something that he didn’t want to do, but he genuinely wanted to quit. But you know, there’s that masculinity of, “I’m the provider. I need to take care of you.”
And so we just had to sit down and have the deepest, most thoughtful, most considerate, and you know, I don’t even know, all-of-the-nice-words conversation. And I just had to reframe to him what the term ‘taking care of’ meant. And so I was like, “Okay, so ‘taking care of’ to you as a man might sound like or might look like providing and making money and going out and working. But when you make me a sandwich and you bring it to me, you are taking care of me. You are still doing all of those things. It just looks different. When you do the dishes, you are taking care of me, you know?” And so it was kind of in that moment that there was that switch of, “Oh, I can still be masculine in a feminine role.”
And then for me it was like, “Oh, I can still be feminine in a masculine role.” And that’s kind of the obsession with the feminine and the masculine kind of ensued from there. And so he quit after our 5th baby was born and he was like, “You just had our 5th baby and you are 3 days post-partum. And you just asked me to quit my job.” And I was like, “Yeah.”
And so from that point forward, I just took my new born to births. I just got on Instagram, I got on Facebook, I got on everything I possibly could and was like “Now booking births.” And people were like, “Oh, amazing. Didn’t you just have a baby?” And I was like, “Yep! Can he come?” And everyone was like, “Of course he can!”
And I was like, “Oh!” So this whole time I had been like cockblocking myself and holding myself back from doing the thing that it is that I wanted to do because I was afraid of something that wasn’t even really real, which was nobody’s going to want me at the birth because I’ve just had a baby and everyone was totally fine with it. He went to birth for like the first six months of his life. That kid attended more births than what he was old at one stage.
Tavia: I love that story so much. And there’s so much about it that I totally identify with. And ‘the bringing me a sandwich’ thing is a hundred percent real. It’s like, you can take care of me by making…and that’s what happens. Like he’s in there cooking. He’s like, “Are you ready to eat yet?” Like literally that’s how our house rolls. It’s wonderful. I’m all about it. Cause he’s doing what he loves doing. Not that he necessarily loves making sandwiches, but he’s getting to pursue acting and filmmaking, which is his passion that he could never do when he was in a full-time job. And he’s not going to a job he hates every single day and I’m getting to do what I love doing. And so I think you’re right. There is this fear that exists around so many things, obviously financial being one, but then also just like in a marriage, what do those roles look like when things are flipped outside of the norm. So, yeah. I love that.
Why Clubhouse?
Tavia: Okay. So I want to transition to talking about Clubhouse, but like I said, I think that we could totally talk more about this cause I think it’s really important. And I think, what we’ve been saying, just for people to even hear that this is happening, is helpful because I know for you and me it was like, forget birth photography. Even just photography, it’s very rare. And so I love that.
But let’s talk about Clubhouse. So that’s where you and I connected. I want to talk about it like as a business owner, when you’re on Clubhouse, what are you considering, if anything, before jumping into a new platform like this? Because I know for me, I’m really protective of where I’m spending my energy, like you and I were kind of talking about before we went live, and so I’m just thinking about, and this is what I was considering as well so I’d love your thoughts on just like, what are you thinking about before investing time in a new social media platform?
Lacey: Yeah. When I go investing in a new social media platform, I want to know how it started and maybe not necessarily how it started, but why it started is the most important thing. Because when we come out with new social media platforms, we tend to treat everything like Facebook. And so when Instagram was very new, we were trying to post on Instagram like it was Facebook. And then business people were like, “I don’t understand why it isn’t working.” And it’s like, because it’s an image platform. It’s not a text platform. You know, the same thing with Twitter. I don’t know if you notice when Facebook first came out, because Twitter was out before Facebook. When Facebook came out, people were posting statuses like Twitter. It was like just one-liners.
And so I think the most important part for me when jumping into a new platform is why does this exist? What is its purpose in sharing and how is it sharing? Because if I jump on Clubhouse and I treat it like a podcast, and it’s not actually a podcast where it’s a monologue, then no one is going to want to join my rooms because I don’t let anybody talk because I’m treating it like a podcast. And so, I think that to me is the most important thing when jumping into new social media platforms is what’s its purpose. What is it doing?
How to Get Started with Clubhouse
Tavia: That’s so good. So what is Clubhouse’s purpose? What have you discovered?
