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Tag: Zoom tips

September 1, 2024

How to Master your Zoom Meetings to Increase your Impact at Work

Your webcam can be the most important tool to help you maximize your success at your job. Here’s how to sharpen your pencils for your next remote meeting.

The beginning of the new school year has always held that ‘fresh start’ feel for me. Sure, it’s been a few decades, but now I’m experiencing that vicariously through our son, who’s already in high school. (I just can’t believe it.) During these weeks, I also love the early hints of the cool, crisp feel of New England’s fall season.

It’s all stimuli that activates a deeply encoded message in my brain I learned as a child: “Summer’s over. Now, it’s time to get to work.”

Well, it’s not like I haven’t been working hard over these summer months. Sure, I took some vacation time with the family. (First to Cape Porpoise, Maine. And then to the North Fork of Long Island.) But now… the ramp-up to the end of the calendar year is undeniable.

Winter’s coming. You’d better sharpen your pencils.

Remote Meetings are Important
If you’ve been working from home more during this post-pandemic reality, one way to dust off your lunch box is to tighten up how you show up during your remote meetings on Zoom or Teams. These moments are critical tethers to your work community.

I know we’ve been at this for a few years, but I’ve noticed that some Zoom best-practices haven’t yet become second nature for many of us.

So, here are a few reminders. They will help you master the opportunity to maximize your impact at your job.

You’ve Got to Show Up for your Close Up
If you want to play an active role during a remote meeting, you really need to turn your webcam on. Visual communication is everything.

Sure, your voice is important, but offering all your important visual cues is the best way to connect with everyone else. That’s how to master those moments.

Follow Video Production Best Practices
I know by now you understand the basics of good video production and how they directly correlate to a strong webcam shot.

  • Be sure to have a front-facing light source. (The light from a window works great as long as the sun isn’t directly shining through.)
  • Your webcam should be positioned close to the same level as your face vs. pointing towards the ceiling and looking up your nose. (Yes, that may mean propping your laptop up on a few hardcover books.)
  • Frame your shot to fill the screen with your full head and shoulders. Pointing your webcam too high to just reveal your eyes and the top of your head is silly. (Only showing this incomplete body fragment at the very bottom of your screen is worse than not using your webcam at all.)

Put on a Clean Shirt
Look, I get it. It’s so much easier to keep your pajamas on all day. You may feel that nobody really needs to ‘see’ you. If you’re successfully doing your work, what’s the problem?

The concern is the risk to you slowing devolving into some kind of disconnected ‘chat-bot.’ You’re a human being! That’s supposed to carry some advantages. So, you should really consider showing up as one as much as possible.

Pay for Faster Internet
This has been a tough pill for me to swallow, but your standard internet plan may not offer enough speed for you to properly stream yourself into your Zoom meetings. How many times have you seen others freeze up or their audio feed begin to stutter? That’s because their internet speed is too slow.

It’s happened to me, even though on paper, my internet plan was plenty fast enough. So, I ended up doubling it to a ludicrous speed to fix the problem. What else can you do? (I currently pay for 500 Mbps.)

If you want to show up for your close up, yes… you may have to spend more to do it. I suppose that’s the price you pay for not having to show up in person at the office.

Don’t Disappear
I think success in any career requires staying connected with others. Connection used to be primarily based on in-person interactions. As we drift further away from those norms, I think it’s really easy to eventually disappear in plain sight.

So yes, this is a friendly reminder… and a word of caution. As your new school year begins, remember the importance of your webcam and don’t forget to hang out with your friends.

They really want to SEE you.

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February 18, 2024

Best Way to Quickly Reset your Zoom Shot after You’ve been Kicked out of your Home Office

Here’s a trick that can help you instantly relocate your laptop to another Zoom-friendly location at home when you’ve been unexpectedly banished from your usual room.

By now, we’ve all identified our preferred Zoom meeting locations at home where you can stream yourself to your world. Beyond finding a quiet space that’s not in the middle of your family’s normal traffic patterns, there are other factors that can make a particular corner Zoom/Teams/Google Meet-friendly.

For me, being close to natural light near a window is important. That’s an easy way to properly illuminate your face. That said, it’s not too hard to power up a small battery-powered LED light or a ring light.

Setting up in front of a relatively organized and clutter-free background is always a best practice to demonstrate some visual order and professional look in your shot. You probably don’t want to show off an unmade bed with unfolded towels and underwear fresh from the dryer heaped on top. (Of course, simply use a virtual background for an easy fix.)

The Most Important Detail in a Good Zoom Shot
Fundamentally, the one detail to nail when generating a flattering Zoom shot is to simply position your laptop where its webcam is at the same level as your eyes.

Your webcam should point horizontally to your eyes. It shouldn’t be focused up your nose towards the ceiling. (This unflattering angle is what you’d normally get if you’re sitting at your desk with your laptop). So, you need to somehow elevate your laptop.

One way to MacGyver that is to stack a few hard-cover books and then carefully place your laptop on top.

Always Have a Backup Plan
Angles. Books. Windows. Backgrounds. Who knew we’d be simulating TV live shots from home a few years back? But we’ve adapted.

