Top 5 Zoom tips for entrepreneurs

How to avoid embarrassing Zoom moments for your online meetings and client sessions

Transcript

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Hello, gorgeous recovering perfectionists. I'm Claire Riley, and you are listening to episode number 70 of the Recovering Perfectionist Podcast. Today I'm going to do some really, really quick tips on how to get the most out of using Zoom for your meetings, webinars, and anything else that you're using Zoom for in your business. You can head to clairey.co forward slash pod forward slash 70 to get the show notes and any links that I mention in here as well. This is the Recovering Perfectionist Podcast, and I'm your host, Claire Riley. Alrighty, most of us are pretty familiar with using Zoom. We dial in to other people's training and workshops. It's often incorporated in courses. And if you have worked in any sort of organization over the last 12 months, you may have used Zoom as well for remote team meetings and that sort of thing as well. So most of us, most of these tips won't hopefully be super brand new to you, but I just want to cover a few suggestions or not negotiables for using Zoom effectively and efficiently and with the best possible outcome for you as well as everyone else who's on the call. So number one, I want to talk about backgrounds and virtual backgrounds. Your background is fairly important. So depending on the audience and who else is on the call, it has varying degrees of an impact on your business. It doesn't have to be exactly the same every time. It doesn't have to have all of your branding laid out if that feels like too hard basket and it's going to prevent you from jumping on or from showing your video or your face on Zoom. But it should definitely be something that's neat and tidy. We really don't need to see your dirty laundry all over your bedroom or your dishwasher or anything like that if that is not part of what you would like people to see in your business. So just be really mindful about your background. Most times it's better to have a completely plain background that is that has nothing on it than something that is a little bit awkward or uncomfortable for your audience. So really, really pay attention to what is behind you and just be mindful about how that might work in with your perception of your brand and all of that sort of thing. Under that same one, I really just want to mention about virtual backgrounds on Zoom. Some of them are super cool and it is a really great tool that you can use. However, I would also suggest that you're really structured or a bit strategic about what backgrounds you're using and why. We want it to look nice and clear. So you don't necessarily have to have your green screen like you needed to a couple of years ago, or even a plain colour. But it is very distracting if there's a lot of movement, if there's not a sort of a consistent colour behind you. And also if you're using a background that's a video that's moving a lot, it can you know be really quite discombobulating to other people who are watching. So something that's definitely still and on brand if you're going to use a virtual background at all. If you're in doubt, check in with a biz besti who's going to be honest with you about their feedback and take that on board. As I said, sometimes plain is better than trying to be all fancy schmancy with your background. So be really clever about what is shown behind you. The second thing is to get really familiar with your mute buttons and your video buttons because there'll be some times where you need to mute yourself or unmute yourself in a very effective manner. And there'll be some times when you have the opportunity to have your video on or off. So you can again be quite strategic about what you show and what you say. If you are moving around or doing anything in the background or typing notes or anything like that, absolutely make sure that you are muted. And as part of Zoom etiquette and online meeting etiquette, you always make sure that you're muted anyway, usually anyway. And it's totally okay that if there's someone else on the call who hasn't muted themselves and there's a distracting background noise, to pop it into the chat box or something and politely ask that person to mute themselves. So that's the second one. The third thing is if you're going into a Zoom webinar or meeting, if something that's likely to be recorded, some people talk about joining a few seconds late, 30 seconds late, so that you're not at the top of the recording. So as a rule, um, on the recording are the first five people who, or the first sort of 10 or so people who join that meeting. So if you don't want your face to be on the recording, which gets shared with everyone for the rest of eternity, you can absolutely just sign in a few seconds late and you're less likely to be up the top of that list. You'll still be able to have your video on and people will still be able to see you, but it won't be on the recording and saved there for all time. Fourth, um, something that I love about this, depending on what the structure and the purpose of the certain Zoom meeting is that you're on, is that you don't necessarily have to be sitting at your desk. So if you've got headphones, you can go for a walk. I like to do things around the house sometimes, like hang out the washing or do the dishwasher or those sort of things that don't take any brain power that I can kind of do on autopilot while I'm still taking in information, or I just go for an actual walk and listen, especially if it's a webinar, information taking and that sort of thing. So don't feel like you have to be stuck to your desk if you don't have to have your video on on Zoom. Go and do something else as well. You can multitask, multi-purpose as long as you can still be in the rooms in terms of taking on the information and content that you intend to. And lastly, is to take notes on the actions you need to take only. So usually if it's a webinar or something like that, you'll have access to the recording afterwards. Um, and often we want to go back and just get the little tidbits of information or suggestions or strategy or whatever it is that was in that Zoom call in the meeting. But sometimes we don't. And if you're like me, we record things and we almost never go back and listen to the whole thing again. But what you don't want to lose is the action-taking steps that can go straight into your to-do list or straight onto your strategy of whatever it is that you're building. So only take notes of the actions that you need to do in the near future. If it's just information, you can go back and listen to that next time you're going for a walk or you're in the shower or whatever you're doing. But the action things is what's really important to connect. So if you give yourself permission just to write down or type down the action steps that come out of your Zoom meetings, you're more likely to be engaged with the why and the how, and all you need to start notating is the what. So just to summarize, check in with your backgrounds, be very cautious about the background that you have andor any virtual backgrounds that you might be using. Make sure that they're on brand and they have a purpose to fulfill, not just some pretty photo that you took that has nothing to really do with anything. Secondly, is make sure that you're really familiar with the mute and video buttons to be able to switch them on and off as needed. Join 30 seconds late if you don't want your video, your face to be on the recording. Consider multitasking or going for a walk so that you can listen and also be doing something else while you're listening, if that's doable and if you can still retain the information, and only take notes on what actions you need to take. Hope that's been helpful. I will see you again on the next episode. Bye everyone.