Lacey: So what I discovered about Clubhouse is that it was created in May of 2020 and a couple of guys from Silicon Valley got together when Coronavirus hit and meetings were being cancelled, nobody was able to make any trades or deals or business deals, sell. And so people were not wanting to be on Zoom. There was a lot of resistance to being on Zoom in the beginning. And so they created Clubhouse. And so I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s a bunch of like super business-y millionaires, billionaires kind of rooms. Elon Musk is on. Zuckerberg is on, MC Hammer’s on. And so, you know, there’s all these really financially wealthy and wealthy people. I won’t say stable because that’s not always true wealth and stability. Doesn’t always actually match, but there is a bunch of appearingly wealthy people on Clubhouse.
And so I find that I stumble in a bunch of rooms that’s like billionaires connect or shark tank. And there’s people that are doing rooms that are literally business deals on Clubhouse, where they’re investing a hundred thousand dollars. They’ve got like a panel of 50 people that are mod-ed and then they’ll go down and say, “Do you want this deal? Do you want this deal? Do you want this deal?” And so Clubhouse right now is very business-centered and it’s really great to leverage business-wise. But I think it’s not going to open up for like B2C until it goes out to Android and it’s not an invite-only app. So that’s really important to know whenever you’re going into, that’s going to change how I use the app. I’m not going to jump on the app right now and try to book clients because it’s not geared for that just yet.
How to Get the Most Out of Using Clubhouse as a Birth Photographer
- Follow the Right People
Tavia: Yeah. So you’ve said some like Clubhouse-y phrases. Can you kind of explain, first of all, you’re seeing rooms that I’m not seeing. So that’s really interesting to me because I have seen some of that, but it’s not a majority of what’s in my feed for lack of a better word. I don’t know if that’s actually what they call it.
Lacey: The hallway.
Tavia: So how do you control, how do you see those rooms? And then also, what does it look like logistically? Cause you said something about mods. So can you explain a little bit about those two things?
Lacey: Yeah. So it’s called the hallway and the hallway is when you open up the app and you have all of your rooms that are there and your hallway is dictated according to who you follow. So what happened was when I signed up for the app, it asked me, “What are you interested in?” And I’m super interested in Marketing and Business. Talk to me about your profit margins and it is a great way to get my panties wet. And so I was like clicking Business and Marketing and you know, all of these things. And so that meant that it was showing me rooms initially that were the biggest rooms on Clubhouse because they are the most popular. And so that’s where I started hanging out in in the very beginning.
And when I did that, I started following people. And the people that I followed opened up rooms that they were talking in or they were listening in on, which then showed up in my hallway. So then I would jump into those rooms and then I would follow those people, and then it just kind of expanded from there. And so the majority of my hallway is like those super high investment kind of rooms, whereas someone else that jumped on and is like, “Nope, I am meditation. I want to learn about creativity,” and who are ticking different boxes are going to get different rooms. And then you can change that according to who you follow.
Tavia: Yeah. That’s super interesting. So then who you follow dictates what you see in your hallway and then you can hop into different rooms. Like you can see the title and you can hop into different rooms based on who you’re following. So basically like if you don’t like what you’re seeing in your hallway, then you’re probably not following the right people.
Lacey: Exactly. - Opportunize to Expand your Network
Tavia: Yeah. Okay, good. So as a photographer or other creative business owner listening to this considering Clubhouse, and maybe they’re on Clubhouse but they haven’t spent a lot of time, what do you see as the benefits of getting onto Clubhouse now if you’re a local service-based business? Cause I know you said you’re not really looking for clients there right now cause it’s not so much B2C. So like what are the benefits of getting in now?
Lacey: I don’t know what it is about followers building credibility and like know trust factor. But for me that, that’s my, it sounds so self-centered, but that’s my main concern right now is jumping into a new platform because you want to be leveraging it. Me jumping onto Instagram and creating a new account from scratch when everyone else is up in the hundreds of millions of followers, it’s not giving me, I don’t want to say that it’s not building my credibility, but it’s gonna take me that much longer to achieve that number. And I’m not saying that likes is everything, but I think in the very beginning of the platform, there is no shame in leveraging that. And so I’m on Clubhouse right now leveraging the fact that it is a brand new platform, that it’s invite-only, and that the more people that I can get to not necessarily follow me, but to build those connections with me, then in six months or 12 months, when everybody is on Clubhouse, then my network will be so much more built up than what people who are coming in 12 months later will be. And so that’s giving me a leverage point because now I’m a point of contact. People are going to come to me to be connected to other people because I have the connections. - Promote Its Ease of Use and Access
Tavia: Yeah. So the benefit now then for them would be maybe just building their following, getting familiar with the platform because, do you see, and I can’t predict the future, but do you see Clubhouse becoming like a Facebook? Like Facebook, Instagram, Clubhouse?
