RWL031 Mastering Professional Video Meetings: 10 Essential Tips for Remote Work Success

Tips for Professional Video Meetings

Speaker 1

0:01

Hey, it's Alex from Remote Work Life here. I hope you're well, and today I want to talk about something that could really help you if you are either interviewing via video or having meetings via video, and these are certain things that could potentially put off your clients, your prospective clients, people interviewing interviewing you for for roles in the future, and you don't really want to be doing that. You want to create a good impression with clients. You want to create a good impression with those people who are interviewing you for roles. So listen up for more um when it comes to what you should do, some of the things you should uh do to to be ready for your video interviews or your video meetings. But before that, I just want to say welcome to you. If you're new to the Remote Work Life podcast, thank you so much for listening to me, and if you are a regular listener, thanks so much for coming back and, as ever, I really want to hear from you. So I've left my details in the show notes my LinkedIn contact details, so please connect with me via LinkedIn and let me know that you found me via the remote work life podcast. I'm open to suggestions for topics for the show. I'm also open to hear from you about people who you want me to interview in future episodes, because this, this podcast, is not about me. It's about helping you to, to thrive, to develop your career. If you're looking to, to make a transition to this way of working, um, or, you know, really help you if you're looking to do business on a remote basis or work for yourself from home or wherever it may be. So I really want to hear from you. But, yeah, let's really just get into the things I mentioned at the top of the show where, yeah, a lot of the time time, if you're working in a distributed team, if you are a business owner who works from home, or your your you know your shared office location a lot of the times you're going to be doing meetings via video link, and this is this is the case as well if you're having a job interview. So it's up to you to make a good impression when you have your video call, especially if it's somebody you're speaking to for the first time. You want to make a good impression. So I've highlighted here 10 things that if I were you here, 10 things that, um, that if I were you, I would really consider doing if you're if you're, you know, having a video call in the future. And this is coming from somebody, ie me who's had probably hundreds of of video calls. And I've had video calls with people who I've coached, for example, for interview coaching people who who I've interviewed for jobs and for roles, but not just that, people who run businesses, so like CEOs that I might have interviewed for informational purposes, people who I've interviewed for the different summits, the online summits that I did I did a remote work-life summit recently and I did a careers of purpose summit so those required me to to use tech and to use my surroundings and my I suppose, my, my skills in that area in order to not just create a good impression but make those video conversations go as smoothly as possible. And these are 10 things that I would consider to be important to you if you're either interviewing or having your meetings.

Speaker 1

3:51

So the first thing and these are in no particular order, again, as ever know the agenda in advance. Understand what is expected of you and also what you aim to ask the person who is on the other end of the line. Prepare them as much as possible for what to expect from you, especially if it's a meeting. But if it's an interview, obviously you want to know what to expect. How long is it going to be, who's going to be on the call, what role are you going to be talking about? All those sorts of things. So that's at the bare minimum. You want to know what's on the agenda and you want to know maybe there's a presentation or you have to present a specific topic. So if that is the case and if, if they are willing, if the person who's uh interviewing you or speaking to you is willing to to share that with you in advance, then by all means ask that question. You know, is there anything that you'd like me to prepare in advance? Or are there any questions that you want to ask in advance that we can talk about during the the call? So that's the kind of question you might ask. So know, know the agenda in advance that we can talk about during the call. So that's the kind of question you might ask.

Speaker 1

5:05

So know the agenda in advance, be prepared, prepare yourself, understand the actual company, understand the person, understand what niche they're in, where they're going, what they're doing, what they're good at, all those sorts of things. You need as much background information on the subject and the business as possible, to make it sound as though you're at least a bit interested and you understand what they do and yeah, all those things. I think that's where the preparation comes in. So that's point number one. Point number two be ready. And when I say be ready, I mean in terms of your equipment. And in fact there's two points I want to talk about when it comes to equipment. But this is the first point being ready.

Speaker 1

5:56

When I first started doing my interviews for summits like the remote not even the remote, but like something I did a careers with purpose summit a few years back and I interviewed various people prior to that as well CEOs, trainers, coaches, thought leaders, all sorts of people I would, I would leave it to the last minute. Well, not necessarily the last minute, because it takes me about probably a good hour to get myself set up, that's, my studio set up, so, for example, getting the lighting right, getting the microphone right, the chair, all that sort of thing, the table at the right height and all those sorts of things, and sometimes I would not organise myself well enough. So I'd be scampering around trying to get everything ready, sort of like 20 minutes before the call or even 30 minutes before the call, and I knew that well. I found out eventually that it would take me longer than that. So make sure that you leave yourself with enough time to to get ready so that by the time that the call starts you're nice and calm and you have a nice, calm persona that the person on the other end of the phone or the other end of the line at least the video line can actually see, because they're obviously going to see everything and they're going to see, um, what state you're in. So, yeah, just get yourself ready in advance. That's number two. Number three get comfortable.

