Meeting Women Online: How “Picking Up” Someone during the Pandemic Changed the Way Small Businesses Network

There is a whole song-and-dance routine we must perform between identifying a stranger who we might mesh with, creating that initial contact, and beginning a meaningful dialogue that might begin a new business relationship. The new app social media app Clubhouse starts the process.

I picked up a woman at the clubhouse.

Well, on Clubhouse.

Well, actually, she picked me up.

Either way, a pick up happened.

Do you know about Clubhouse? The new audio-only social hangout?

I have been exploring it as a way to grow my business.

It’s still pretty new, but it seems to be doing what it set out to do.

Offer a safe place for like-minded individuals to meet and share audio content. A fancy way to say that people talk. Make connections.

Kind of like Zoom for those who want to wear their pajama tops along with those ubiquitous pajama bottoms.

I went into a “room” for entrepreneurial women, and “met” my special someone there.

She followed me on Instagram, then private messaged me there to schedule a meeting. 

Kinda like a creepy stranger you meet at a bar who follows you out to the car. Except without the creepy part. Or the bar. Or the car. 

And today we talked.

Our businesses are complementary. (A free package of M&Ms to anyone who sees what I did there.) (And there too…)

She designs websites and does SEO. I provide written website content, and About Me pages. 

Her clients often need writers; my clients need their websites built. We talked about working together. Feeding clients to each other. A match made in virtual heaven.

I have always wanted to do business with a “stranger''.” Someone who found me solely because of my online presence, not because of any connection I already had. Sounds counterintuitive...since our goal is to to network and make connections so that we can get business. 

But I wanted that stranger, someone who found me on her own.

Because I wanted to know that my considerable social media efforts were working. That someone who has no connection to me books one of my “About Me” page writing workshops or asks me to coach or write for them. I put much time and effort into my social media. Stupid time and effort. And, yet, every day I have social-media envy for those who seem to have an even more impressive presence everywhere. Nailing their video, their brand photography, editing, using light, music. Fancy stuff. More than just words. 

My point for writing this is to tell you to keep putting yourself out there. Do uncomfortable things. Accept the invite to go up on stage in a Clubhouse room. Tell stories in your Instagram posts. Record yourself. Do a Facebook live. Create a Reel. Show me a slice of your life in your blog. Post photos of yourself doing everyday things. Explore. 

My posts tend to be word heavy. They always will be. I’m a writer. I write. It’s in my blood. If you have gotten this far, then you are a reader. Thank you. Sadly, we are a dying breed.

Mostly, people skim. They look at pretty pictures, and they fly past. Attention spans are short. 

I don’t know where this new relationship will go. We chatted for an hour or so, then life called.

I have a similar working relationship with at least two other web designers. We feed each other clients. But this one is different. This one makes me sit here, smirking to myself.

Because I’m involved with a stranger.