The only problem is life invariably happens, and you may suddenly find yourself temporarily displaced from your normal Zoom set up. Then you’ve got to wing it and quickly find a flat surface somewhere else in your home to move your laptop for your next Teams meeting in three minutes.

And that can be harder to find than you may think, considering your family’s needs competing for the same spaces. (The inherent challenges of multiple concurrent remote meetings.)

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just magically plop your laptop wherever you wanted, even if there’s nowhere to put it?
A portable floor laptop stand can do exactly that for you.

Portable Laptop Stand
It’s effectively an articulating standing tray that you can grab with one hand as you escape into another room with your laptop. Think of it as a tripod for your webcam and simultaneously a portable standing desk for your laptop.

Laptop stands are usually designed for presentations on stage or video/media production work, but why can’t you have the same access to this solution for home use?

Another superpower for this kind of stand is it will bring your laptop back to eye level wherever you go, because you can easily adjust its height. No more need to stack books.

And you can fold it up when you’re done.

Time to Choose
Buying one is simple. There are numerous choices online in the $40-$50 range. Some are more expensive, but I don’t think it needs it to be built like a tank to withstand abuse. I know I’ll treat it well at home. I just want it to be steady and not fall over. (That would be bad.)

Amazon has a variety of choices. Here are three options:

I bought the Amazon Basics model, not because the Amazon Basics brand screams ‘best quality,’ but because it’s the tallest. So, when I choose to use it while standing, that would be best for my height.
And it works just fine. In fact, it’s plenty beefy at over 10lbs. You can use it for your laptop, portable projector or any other piece of tech that needs a pop-up surface.

The Importance of Maintaining Visual Communication
Of course, you could always choose another path that sidesteps this entire challenge. Just don’t turn on your webcam. I know many folks follow this practice.

But I’ve said it before… If you want to stay connected to your world from the comfort of your home, you’ve got to show up for your close up.

Always keep your webcam on.

And a portable laptop stand can help make that all the easier no matter which room you’ve been banished to!

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March 27, 2022

5 Easy Ways to Upgrade your Zoom Video

If you want to look and sound better during your next Zoom meeting, don’t forget these simple best practices to present yourself in the best possible light.

It’s been over two years since Zoom saved us from pandemic isolation. Sort of. Yes, Zoom and other video conferencing platforms have been lifelines to our outside world over these many months. As life is evolving to a new normal, ‘hybrid’ is now clearly a part of that equation. That means the need to Zoom isn’t going away.

As remarkable as Zoom has been, I think everyone is exhausted. We’re cranky. We may know how to do a good Zoom. But we don’t want to. No. We don’t want to make that extra effort. Not anymore.

If you can hear my voice on Zoom, that’s enough. You don’t need to see me. And if for some reason I forget to turn off my camera, don’t expect much. If only half of my head is in the shot, that’s more than enough. If my bright window is dominating the image and obscuring my face, get used to it. It’s still me. Besides what I have to say is all that matters.

Is this perspective resonating right now? If so, I get it. You’re sick of having to show up for your close up. You didn’t sign up for this.

I know.

But let me offer this gentle reminder…

Zoom can Help You Stay Connected
Practicing good Zoom etiquette is worth it. If you want to show up in your life, then you do want to show up for your close up. It matters. If you want a seat at the table, then you’ve got to show up at the virtual table.

Turn on your webcam and follow these five best practices:

1.
Illuminate your Face
You should be facing the window… not the other way around. Please want to actually see you. Not your silhouette.

2.
Turn Off your Ceiling Light
You may think your ceiling light fixture is helping. It probably isn’t. Not if it’s directly over your head. That’s because it’s shining light down on top of you instead of in front of your face. That creates incredibly unflattering shadows. I don’t think you’re trying to audition for the next zombie movie. So turn off that ceiling light and flick on your desk lamp instead.

3.
Elevate your Webcam
Your webcam should never look up at your chin. If your shot features your ceiling, you need to raise your camera to a more perpendicular angle with your face. Simply elevate your laptop with a few books.

4.
Reduce the Headroom in your Shot
Headroom is the amount of space between the top of your head and the top of your Zoom box. I can almost guarantee that you’ve got too much headroom. There should only be a little gap. Please, tilt down your webcam. Your viewers want to see more of you, not more of your wall.

5.
Wear your Headset or Earbuds
Sure, your computer’s onboard microphone will work, but it’s too far away from your mouth to provide crisp audio. Instead, the audio has that far-away feel. That’s because the microphone is far away. Your headset mic sounds so much better. Please wear it. If you’re concerned about how your headset looks on you, then wear your earbuds or AirPods. The audio sounds that much better. Really.

Don’t Forget to Smile
Life presents unexpected twists and turns. It can be really rough. The headlines are getting any easier to consume. I know it’s sometimes hard to pull it together. But your Zooms don’t have to reflect the imbalance you may feel.

If you take a little extra effort to follow these video-conference best practices, you can better present your best self.

And if you’re doing that, I expect you’ll feel better too.

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