Speaker 1

7:28

There's nothing worse than being on a call, a video call, and watching somebody fidget and sort of move around, and it's quite distracting and it doesn't. Again, it doesn't give a good impression of that particular person. And for I mean, I've actually been that person as well where I've been fidgeting around, and the only time I realized that I was fidgeting around was when I watched the recording. I watched the recording back because these again were videos sometimes that I would make, informational videos, that I would make for the various summits that I did. I'd watch myself and I think, oh no, is that, is that really was I really doing. That was I sort of twisting and moving around, um, and it's really important in that sense to get yourself in a comfortable position, get yourself a comfortable chair. That is really important and I've spoken about that in previous episodes Because you're going to find yourself sitting for quite a while, not just during your video conference call or your interview, but in general sitting at home. So you need a comfortable arrangement and that starts really with a comfortable chair and that will lessen the you know, I suppose the occurrence of the fidgeting that you may be sort of prone to, as I was, and that's another thing is that I think if you can get yourself as comfortable as possible, it just means that you can just focus entirely on giving a good sort of presentation, a good performance on the video link. So get yourself comfortable and invest in a good, comfortable chair. So that's number three.

Speaker 1

9:24

Number four make sure your backdrop is uncluttered. Now I'm not telling you what to put on the walls or what colour to paint them or you know all that sort of thing. That's really up to you, but obviously make sure that you know it's nothing too distracting, of course it's, it's. It's nothing too distracting, of course. But what I'd say when I when I talk about on uncluttered, um, again, you may you may not be the most organized of people. You may I don't know have books lying around. You may not have a tidy background, you might be doing some some um, some work on your house, some painting or decorating or whatever it may be. You might have clothes hanging up in the room that you normally have where your office is. I mean, we can't all have a perfectly sort of arranged space, especially if we're at home, but at the very least when you're on your video calls, make sure you just unclutter that space, at least for the time that you're on the phone or on the video call with that particular person. Make sure it's just uncluttered, just nicely arranged and just not too distracting. So that's all I have to say about that. Really just an uncluttered backdrop. And there's even some some video conference softwares that you can use now that enable you to to actually blur the background. So if worse comes to the worst and you can't unclutter, then blur your background. So it's just just a matter of seeing, of seeing you, okay, so uncluttered backdrop.

Speaker 1

11:04

So number five on my list is schedule, a time that you know is going to be quiet, where there's not going to be any distractions everybody's out of the house, for example, um, there's no, yeah, there's no distractions. Because, again, uh, distractions can. I think, more often than not, distractions will distract you, probably more than they will the person on the other end of the line. So, and you know, when, there's nothing worse than, for example, if you and this has happened to me I've, um, I've been on a call where I thought everything was fine and then I've forgotten, for example, that I was having a delivery on that particular day Because I hadn't put it in my diary that the delivery was coming. I'm quite religious when it comes to adding things to my diary now, so that I know whenever anything is happening and I can schedule things in between those things, because there's nothing worse than when you're on a call, a video call, and somebody in the middle of that call rings the doorbell, or you know the kids come in just as you're about to get to an important point, or you know just things like that, or, for example, it's just distracting. So, yeah, schedule a time where you know there's going to be limited or no distractions. It's going to be nice and quiet for you.

Preparing for Successful Video Meetings

Speaker 1

12:33

Okay, number six on my list find a quiet space with no distractions and interruptions. Again, I mean, if you're working from home I mean this is kind of related to the point I made previously but if you're going to be making an important call, then it may not be wise to do that in I don't know a. Some libraries have a quiet service. Not all libraries have a quiet service. You, you know, libraries are coming more, becoming more and more like shared workspaces these days, and you get, you know, you get all kinds of people coming through and they're not really going to necessarily know that you're on an important call or in some cases, they're not going to respect that you're on an important call. So you need to be deliberate about the space that you choose, um, so that you know that particular space is going to be quiet and there's not going to be any distractions or interruptions.

Speaker 1

13:34

Um, even things like I mean, this is a technicality now, for me at least is choose a space where the light is good. So, as a rule of thumb, you want to have the light in front of you. You want to have the lights shining in front of you, not behind you, because if the light's behind you. That usually causes quite a poor quality picture and the person on the other end of the line may not be able to even see your face. Quality picture and the person on the other end of the line may not be able to even see your face. And you really want somebody to be able to see you because it looks a bit, um, looks a bit mysterious when you're, when one person is, um, is there with their light and their you know their full, their full setup and their you know everything is nice and prepared, and you're there just with a, with a dark background, and they can't see your face. It looks a bit, a bit, uh, strange sometimes. So, yeah, try and choose a space that um is where it's, a well-lit space, basically okay. So that is, where were we? That was point number six, was it, I think? Yeah, okay. So point number seven is have questions ready.

Speaker 1

14:45

You must prepare questions. You don't do it sort of on the fly, and that applies to especially to interviews, people who are interviewing. You must have questions prepared. You must have questions, for example, about the role. You must have questions about the team, the business, team, the business, and you can ask questions about where the the business sees them. You know the business questions about things that are happening now, questions about things that are that are sort of in the pipeline and due to happen in the future. So you can shape your questions in all kinds of different ways, um, but you must prepare questions, because that that kind of that applies again to interviews or to, uh, your business meetings.