Lacey: Yes I do. And the reason why I see that is because it’s ease of use and ease of access is crazy. You can be listening, it’s like a podcast, right? It’s like a mix between a radio show and a podcast. And so you can pop earphones in and be cooking. You can be driving, you can be muted and sitting on the toilet, you know, you can literally mute it. Yes, you can be anywhere. And so what’s really cool about that is it’s ease of use and more and more and more people are moving away—I don’t want to say video is dead because I do not think it’s dead at all. But the convenience of audio only not having to put on makeup, not needing to show up, I don’t need to brush my hair. I can wear no pants, you know? And so that is a huge bonus to an audio only platform. And then to be able to have an instant and immediate connection with someone where you get instant feedback, whereas on a podcast, you listen and then you have to go find them in their DMs on Instagram, send them a message and wait for them to respond back to you. And so you get that instant feedback and connection on Clubhouse. And I think that is a huge bonus. - Create a Club
Tavia: Yes. I love all of those points. So good. So what would you say to somebody like listening to this that maybe is on Clubhouse, what should their next steps be like? Should they host a room? Should they just like hang out in rooms? Like if their goal is to achieve what you just said, which is build their following, make those connections, what should their next steps be?
Lacey: Yeah. One thing that I’m doing currently is, anybody can now create a club, which you used to not be able to do that you used to have to apply for a club and then they would manually give it to you. But within the past week or so, they’ve released that anybody can have a club now. So the benefit of that is I would absolutely be hosting rooms, but I would also go make a club because clubs are like, it’s Clubhouse, right? That’s the whole purpose is to have a club. And what’s really cool about that is I can see this being monetized in the future by Clubhouse, like allowing the Clubhouse owner to actually monetize the club. I don’t know if they’re actually going to do that, but I could see how it would be really easy because you’ve got the club, which is basically like a Facebook group and you can have a room that’s public in the club, and then you can have a room that’s private in the club where only people who are members can see that room.
And so the benefit of that is, you know, say if you’re a birth photographer and you are offering like doula support, you could literally be doing that on Clubhouse and tell all of your doula clients, “Hey, I’m going to be doing ancestral healing on Tuesday at 10:00 AM. Here’s the private link for all of my doula clients to come in and join.” And now your private clients are connecting with each other locally, might I add, who are then going to go tell their friends I was on this Clubhouse from this morning with my doula and I got to meet all these cool people. And then they’re going to jump on and join your club, but they’re not going to get the private one. They’re going to get the public one. So there’s so many cool things that you can be doing, but hosting a room and making a club is the first thing I would do. - Send Out Invites to Specific People
Lacey: And then the second thing that I would do to grow that is to jump on social media and say, Hey, I have a few Clubhouse invites and I would love to invite you to come and join me on Clubhouse. And send out those invitations to your local people. Be specific. Don’t give it to anybody. Ask them, “Where are you?” Because Clubhouse invitations right now, they’re selling on the black market for crazy amounts of money.
Tavia: Wait a minute. Are you being serious? Are people buying Clubhouse invites?
Lacey: Yes! I’m being dead serious.
Tavia: Oh my gosh. I had no idea.
Lacey: Yes. So it’s like a super hot thing. It’s really funny, but I get specific. I mean, if you’re trying to build the local community, give your invites to someone local to you and then they’ll get invites when they join. And then they’re going to bring on their best friend, who is also probably local, and then that’s how you grow the local community.
Tavia: Man, Lacey, so good. And I love the idea of thinking of clubs like Facebook groups and having the private ones for your people to all connect. They’re telling their people about it. Guys, this is why, like what Lacey was saying earlier, this is why you want to get in early. You can figure this stuff out, you can understand what’s going on, you’re the first to market in your area with this kind of thing, because I’ve experienced what Lacey was sharing, which is it’s mainly business owners. Right now it’s mainly business to business, not so much business to consumer. And so if us as local service-based businesses can get in there and create these clubs that are location specific, you’re the pioneer. You’re the first one doing this. And everybody else is just going to be looking to you, what you’re doing and you get to get in there and figure it out, which is super exciting to me. I’m with you, Lacey. Talking about marketing and business is just like, you cannot shut me up.
Clubhouse Basics: How to Actually Use the Platform
- Clubhouse Rooms
Tavia: So now that we’re kind of getting into like the details about Clubhouse and like more of the logistics, this is not one of the questions that I had written down, but it just popped in my head of like, what kind of rooms are there because I’ve experienced a lot of different kinds of rooms. So can you talk a little bit more about what that looks like?
Lacey: So there’s a couple of different ways that you can run rooms. Some people just have the one moderator, which I mentioned a little bit earlier, there are mods. So you can run a room, that’s one moderator, and then it’s more of like a masterclass. And so what I would do in that scenario is in the title of the room, I would put ‘Masterclass,’ so that way people know that it’s not really an interacting room, but it’s more of a monologue-type thing. And then at the end, if you want to leave room for Q and A, you can do that.
There are other rooms that are like literally shark tanks where you’ve got your 20 mods or whatever. And so what a lot of people do is they invite people up onto the stage. So you’ve got your three sections to the room: There’s the Stage, which is where your speakers are. There’s the Front Row, which is the people who are the people the speakers are following. And then there’s the Other People, which sounds so terrible…
Tavia: That’s how they positioned it, isn’t it? It’s like THE OTHER people. You less-important people.
Lacey: It is! It literally says ‘Other People.’ I think if I remember correctly.
Tavia: Yeah. I think you’re right.
Lacey: And so, it says other people in the room, that’s what it says. But so you can do it as a monologue. You can do it as like a Q and A and invite people up onto the stage. And then if you have like 10 people on the stage, then you PTR, which is Pull to Refresh, and then you’ll see who is next. And then you’ll go down the line of who is next in that line. - Opportunities to Get Creative
Lacey: Now, some other really cool things about Clubhouse that you can start using visuals. Because it’s an audio platform is I see a lot of people changing out the profile picture. So if they’re talking about something or they’re marketing a course, or they’re doing something, they’ll change their profile picture, tell everyone, ‘PTR,’ and then you can see what it is that they’re talking about. So one girl was describing her sequin jacket and she was like, “Oh, let me show you.” And then she chucked it in her profile picture. And then we had a look and was like, “Oh, that sequined jacket is pretty amazing.”
Tavia: Huh? I haven’t seen that yet. That’s really interesting.
Lacey: Yeah. So it’s really, it’s a really creative way to kind of add a little bit of visuals. Cause with Instagram, when you click on a profile, you can’t make that profile picture bigger. Whereas on Clubhouse, if you click on the profile picture, it actually gets bigger and you can see it. So that’s a fun little way to kind of incorporate visual in the audio platform.
Tavia: So that’s really interesting to me because sometimes, especially when I was first on the platform, I was like kind of just lurking around. Cause I wasn’t sure, like, is this a room where people can just go up on stage and talk? Or is this the kind of room where it’s like a little bit more formal and it’s like, you ask your question and go off stage. Is it listen only? It just seems like there were a lot of different ways that people were running the rooms and none right or wrong. It’s just different people’s styles.
Lacey: Yes. And I’m glad you brought that up because I have seen rooms where it’s just a follow room. And so everyone’s mics are off, everyone goes on stage and then you just get to click around and follow the people that you want to follow based on their bio. So there is no pitch. There is no speaking. It’s just based on your bio. Bios are super sacred in Clubhouse and that’s pretty cool too. And then I see others that are just music, you know? It’s like, there’s a DJ, who’s literally a DJ in real life, but can’t DJ for people because everything’s shut down due to COVID and this is the fun and the creativity with using the platforms in front of you to be able to still do the things that you love. And so I’ve seen DJs, like DJ-ing rooms where it’s like a silent rave in your ear while you’re listening to Clubhouse.
Tavia: That’s so cool.
Lacey: Yeah. And I’ve seen meditation rooms. I’ve seen super formal rooms where it’s like, you’ve got 30 seconds and I’m clicking the timer, time’s up. And then I’ve seen like super chill, conversational rooms, like jump on stage let’s chit chat, just, you know. Yeah.
Follow Lacey on Clubhouse!
Tavia: That’s awesome. So are you hosting rooms regularly or you just kind of pop, because I know Liz is doing, I think Wednesday night, at least in the States it’s night. I don’t know what time it is for you. But are you hosting rooms regularly? I know you have a club, share your Clubhouse info so people can go connect with you there.