Speaker 1

15:31

You must show an interest because, well, if you, if you have to force yourself to show an interest, this should all come naturally. Then you have to question whether it's the the right situation for you to be in the right meeting that you're in or the right person that you're talking to. I mean, I, you know, I, if I choose to work with somebody, it's because I want to work with them. I'm inquisitive about learning more about them. So the questions come naturally and I know what type of questions to ask, like the ones I just mentioned. So really be sure that, um, you know, even sometimes the questions that you that you ask, ask or prepare, will help you to understand more about the person, about the business that you're interested in, I suppose, about the business that you're having that meeting, or the business person or the manager you're having that meeting with at that particular time. So, yeah, questions are so so, so, so important. Right then, where else are we? So?

Speaker 1

16:30

Number eight on my list is test your equipment. So do this in advance as well. So make sure that your microphone is working. If it's an internal microphone on your computer, then just test it. Make sure that's working. If you have an external mic, again make sure that is working as well. Make sure that your, obviously, your internet is working, your bandwidth, etc. You may even want to reset your, your router, if that's possible, because sometimes what happens is, if you've had your router on for a long period of time, it can just um, I don't know how to describe this, but it can sometimes slow down and I don't know why that is this. My internet service provider said to me that by resetting the router, um and if you know the answer to this, please get in touch with me and let me know but he said, by resetting the router, it just unclogs things that was his technique, that was his technical term and it kind of uh, connects you to a channel, the optimum channel, on your, on your router. So that that may be something that you need to to test in advance so that you don't have any hiccups or any latency issues or any bandwidth issues.

Speaker 1

17:49

Ahead of the meeting. You may even want to speak to ring one of your friends who also has video link. You test that via Skype, for example, or Zoom, just to check that all the equipment the video equipment is working, the sound equipment is working, the microphone, all microphone, all that sort of thing. So, yeah, check all that out before you start. I think I had one other thing on my list. Yeah, make sure your camera is at the right height, because I mean, if you're checking things in advance, then you'll have all of the position, the position of your chair, the position of your camera, all that will be. All that will be just spot on. That's why you don't want to do these sorts of things on the fly. You don't want to just turn things on and expect everything to be in the right position. And this is from some, I'm quite, like I said, quite technical about this, having done so many video interviews in the past and having seen the issues that occur. So these are just all things for you to look out for right.

Speaker 1

18:52

What else? Dress smartly or dress just well, I mean, doesn't necessarily always have to be smartly, but just be presentable. Um, make sure your hair is nice and tidy. Um, especially if you're meeting somebody for the first time, just create a good impression. I can't tell you what to wear or what's necessarily appropriate to wear, because each circumstance requires a different type of dress, I think. So I can't tell you to wear a tie, or I can't tell you to wear I don't know a t-shirt, because your meetings are different, your interviews may be different. You may be the culture of the business that you're having a meeting with may welcome you to wear whatever you want a tie or a t-shirt. So it's really up to you really to find out what you feel is appropriate for that particular scenario. So I I wouldn't tell you what to wear, but all I'd say is just be presentable.

Speaker 1

19:54

Um, to that person on the other end of the other end of the line and my other, my final point although this is not necessarily the only point I I'm sure you may have thought of things as I've been going through this list is have a backup plan. So in the event that your video on your computer, for example, is not working, you may have a backup plan you may be able to use your phoneetime or the android equivalent to facetime. You may even have to revert to just using the good old phone, the good old mobile phone. So always have a backup plan, because you know, technology doesn't always work the way we want it to work, and I think that if you're in a meeting or an interview and your video is not working, or it kind of trips or it kind of stalls in the middle of the call, take charge of that situation yourself to show that person that you can think on your feet and you've got things prepared. I think that always creates a good impression. It's never nice when things don don't work, but if you at least can have that backup plan in place, then you could show them that you know what you're all about. So that's really it from me.

Speaker 1

21:14

As I said, um, please, let me know what sort of things you do to prepare for your, your video calls or your conference calls or whatever it may be, and also let me know any interesting things that may have happened to you in terms of, I don't know, mishaps or things that didn't go quite the way you planned them to go. So and, as I said before, please, if you are. If you have ideas for guests, for topics for future shows, let me know. Contact me via LinkedIn, say hi.

Speaker 1

21:50

As well as that, if you've enjoyed these episodes, please keep coming back and please give me a rating via whichever platform that you listen to your podcasts on so iTunes or whatever it may be and look out for future shows. I'm going to try to be more regular with my shows. I've got things that I'm editing to post live very soon, so I've had interviews with other leaders within the remote space and within distributed teams that I want to share with you some really interesting thoughts from them. So look out for those and look out for more episodes in the future, and I wish you a good week. Speak to you soon.