Lacey: Oh yeah. So I think I’m just Lacey Barratt on Clubhouse. Let’s have a look. It’s still so new. Yes. It’s @LaceyBarratt. So L-A-C-E-Y B-A-R-R-A-T-T. I wish I was hosting regular rooms. It’s on my to-do list to do more regularly right now. It’s like, “Oh, I haven’t hosted a room in a while. I should do one.” And then I just jump on. But I think that if I were more regular in like scheduling them, more people would show up. So that’s my goal is to just host, you know, one room a week. I was doing them every day for a while and then we moved and I got out of the habit of doing that. So I should be.
Tavia: You don’t have to. I was just wondering if people were like, “Oh awesome. She’s going to be on tonight” or something. So just follow Lacey and you’ll get a notification whenever she’s either speaking in a room or hosting a room, right?
Lacey: Yes.
Tavia: Yeah. Okay, cool. I know Liz is doing these regular rooms and I’m, the same as you Lacey, I’m like, “Oh, I should do that.” But you know, what ends up happening is those rooms are so late and I’m such a grandma, like you and I have talked about this, like you’re a late night person and I’m an early morning person. And when these rooms are going on at 8, 9 PM, I’m like, guys, like literally I go to bed at 9 PM. So I need to not be on Clubhouse late at night. So I think my rooms, if I host them regularly are going to be daytime.
Just Get On It
Tavia: So is there anything else that you want to say about Clubhouse or encourage people with or share?
Lacey: Yeah. I think just in regards to Clubhouse, it’s so new. Nobody knows what the hell they’re doing. Just jump on and do it because you’re going to look like a fool with everyone else. And so, yeah, just jump on, be a trailblazer. You can do it. Confidence is not required. I don’t even think confidence is a real thing. I think it’s all lies.
Tavia: It’s all lies. It’s all lies. I love that though. Exactly, right? Nobody knows what they’re doing. It’s all new. So just get in there and it’s okay. It’s okay to be like, “Hey, this is my first time speaking on Clubhouse.” People are really nice. Like in all the rooms that I’ve been in, when somebody says that, everybody is very welcoming. It’s hard to mess up because people are really accepting.
Lacey: They are. But yeah, I would really encourage anybody to jump on, get in a room, speak in a room, and then host your own room. That would kind of be my stages. And then make a club.
Connect with Lacey!
Tavia: Outside of Clubhouse, where can everybody connect with you, Lacey?
Lacey: Yeah. So you can jump on my Instagram. It is @laceybarrattphotography. That’s my private client page where I share my birth photography work, but I also share a little bits and bobs of my personal life and, you know, manifesting and professional self-development and then there is @birth_photographer_, which is the Exposing Birth platform. And so we share all of the weekly themes there and the courses that are launching and all of the dates and mock births and juicy goodness over there.
Tavia: I love it. Thank you so much for doing this. This has been awesome. I appreciate you.
Lacey: So much fun. Thank you so much, Tavia.
What a great episode. I loved that conversation with Lacey talking all about how she retired her husband, as well as how she’s strategically using Clubhouse. So if you are not already on Clubhouse, one thing I don’t think that we’ve touched on is that you do have to have an invitation and it’s only for iPhone users at this moment, but if you have an iPad, you can also get on. So Android users cannot use it at this time. Hopefully that’s going to be changing soon.
If you need an invite, shoot me a DM on Instagram because I actually usually have a few to give away, not for sale like what Lacey was mentioning. You can have it for free. I would love to connect with you on Clubhouse.
Make sure that you go connect with Lacey on Clubhouse. We’re going to have all of her links in the show notes as well. I am @TaviaRedburn on Clubhouse. I’d love to connect with you there.
And remember my friends, if you have a passion, it is not an accident. Everyone doesn’t love the thing that you love, even though it might feel that way sometimes, that’s not true. If you have a passion, it’s there for a reason. Get out there and make it happen. Have a great week.
Hey there! Check out the links mentioned in this episode:
Connect with Lacey on these platforms:
Clubhouse: @LaceyBarratt
Instagram: @laceybarrattphotography
Exposing Birth on Instagram: @birth_photographer_
Connect with Tavia on these platforms:
Clubhouse: @TaviaRedburn
Instagram: @TaviaRedburn
Exposing Birth on Instagram: @_thebeautyinbirth_
Do you have a question? Submit it here: www.taviaredburn.com/ask and I might answer it on the podcast!
Leave a review on iTunes! Check out www.thebeautyinbirth.net/podcast for instructions.
